Shrimp Salad | Goi Tom

My contribution to this past Saturday's get-together (previous post) was a Vietnamese Shrimp Salad. It was my first time making this and I was hesitant at first, serving shrimp that's only cook in vinegar and lemon juice and no heat might not be such a good idea. I went with it anyway.



Prep the vegetables: cut carrots, seeded cucumbers, red bell peppers, small yellow onion, shallots, and celery into thin and long pieces.


You'll also need lemons, chopped vietnamese coriander (rau ram), and chillies cut into small pieces.


Shrimp, peeled and deveined.


Soak the shrimp in enough distilled white vinegar to cover it, squeeze in some lemon juice. Allow the shrimp to cook in the acidic mixture until desired doneness. I wanted to make sure the shrimp was pretty cooked so I soaked it for a good 15-20 minutes.


Meantime, salt the celery and cucumber, it will rendered the water from those vegetables so your salad is not so watery. After 5 minutes, rinse the salt off and with your hands, ring the water from the vegetables.


Drain and rinse the vinegar from the shrimp; squeeze out any access liquid. Throw ingredients into a large mixing bowl.


Toss the veggies and shrimp with some fish sauce, salt, sugar, pepper flakes, lemon juice, cut chillies, chopped coriander, toasted sesame seeds, and roasted peanuts. Serve!
My dad usually tells the truth when it comes to my cooking. He'll eat it even if it doesn't taste good because he's so awesome. I asked him to taste it and he said it was good (shrimp a little over done for his preference). I thought it was a little too vinegary, but I'll take his approval. =)