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1 lb Shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 ts Salt
2 Garlic cloves
2 Shallots
2 ts Sugar
1/4 ts Black pepper
1 tb Toasted rice powder
1 tb Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc
-mam) 2 tb Ice water
Vegetable oil to oil your -hands Three 6-inch long canned -sugar
cane sections 1 Cucumber, peeled and cut
-into thin slivers 1 c Fresh mint leaves
1 c Fresh coriander leaves
Twelve butter or red leaf -lettuce leaves Twelve 8-inch round
dried -rice papers
——————————-DIPPING
SAUCE——————————-
4 Garlic cloves
2 Fresh Serrano chiles
2 tb Sugar
6 tb Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc
-man) 4 tb Fresh lime juice
6 To 8 tablespoons water
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 6- to
7-inch 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 12 long strips.
Dip your fingers
into the oil, then take about 2 tablespoons shrimp paste and evenly
mold a 1-inch cylinder around a sugar cane strip, leaving 1 inch
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 6 inches 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 12 rolls or serves 6.
Posted by Stephen
Ceideberg; December 13 1991.
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