Last night I made lettuce wraps for dinner. I got the idea from the Good Deal Gal. But her recipe was a little intimidating. I don't have a bunch of those ingredients and I really hate going to the grocery store for individual items. So I decided to look for a similar recipe on my favorite recipe site, Recipe Zaar. And I found one that is similar to the P.F. Chang's recipe, only with ketchup. :)
Here's the recipe. P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps
It was delicious. I got a head of ice berg lettuce from the co-op this weekend. I personally despise ice berg; I'm not sure if that's a pregnancy thing or my tastes are more refined. So, using ice berg as a means of transporting the delicious mixture of minced chicken and yummy sauce is the way to not waste it, in my opinion.
Erik and I loved dinner last night. I served it with veggie fried rice. That was good too. I think the girls liked it too, especially the sauce. Reagan especially enjoyed eating the lettuce cups with rice and chicken in there.
I was a tad nervous about how this recipe was going to turn out. The special sauce has ketchup and granulated sugar in it. I spiced it up with Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, Red Pepper flakes, minced garlic, spicy brown mustard, and a bit of Hoisin sauce. Tasting the sauce on its own was underwhelming and disappointing. The sauce, however, once allowed to sit for a while and then over the chicken mixture was delicious! Next time I will reduce the amount of sugar and ketchup. I prefer things more spicy with a touch of sweet.
All of this brings to mind a potential issue. Is it wrong to create a recipe based on a well-known one and then mass distribute it? I love to recreate restaurant dishes at home. I love the taste and hate to spend all that money eating the dishes I go back for again and again-like lettuce wraps. Do you think it's wrong in some way to publish a recreation of a well-known dish? Is it like selling knock-off paintings?
4 comments:
I can't believe you attempted lettuce wraps! They are on my list of things to try and I have iceberg that I was going to use for taco salad this week, but may go ahead and make these. I can't wait!
I don't think it's wrong. There's a new cookbook out full of knock-off recipes. The author claims he developed them all on his own they just taste like the real deal. And people are paying for the book, so blog away I say :)
I'm with Erin on this one. Besides, PF Chang probably borrowed the recipe from some other source.
I've read somewhere that one can't actually copyright a general recipe, but only the exact formula/combination/proportions of ingredients. So if something is changed at all (even a little extra garlic or something) then it's free to be used by anyone. So I don't think it's wrong, especially since you aren't trying to profit from it. Sounds delish to me!
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