Pork Wrapped Shrimp Skewers w/ Vietnamese Green Rice Recipe

I love the variety of ethnic foods that my family gets to experience by living in NYC. Recently, I attended a Samsung House event where Chef Leah Cohen prepared a wonderful meal using Samsung kitchen products. A popular “Top Chef” alum, Chef Cohen is currently preparing Southeast Asian food at her Pig & Khao restaurant on NYC’s Lower East Side. She prepared two courses and a dessert for the intimate gathering.

The first course, Shrimp Skewers Wrapped in Pork Coated with Young Green Rice, was delicious and seemed pretty simple to prepare. Asian cooking is very popular, so I asked for the recipe. The great thing is that you don’t have to live in a major metropolitan area like NYC in order to cook Asian foods at home. You can buy fish sauce through Amazon, an affiliate partner. (Leah recommends Squid Brand Fish Sauce.) The Vietnamese young green rice (also called Cốm) is not as easily found though. (Chef Cohen, who was kind enough to share her recipe, mentioned that Rice Krispies provide a similar result as the young green rice…although you won’t get the nice, green color.) In any event, I am sharing the recipe below…enjoy!

Pork Wrapped Shrimp Skewers with Vietnamese Green Rice Recipe
(Shrimp Skewers Wrapped in Pork Coated with Young Green Rice)
Recipe courtesy of Chef Leah Cohen

Ingredients:

Pork Mix

2 lbs minced pork
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbs sugar
2.5 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground white pepper

Other Ingredients

30 peeled shrimp, head off (21/25*)
2 bags of Vietnamese young green rice

*21/25 simply means that you would get 21-25 shrimp when you order it per pound

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the pork mix together and let them marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Skewer each shrimp starting from the tail end. Try to make the shrimp as straight as possible.

3. Wrap the shrimp with minced pork. Make sure to only use a small amount of minced pork enough to cover the whole shrimp (approximately 2 to 3 tablespoons worth).

4. Coat the skewered shrimp/pork with green rice (it will stick to the pork).

5. Heat cooking oil in a fryer on the stovetop (to 350 degrees Fahrenheit) and fry the skewered shrimp until it is cooked (approximately 4 minutes).

(Optional)

-For plating, Chef Cohen used 1 leaf of bibb lettuce per skewer, 2 mint leaves and cilantro leaves. (Personally, I would serve the skewers by themselves, because it was easier to just dip the skewer into the sauce and eat it that way.)

-Serve the skewers with a nuoc cham dipping sauce.