Gwyneth Paltrow's Vietnamese Prawn Sandwiches

I'm back from the cottage, covered with mosquito bites and carrying a couple extra pounds.

For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to choose to believe that some of that is muscle from the first kayak of the season.

More likely, some of it came from this:

For the record, I have no idea why the carrot is so neon. I forgot my camera at school, and used my mum's, which was an exercise in annoyance. It wouldn't let me adjust both the white balance AND shoot on macro.

So, just rest assured that the carrot was normal carrot coloured.

Vietnamese Shrimp Sandwiches

(from Gwyneth Paltrow's My Father's Daughter)


Ingredients

1 lb large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 tbsp soy sauce
1½ tbsp canola oil
½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds, ground
1 tsp peeled and finely chopped ginger
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
½ tsp coarse salt
½ tsp granulated sugar
¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
½ cup mayonnaise (or do as Gwyneth does and use Vegenaise)
Sriracha to taste
juice of one lime
1 baguette
½ English cucumber, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
handful fresh cilantro
handful fresh basil


Directions

1. Put the shrimp in a small bowl and toss with soy sauce, oil, sesame seeds and ginger. Cover and set aside in the fridge to marinate for an hour. Meanwhile, soak 8 bamboo skewers in water.

2. To make pickles, combine carrots through vinegar in another bowl, cover and set aside for an hour. In a third bowl, combine mayonnaise and sriracha and lime juice. Cover and set aside (for an hour!).

3. Fire up the bbq. While it's heating, thread shrimp onto skewers. They'll be easier to manage if you use two skewers per set rather than one.

Grill for about 2 minutes a side, or until pink and no longer translucent. Cut into bite sized chunks.

Assemble sandwich as you see fit, layering carrots, cucumber, herbs, sriracha mayonnaise and shrimp.

Try not to eat the whole baguette.