Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

Just over a year ago, my husband Michael and I along with our nine month old son said goodbye to our friends at the Waikato Chiefs in New Zealand to join the Leicester Tigers in England. Living and working abroad is an experience, we've been fortunate enough to travel to Prague, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey since arriving - all with a one year old in tow! A year on we have settled in nicely to our new village life in the countryside of Leicestershire. While London and all its amazing food and coffee is only an hour away the scene is far different where we are, many an hour is spent dreaming of a strong flat white ..or three over brunch in an NZ cafe.

I spend far less time trying new recipes these days now that we have a young family so it was a pleasant surprise to be asked to cook for Meg's awesome blog. I didn't spend long thinking about what to make and went straight to some old favourites. Those who know me won't be surprised at all by the recipes I chose - apart from the fact they don't really qualify as 'cooking' (I think I only turned the oven on once) they are a combination of all my fave ingredients.

Thanks Meg for a fun morning. Rice Paper Rolls

Ingredients :

10 cooked prawns (or shredded chicken poached in coconut milk)

½ cup each coarsely chopped coriander and mint ½ telegraph cucumber, cut into matchsticks with centre removed Carrots cut into long thin strips Capsicum Snow Pea shoots 100 gm vermicelli noodles Vietnamese Rise Paper Rolls Vietnamese mint (optional) Dipping sauce 1 small garlic clove, chopped small amount of water 30 g light palm sugar, crushed 90 ml lime juice 75 ml fish sauce 1 small red chillies, thinly sliced Coriander stalks chopped / Sesame Seeds Method: Prepare all your vegetables. Soak Vermicilli Rice Noodles in a bowl of boiling hot water and leave to soak for 4-5 mins (or as per instructions on packet) then drain. Lay out a damp tea towel on your bench as a work space for assembling each roll, Fill a small shallow tray with boiling hot water. Working with a wrapper at a time, submerge wrapper in water to soften (10-30 seconds), then transfer to tea towel. Working quickly, assemble prawns along the centre of the wrapper, add pea shoots, cucumber, carrot, capsicum, noodles and plenty of coriander and mint, fold in ends, then roll to form a sealed cylinder. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and cover with a damp tea towel. Serve with dipping sauce and Vietnamese mint. The larger rice paper wraps work best.