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    Monday, April 05, 2010

    Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey- Get your Jaded Taste Buds Moving


    One of the many things I really like about Rick Stein, is not just his food, but his Cookbooks.He in line with my Food Hero Writers, i.e. Elizabeth David, Julia Child,  MJK Fisher, Nigella Lawson. Nigel Slater, to name but a few. They don't just pop a recipe and couple of pretty photos of the food. They write about where they tasted it, how they created it... maybe a little story, lots of things to inspire you. One's  mouth waters and all you want to do is make it.
    Yesterday I realised I had the ingredients to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls again. Sorry Rick, I made a lot changes but they were delicious anyway.
    I do cook a lot of high cal food on the boat. This is frequently dictated by the amount of fresh vege, still fresh!
    As we are only 4 days out, we still have a lot  of crispy vege and also the coriander is still looking good.
    Herbs are the worst to keep fresh. I have found, by completely drying them on a paper towel, popping them in a small snaplock plastic bag and letting the air out, a la Tupperware burping, they seem to last well.

    So on to the Spring Rolls
    This made 6 rolls

    You will need
    Rice Noodles
    Rice paper rounds
    Then
    Marinate 12 prawns in
    2 cloves garlic finely chopped
    2.5 cms ginger grated
    1 whole chili finely chopped
    Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
    1 tbs fish sauce
    A little pinch salt
    2 tbs rice bran oil


    Leave them for about an hour

    Meanwhile next stage
    3 cms cucumber remove seeds and slice into julienne strips
    1/2  carrot grated
    2 tablespoons crunchy lettuce
    1 spriung onion sliced 

    Leaves and chopped stalks of handful coriander


    Remove prawns from marinade and cook in pan on medium heat
    Cook about 2-3 minutes one side
    Flip and leave about another minute
    Remove, set aside

    Add marinade to pan and cook for a couple of minutes, reserve

    Take a handful rice noodles
    Cook for around 4 minutes, in boiling salted water
    Drain, rinse, add cooked marinade and set aside.

    Now you are ready to assemble.
    In a flat bowl of water
    Place a rice paper round
    Soak about 30 seconds till soft
    On a wet paper towel
    Lay out the rice paper
    At the top end
    Add 2 pieces cucumber
    Some carrot
    Some lettuce
    Coriander and spring onions

    Break up 2 prawns
    Lay on top
    Then  some marinated noodles
    Roll top of noodle over once, turn in sides and continue to roll till, you have a nice cigar shaped roll.
    A couple of times I put too much filling in, so I double wrapped.

    With the flavoured noodles.
    It is not necessary to have a dipping sauce.
    Next time, I will make one and post the recipe at a later date.
    There were left over vege and noodles
    Don't waste
    Made a great little salad entree
    Hey, don't forget, just a couple of more days of the competition left. Just make a comment on my blog or on my Facebook page and courtesy of the good people at Perfect Italiano you can win the lovely prize pictured below.

    1 comment:

    Katie Zeller said...

    I bought rice paper during the 'Chinese New Year' sale and haven't done anything with it yet.... Now I shall! Looks great - and fun!