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.