Vietnamese Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane

I bet you are thinking that you will be placing the shrimp on top of the Sugarcane and grilling it…not!  This is a Vietnamese dish.  You will be making a paste with the shrimp and wrapping it around the Sugarcane, steaming it in the rice steamer, then broiling it in the oven.

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Vietnamese Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane

Ingredients

2 slices Bacon
2 teaspoons Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup Onion, chopped
3 Shallots, minced
1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon fresh Garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground White Pepper
2 tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 pound raw medium Shrimp, peeled, deveined & dried
2 Scallions, chopped
8 – 10 pieces 3” canned Sugarcane, drained

Vietnamese Bean Dipping Sauce

You can have fresh shrimp delivered right to your door!

Directions

In a small saucepan place bacon in water, just covering the bacon and boil it until it becomes transparent. Once it’s boiled, dry the bacon in a paper towel. Chop the bacon. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onions and minced shallot. Sauté the mixture for one minute until the onions become translucent.

Once it is sautéed, add the onion mixture in a bowl. Add garlic, fish sauce, salt, sugar, white pepper, coarsely chopped bacon bits, baking powder and corn starch to the onion mixture in the bowl. Mix everything together. Add peeled shrimp to the mixture and toss it until the shrimp is coated completely. Add the mixture to a food processor and process it until the mixture is smooth yet lumpy. Once it is processed, transfer the mixture to a bowl, add the chopped scallion and store the paste in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Drain the sugarcane. If it is not peeled, you must peel it, then cut into 3” pieces.

Take the shrimp paste out the refrigerator. Wrap the sugarcane pieces completely with the shrimp paste about 1” thick. Keep a bowl of water near you to make sure that your hands remain very this will keep the shrimp paste from sticking to your hands.

Arrange the sugarcane pieces wrapped with the paste in the greased steamer section of your rice steamer.

Add Jasmine rice and water in the rice steamer and steam. While you are steaming the rice you are also steaming the shrimp wrapped sugarcane. Check the shrimp wrapped sugarcane in approximately 10 minutes. It should be a rubbery texture.

Remove the shrimp wrapped sugarcane pieces from the steamer. Continue to steam the rice. Broil the shrimp wrapped sugarcane pieces until they are browned.

Place the shrimp wrapped sugarcane on a plate and serve with the steamed Jasmine rice. Drizzle little bit of Vietnamese Bean Dipping Sauce and sprinkle with some roasted peanuts.

The Vietnamese Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane with Vietnamese Bean Dipping Sauce is ready to be served!