Vietnamese Shimp Paste (Cha Tom Hue)

I had been busy the past few days away from my blog and my kitchen. Also, I had to replace a defective router for my home so my laptop computer was off-line. Well, I am back and this recipe should please almost everyone. This shrimp paste recipe comes from Hue in the central part of Vietnam. 100 years ago, Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam. Traditionally, this dish is made with pork fat and is served as an appetizer, finger food, or wrapped in rice paper with lettuce, cucumbers and carrot-daikon pickles. It could easily be a delicious stuffing inside baguettes to make sandwiches. Also, shrimp paste served with spicy beef noodle soup (Bun Bo Hue) is one of the popular noodle soups in Vietnam. Shrimp paste is a pleaser to meat eaters and all health-conscious eaters.

Ingredients:
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 oz crab meat
1/2 lb. Ground turkey
1 tbs vegetable shortening
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots. minced or use white part of scallion, chopped
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp rice powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp baking powder
5 tbs water
3 tbs cornstarch
2 drops of yellow food color
1 egg yolk, beaten

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine water, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, sugar, fish sauce and food color. Mix well
Dry the shrimp with a paper towel and set aside.
Combine shrimp, crab meat, ground turkey, garlic, shallots, vegetable shortening and rice powder in a container with lid. Pour the water-baking powder mixture on the shrimp-crab mixture and mix well. Cover with lid and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Place the refrigerated shrimp mixture into the food processor. Start the machine and let it chop until the shrimp mixture become a paste.

 Heat 1 tsp of the mixture in microwave and then taste it to see if the mixture needs more salt or fish sauce. Adjust the seasoning before the final process.
Cover the all interior surfaces of a baking dish with a large sheet of plastic wrap that overlaps the sides and pack the shrimp paste into the dish.

Fold overlapping plastic wrap and cover the shrimp paste.

 Place the shrimp paste into the steamer over high heat and steam for 20 to 25 minutes. In the last five minutes, remove the plastic warp.

Brush the entire surface of the shrimp paste with egg yolk and continue to steam the shrimp paste without the plastic wrap cover for a few more minutes.

Cut and serve