Lettuce and more lettuce

My sister returned from her new year foray in Baguio and dumped bags of lettuce on my doorstep. Am I a rabbit? Do I look like one to her? What am I going to do with kilos of lettuce? I gave some of the bounty away (thanks to friends J and C, and my cousin), but it still left me with a couple of bags of lola rosa and butter lettuce left. I went through online resources, munching on a salad for inspiration, and went to work. For my first lettuce meal, I crisped up two thin medallions of pork (originally meant for tonkatsu) in the broiler. When they were cooked and crispy, I chopped them into squares, strew them into the washed and dried lettuce, and tossed the salad with a pesto vinaigrette (basil pesto, lemon juice, a dash of sugar, and some paprika). The pork added a crunch to the salad, like croutons.

Tonight I was perusing Tastespotting and saw a simple coleslaw recipe. The blogger used cabbage, vinegar and salt to taste. I figured I needed to use up a head of lettuce, so I rough chopped the leftover 3/4 head of cabbage I had in my crisper, threw in the ribbons of butter lettuce, squeezed several cloves of roasted garlic, a swig of sesame oil, a glug of mirin, some honey, salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, and a glug of fish sauce with a pinch of ginger powder. Toss well. It's a light and pleasant salad. Zingy.