Sugar Cane Skewered Shrimp (chao Tom)

In the bowl of your food processor add the chopped carrots, green onions, cilantro and garlic and pulse until everything is in tiny pieces (dont process it until it turns into mush).

Add the shrimp, brown sugar, lard and fish sauce to the food processor.This time, youll pulse everything until the shrimp turns into a paste.Dump the shrimp mixture into a medium to large size bowl and add the salt, pepper and egg white. Stir to thoroughly combine the egg white into the mixture.

Let the mixture sit for 20 minutes.Wet your hands and take 2 tablespoons of the shrimp mixture into the palm of one hand and lay the sugar cane (or lemon grass) skewer in the middle of the mixture. Form the mixture around the skewer.Once the mixture is formed, lay it on a piece of plastic wrap or waxed paper.Continue molding all of the shrimp and laying each piece on the wrap or paper. Do not let the pieces touch or theyll stick to each other.Fit a steamer basket into a large pot and add water until the level comes just below the steamer basket.Bring water to rolling boil.Once the water is boiling, arrange the skewers in the basket so that they are standing up and not touching each other.Steam them until you see that bits of the shrimp turn an orange red color (just like shrimp do when you cook them) and then remove the from the steamer and set them aside. This will take around 5 7 minutes. You will need to do this in batches. I loosely covered them with the lid for the pot.Once all of the shrimp have been steamed, you can ready the pan frying process.

Add some vegetable oil to a large saute pan and heat over medium high heat. (Be somewhat generous with the oil because the shrimp skewers will stick if there isnt enough oil. But they dont need to be swimming in oil.)Once the oil is hot, lay the shrimp skewers into the oil. Fry them on all sides until they are crisp. This will also need to be done in batches.Once they are all fried you can pile them onto a platter and serve with sweet Thai chili sauce and black vinegar.