Coconut Shoot Salad

Ben Tre Province is known as the capital of coconut trees in South Vietnam. For many years, the coconut tree has been closely attached to the life of local people. Its fruit, leaves, trunk, coconut shells, and coconut fibre, are used to make food and household products.

The local people use coconut shoots to create some delicious dishes, such as coconut shoots fried with chicken organs, coconut shoots fried with Xeo cake and coconut shoots salad that is considered the most delicious. The salad is comprised of scraped coconut shoots, peeled shrimps, sliced belly meat, pig’s ears, fragrant knotweed, onion and fried peanuts. It is served with sour and sweet sauce and crispy prawn crackers.

Ingredients (Serves 4):
- Coconut shoots: 300g
- Tiger prawns: 200g
- Belly meat: 100g
- Pig’s ears: 100g
- Carrots: 50g
- Onion: 50g
- Red pepper: 1
- Fried dried onion: 20g
- Fried peanuts: 30g
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice; fragrant knotweed; fish sauce; and sugar

Preparation:
- Peel shrimps and steam them.
- Boil and slice the belly meat and pig’s ears.
- Scrape coconut shoots and submerge them into cold water mixed with a little of lemon juice.
- Slice carrots, onion and red pepper into threads.
- Mix fish sauce with sugar, lemon juice and red pepper.
- Mix the prepared ingredients with the sauce. Place the salad on a large plate and cover with fried peanuts, fragrant knotweed and fried dried onion.
- Serve with sour and sweet sauce and crispy prawn crackers.