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• Coconut milk braised lettuce with ginger, garlic and pepper

Braising lettuce in coconut milk is the first thing that popped into my head when this contest theme was announced. I love Southeast Asian flavors but wanted to take advantage of the dark whispery heat of black and white peppercorns as opposed to a fiery red chili. I decided to use a technique traditional to Indian cooking, tempering, to capture the most flavor from the peppercorns and garlic. Before this contest, I'd never considered eating lettuce as a side dish, but this is a delicious way to enjoy your salad greens. Note: Even though you are braising the lettuce, since I started working for a company that designs/installs/maintains organic food gardens, it has become my habit to wash all my vegetables in a water-vinegar mixture to remove debris, bugs and kill bacteria. Whether you choose to add vinegar is up to you, though I recommend the extra water swish since you are cooking the heads with the stem end attached.

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