Recipe - Minced Squab With Lettuce Cups

2 Squabs, 1 pound each
2 tablespoon Peanut oil
2 Garlic cloves; minced
10 Fresh water chestnuts
peeled and minced
One half cup Minced bamboo shoots
6 Chinese black mushrooms
soaked, squeezed dry
and minced
4 Scallions; minced
6 Dried oysters (optional)
soaked, squeezed dry
and minced OR
4 duck liver sausages, minced
One half teaspoon Minced fresh ginger root
One half cup Chicken broth
reduced with squab bones
1 teaspoon Sugar
2 tablespoon Light soy sauce
2 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
or dry sherry
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
1 teaspoon Cornstarch; dissolved in
1 tablespoon Chicken broth; (cold)
2 Heads bibb lettuce
(or iceberg lettuce)
leaves carefully separated
into lettuce cups

This is frequently served at special occasions in Chinese restaurants.
Presented as an appetizer, it will serve 6.

USING A THIN CLEAVER, cut away the wings and thigh joints and pull off the
skin, cutting it where necessary. Set the skin aside. Bone the breasts.
Scrape all the meat you can from the bone. Neatness does not count! To
remove the leg meat, make a slit the length of the leg to the bone. Pull
the meat away, cutting it off the bone where necessary. Remove the small
but tough tendon from each leg. Bone the second squab, then add the bones,
feet, heads and wings to 1 cup chicken broth and reduce the liquid to 1/2
cup. With 2 cleavers, start chopping the meat, until finely minced. Set
aside. Thinly slice the squab skin. Stirfry the skin in a little oil to
render the fat and crisp the skin. This takes about 10 minutes. As the skin
browns, move it up the side of the wok. Set the crisped skin aside. The
preceding steps can be done up to 8 hours in advance. Keep the minced squab
refrigerated if it must stand longer than 1 hour. Stirfry the squab in the
oil with the garlic over high heat until is is browned lightly. Add the
remaining minced ingredients, mix them well and add the reduced chicken
broth, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine or sherry and oyster sauce. Bring the
mixture to a boil and stir in the cornstarch dissolved in broth. Stir in
the crisped skin and transfer the mixture to a serving plate. Serve the
dish surrounded by lettuce cups. Each diner wraps some of the squab mixture
in a lettuce cup.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini