Kylie Kwong is one of Australia's best known Chinese-Australian chefs, and the owner of Billy Kwong in Sydney as well as a longtime advocate of sustainable food and ethical eating. In the week of the Lunar New Year, we're sharing a fresh, tasty and textural dish from her book Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking Class, thanks to eatlove.com.au 

A wonderful dish for vegetarians, with endless variations: you could add corn kernels, freshly shaved from the cob, at the same time as the beans and celery; you could include any number of fresh herbs; or you could substitute any kind of fresh mushrooms for the braised Chinese mushrooms. Just make sure your iceberg lettuce cups are well-chilled and super-crispy.

Ingredients (serves 4-6 as a starter)
1 small iceberg lettuce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon malt vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons peanut oil
5 cm × 2 cm knob (20 g) ginger, roughly diced
2 garlic cloves, roughly diced
1⁄2 small red onion, finely sliced
4 Braised Chinese Mushrooms, stems removed and finely sliced
80g green beans, trimmed and finely sliced
2 sticks celery, trimmed and finely diced
2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry
1 Chinese cabbage leaf, finely shredded
1 small carrot, cut into fine julienne strips
1 small cucumber, cut into fine julienne strips
45g (1⁄2 cup) bean sprouts
1⁄2 bunch garlic chives, cut into 5 cm lengths
sliced large red chilli, to serve (optional)

Preparation
Cut out and discard the core of the lettuce, then soak the entire lettuce in cold water for 1 hour (this will make it easier to pull apart the leaves). Drain well and separate leaves. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Combine soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat peanut oil in a hot wok until the surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add ginger, garlic, onion and mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add beans and celery and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add wine or sherry and cook for 30 seconds. Add soy sauce mixture and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened. Add cabbage, carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts and garlic chives and stir to combine. Remove from the heat.

Using a slotted spoon, remove vegetable mixture from wok, draining well so that any juices are left in the wok. Serve in a bowl set on a large platter, accompanied with lettuce-leaf cups. To eat, simply spoon vegetable mixture into lettuce cups, roll up to enclose and eat with your fingers. Serve with sliced chilli, if you like.