Cooking with sugarcane

Think sugarcane is only meant for juice? Well, think again. These recipes turn the humble cane into everything from a Vietnamese appetiser to fruity chicken skewers.

VIETNAMESE CHAO TOM

Ingredients

250g peeled and deveined shrimp

2 tsp fish sauce

1½ tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp garlic granules

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp black pepper powder

1 stick sugarcane

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tbsp corn flour

Oil for frying

Method

Turn the shrimp into a paste and combine with fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic granules, ginger powder, black pepper powder, and brown sugar. Mix everything well until it is a homogeneous and sticky mixture. Add in corn flour and mix again until it can be formed into shapes.

Peel and cut the sugarcane lengthwise and slice it into slender sticks about the size of your hand. Wrap the shrimp mixture around half of the stick leaving the other half bare. Fry this in deep oil until golden brown in colour and fully cooked through.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce.