Supper Time

With the weather finally leaving the cold and snow season, I decided it was time to try my hand at Chao Tom or Barbecued Shrimp Paste on Sugarcane. I've enjoyed this dish in Vietnamese restaurants but have never attempted to make it at home because I could never find the sugar cane.

But my search ended this weekend when my go-to Asian grocery store had a bucket full of the long green stalks. They looks a bit like bamboo but are not nearly as hard. With my shrimp and sugar cane supplies in hand it was back to the kitchen.

This recipe is really easy. Peel, clean and de-vein a pound of shrimp. Finely mince 6 cloves of garlic and 6 shallots. Put the shrimp, garlic, shallots and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a food processor. Blend until you get a fine sticky paste.

Next cut the sugar cane into 4 inch lengths. Peel the green outer layer of the stalk. Once it has been peeled, you need to quarter the pieces so you have four 4" skewers to mold your paste onto. Rub a thin layer of vegetable oil onto your hands so the shrimp paste won't stick. Take a couple of tablespoons of the shrimp paste and place it in your palm. Place a piece of sugar cane on top of the paste in your palm and mold it around the skewer. You want to leave the ends of the sugar cane clean of the paste so you have a way to turn the skewers over while it's grilling. Continue with the remaining paste and sugar cane skewers. Now the next step seems to differ from chef to chef in the recipes I've looked at. Some say to steam your little package for 3 to 4 minutes over boiling water and some say go ahead and grill without the steaming step. I will say one advantage of steaming is that you can make these ahead of time and then grill them right before you serve them. Grill the shrimp paste over medium high coals until slightly browned.

To serve, have a traditional Vietnamese vegetable tray full of lettuce, carrots, mint, Thai basil, green onions, and cilantro. Don't forget the Nuoc Cham dipping sauce. You remove the shrimp paste from the skewer and either wrap it in lettuce with the vegetables you like or you can wrap it in a dampened sheet of rice paper.

Looks good yes? But I have to be honest and admit to a mistake that made this a not so good tasting effort. I had purchased the head on shrimp and did not clean them well enough to remove all the reddish parts found in the shrimp heads. Little did I know that the small amount would muddy the delicate clean flavor of the shrimp paste. Not even the mint or dipping sauce hide the mealy feel on my tongue. Lesson learned and was glad that it was know that only I suffered from my mistake. Still there's plenty of grilling time to get the taste right to share with others.

Supper Time

It seems when someone cooks, whether it be a little or a lot, we all have our favorite dishes to make. It can be a dish that we enjoy eating or it may be a dish shows a certain flair. One of my oldest food memories formed one of my most favorite dishes to make. It's the Vietnamese appetizer called chả giò.

Living in the Maryland suburbs outside of DC meant you were introduced to an incredibly wide variety of people. Air Force kids whose parents worked at Andrews Air Force Base, the Hindu family whose mom's distinctively accented voice could carry for four blocks, calling her kids home for dinner. Then there were our next door neighbors whose son came back from the Vietnamese war with more than bad memories and worn green duffel bag. He came back with a Vietnamese wife and child. I was just another tom boy kid playing football in the yard to notice if Sun was happy in her new home. What I do remember is that she loved eating crabs at our backyard crab feasts and that made her OK by me. However when she first broke out the chả giò to the neighborhood picnic, yours truly first took her foodie baby steps. I had to know more. Luckily chả giò is one of those dishes that goes a lot quicker if you get a group together to pitch in and help assemble. Sun tried to teach me but I was not quick or neat enough to be of much help. I do remember the huge platter of already rolled chả giò, waiting for their turn in the deep fryer and making my mouth water in anticipation.

Chả giò as a recipe is fairly simple. A filling rolled into a moistened rice paper skin which is then deep fried. Nestle that hot roll in a bed of mint and green lettuce and dip it some spicy Nước mắm pha sauce and you've got yourself some good eatin'. The exact recipe is as varied as the many cooks and the places where they live. Ground pork seems to be one constant. To that you can add shrimp or crab. Vegetables may include bean sprouts, finely minced onions, shredded carrots and jicama or sweet potato. Don't forget the tree ear fungus (above) and cellophane or glass noodles. For more flavor I like adding fish sauce and white pepper. A beaten egg helps bind the mixture together.

The tough part of this dish is working with the rice papers. You have a choice of using dried round wrappers made from rice or a variety of spring roll wrappers made from flour. I prefer the rice. You have to moisten the wrapper briefly to make it pliable but not too wet or it will tear. The diagram shows how to roll a chả giò.Easy right? Next you get to deep fry your rolls. Peanut oil is my frying oil of choice. My hints on frying include using a pan that heats evenly, not crowding the pan with too many rolls and cooking and serving the rolls in batches. Cold chả giò is not something you should serve your guests and loved ones but don't worry, they will happily wait for hot, crispy goodness once they've tasted the first batch. To serve you'll need a big plate of green leaf lettuce and some nước mắm pha sauce. Depending on your preferences you could also add some cucumber, cilantro or mint to add to your rolling experience.




Or if all that's too much trouble, just come on over to my house and I'll be more than happy to share what I can whip up. Not as good as Sun's but a tribute to her cooking just the same.