Miang Kham, Yummy Vegan Thai Lettuce Wraps

This is an easy Thai dish that you won't usually find at a Thai restaurant. It's very satisfying as a meal or an appetizer. It's complex combination of sweet, spicy, salty, nutty and citrus make every bite a flavor explosion. The actual recipe calls for betel leaves but I've never had it served that way. In my case I'm using green leaf lettuce but you can use whatever type of leaf wrap you prefer such as red leaf lettuce or Chinese broccoli leaf. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of one rolled up but we were eating them as fast as we made them so I guess I'm lucky I got this picture at all.

Miang Kham

10-12 green leaf lettuce leaves, washed and pat dried
3/4 cup of toasted shredded coconut ( keep on eye on the coconut while browning, it burns easily )
1/2 cup of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup of jalapeño pepper, chopped and seeded
1/2 cup of diced red onion
1/2 cup of roasted unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup of lime, chopped with peel ( yes you are going to eat the peel )
1/2 cup of dried shrimp ( like those little pink ones, only dried ) if your vegan, use salted peanuts instead
1/2 cup of Katsu sauce, mixed with 2 tbs of agave syrup or brown sugar ( should be sweet with a little tang to it )
Katsu sauce is an apple and tomato based sauce generally used on Japanese breaded pork cutlets. Mixed with sugar, the taste is indistinguishable from Miang Kham sauce and it's easy to obtain from most markets.

 There's no set rule on the balance or amount, so just place a little of each ingredient on the leaf, top with sauce, roll it up and go to lettuce wrap heaven!