Sticky Caramelized Shrimp Lettuce Wrap

SERVES: 4 PREP: 25 minutes TOTAL TIME: 40 minutes

Sticky Caramelized Shrimp Lettuce Wrap

SERVES: 4 PREP: 25 minutes TOTAL TIME: 40 minutes

It's like P.F. Changs meets Vietnamese takeout.

The absolute star of this dish is Vietnamese fish sauce caramel, a deeply flavorful sauce that is basically that it sounds like: fish sauce and brown sugar cooked down until you have a caramelized sweet-and-sticky glaze that goes perfectly with all different kinds of seafood, especially big plump shrimp. This recipe was such a hit the first time I made it, we ended up eating the shrimp straight out of the pan!

For this book, I wanted to take these crispy caramelized shrimp to another level—sort of Vietnamese meets Thai meets P.F. Chang’s takeout—so we wrapped them in lettuce leaves along with quick-pickled radishes and carrots and tossed them with some garlic, chile powder, scallions, hand-crushed peanuts. WOW.

We went from eating out of the pan to fighting over the last lettuce cup. A note about the shrimp: I’ve called for peeled here, but since the shells will soften after they’re cooked in the caramel, you can also use the shell-on kind and eat them whole if you’re into that.

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INGREDIENTS DIRECTIONS

For the pickles:

¼ cup hot water
1 tablespoon sugar
Kosher salt
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 medium carrot, julienned
4 medium red radishes, julienned

For the shrimp:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 cloves garlic, minced ½ teaspoon Roasted Chile Powder (page 226) 1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp Kosher salt
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice, lemon juice, or white vinegar
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
¼ teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
2 scallions, thinly sliced
¼ cup unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped