Chao Tom

Ingredients

250 gr shrimp
6 gr salt
6 garlic
2 shallots
8 gr sugar
1 gr black pepper
7 gr rice powder
100 ml vietnamese fish sauce
30 ml ice water vegetable oil to oil your -hands three
6 long sugar cane sections
1 cucumber
18 gr mint leaves
230 gr coriander leaves
8 round rice papers
2 serrano chiles
26 gr sugar
60 ml lime juice
120 ml water

Instructions

The Vietnamese use a small indoor earthen stove fueled with coal set on the table to simmer, boil and barbecue. I have broiled this dish in an oven, with excellent results. Sugar cane makes this recipe visually exciting and exotic. Its sweetness subtly melts into the shrimp paste. Sugar cane comes fresh and canned in better Asian markets; the former is scarce and very expensive. Check with the grocery clerk to make certain that you are buying the 6to 18 cm long stalks, not the cubes. The recipe serves well as a buffet appetizer or as a first course for a dinner party. Shell and devein the shrimp. Toss with salt; let sit for 10 minutes. Rinse with cold water; drain thoroughly. Blot dry. In a food processor, finely mince the garlic and shallots. Add sugar, pepper, toasted rice powder, fish sauce, and shrimp; process into a smooth paste. With the machine running, pour the ice water through the feed tube; process until the shrimp is light and fluffy. Cover and refrigerate. Pour vegetable oil into a small bowl. Place a wire cooling rack on a baking sheet; brush with oil. Cut the sugar cane lengthwise into quarters to make dozen long strips. Dip your fingers into the oil, then take about 2 tablespoons shrimp paste and evenly mold a 3 cm cylinder around a sugar cane strip, leaving 3 cm free at both ends. Arrange the rolls on the rack diagonally, and keep them from touching each other. Arrange the cucumber, mint and coriander leaves, and lettuce on a platter; set aside. Broil the shrimp rolls about 15 cm from the heat, turning once, until the edges are bright orange and the filling feels firm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes per side. To serve, take a rice paper sheet and set it on a plate. Dip a pastry brush into a bowl of water. Brush the entire rice paper generously with water. Let it sit until the paper is pliable and somewhat flimsy. Put a lettuce leaf on one end of the paper. Place a cucumber sliver, mint and coriander leaves on top of the lettuce. Take a hot stick of sugar cane, break off the shrimp and place it on top of the vegetables. Begin rolling up the paper to enclose the filling; form it into the shape of a cylinder. Drip into the nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce,. and take a bite, then chew on the sugar cane for the sweetness (do not swallow the sugar cane). NUOC CHAM DIPPING SAUCE: Grind the garlic, chiles and sugar into a paste in a mortar, blender or mini-food processor. Stir in fish sauce, lime and water. Strain into a dipping bowl. NOTE: If sugar cane is not available, use a skewer or inexpensive bamboo chopsticks. Soak them in water overnight before wrapping with shrimp paste. Makes dozen rolls or serves 6.