Sleep, little shrimpies, on your soft bed of scrumptiousness.
When I cook, I don’t generally scruple about authenticity–I have neither time nor expendable income enough to search out (or worse yet, “source”) exotic ingredients, build my own brick oven that’s hot enough to properly char pizza crust, or embark on an epic quest for the perfect baked Buffalo chicken wing. If the ingredients are available at Wegmans, if it tastes good, if it reheats nicely for lunch the next day, then it’s usually good enough for me. Naturally, a dish gets bonus points if there is a reasonable expectation that my children might not sneer derisively at it.
Now, this is not to say that I use swiss cheese on my nachos or anything crazy like that. It just means that taste trumps tradition, for me. And it’s also to say that if this is not authentic, don’t come crying to me. Or yelling at me. Or suing me. Or being snooty with me and telling me how long you lived in Vietnam and that you know everything about Vietnamese cuisine. Or calling me an Ice Princess for no good reason except that you think I might be sleeping with our theatre professor–but I digress.
Kinda Sorta Bun Tom Heo Nuong. Ish.
- 2 scallions, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small Thai chile pepper, minced
- 2 T fish sauce
- juice of one lime
- 2 t. brown sugar or agave nectar
- 1 dozen raw shrimp, shelled and deveined (if you scruple about veins in shrimp, I don’t)
- 8 oz rice sticks or rice vermicelli
- 1 medium carrot, julienned or grated
- 1 small cucumber, julienned
- 1 cup fresh bean sprouts
- Romaine or green leaf lettuce, shredded
- 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- fresh mint, cilantro, and basil, roughly chopped
Nuoc Cham
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 3 T lime juice
- 2 T unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 T sugar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small chile pepper, minced
- 1 T shredded carrot
Combine first six ingredients in a bowl and add shrimp. Stir to coat shrimp and let marinate for half an hour. This would be an ideal time to do your chopping and mincing and julienning, and to mix up the nuoc cham.
Place rice sticks in another large bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand until they are tender, then divide among plates. Top with the vegetables herbs and nuts, artfully arranged if you so desire.
Saute the shrimp in a hot wok or pan, using a little canola oil, until no longer pink. Add shrimp to each plate, then drizzle with nuoc cham, passing more at the table.
Nicole Shein 