Rice paper rolls

It only takes the slightest warm change in the weather for me to start craving rice paper rolls again.

When I make these bad boys, they’re not those dainty little wraps you see in Vietnamese restaurants. I make some absolute whoppers, like, a fatter Chiko roll.  There’s no reasoning behind this, I just get carried away with trying to add as much salad and deliciousness as I can, and then the battle to wrap it successfully begins.

In short though, they’re amazing. When I know they’re on the dinner menu, I get excited all afternoon.

I have popped on two different meat marinades: I interchange them for the meat – pork, chicken or beef. But a simple boiled prawn would also be amazing, as would a simple grilling of the meat with no marinade at all.

Ingredients:

Marinade # 1 – Stickier BBQ flavour

2 garlic cloves, crushed,

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

½ teaspoon crushed chilli (optional)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon BBQ sauce

Marinade # 2 – herbier, lighter

10 basil leaves

3 mint leaves

2 garlic cloves, crushed

½ teaspoon crushed chilli (optional)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Ingredients for the rolls

1 carrot, sliced julienne

1 red capsicum, sliced thinly

Quarter head of lettuce, sliced

Half cucumber, sliced julienne

Large bunch fresh mint leaves

50 grams rice vermicelli noodles, cooked, drained and cooled

Pack of fresh rice paper rolls, ready to be soaked in water

 Hoisin sauce, to serve

Unfortunately (for you guys) I have no method that is easy to describe. I visualise it like a cigar – picture a rectangle in one-third of the circular wrapper that you place all the ingredients onto. And then it’s a matter of folding the short end over it long-ways, then folding the sides over, and then rolling it all the way over.

There is a number of online tutorials, I quite like this one.

This is what my table looks like just before we chow down - salads, mint, chicken, noodles, rice paper wrappers and a tray with warm water to soften the wrappers. 

Mexican chicken pies

This was something of a one-pot wonder for when I couldn’t decide if I wanted a casserole, something spicy or something all vegetabled up! So I created this based on a Mexican recipe for burritos with chicken and rice.

This made quite a lot – enough for dinner for probably six or more, mainly due to the amount of rice I inadvertently cooked. 

Ingredients 

2 chicken breasts diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed/finely chopped

1 onion, diced

2 carrot, diced

½ zucchini diced

1 capsicum, diced

10 or so mushrooms, diced

2 chillies, chopped or equivalent in dried chili

½ teaspoon ground/minced ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground cloves

3 teaspoons dried oregano

1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste

2 tins diced tomato

2 cups rice, cooked

4 sheets pre-packaged pastry

Method

Heat frypan, add in garlic and onion.

After a couple of minutes, add in chicken.

When the chicken is sealed, add in the spices, vegetables and stir occasionally for a couple of minutes.

Add in the tomato paste and tinned tomatoes, and about 1 cup of water

Preheat oven to about 190C.

Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes until the flavours are developed.

Turn off the heat, add in the rice.

 Prepare the tins  (I made a couple of small party-pie tin sized ones, and one big pie)

Cook for about 20 minutes, until pastry is cooked and brown.

Stir fried delights

Stir fries are, quite simply, awesome. You can use just about any vegetables or protein and eat it with any kind of carb or no carb at all. My favourite kind of dinner is one that’s quick, fresh, filling and tasty. I also like to know I can have it for lunch the next day, which makes this one even better cos you just cook a bit of rice or noodle to go with it, and it’s all good to go.

This is a basic recipe for a stir fry dinner, keeping in mind that you can use just about vegetable that you want, these are just the ones I prefer.

2 eggs, scrambled with a bit of milk

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon chilli

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon fish sauce

4 tablespoons soy sauce

Protein – 1 chicken breast, 150 grams lean red eat, kangaroo, prawns

1 onion, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced or quartered

½ cup sliced red capsicum

1 cup broccoli

5 asparagus pieces

1 bunch bok choy (or other similar Chinese vegetable)

Choose your carb – rice, quinoa, noodles and get them prepared before you start cooking everything else. If you want this to be a fried rice, it’s best to cook the rice earlier and then cool it in the fridge before adding to the wok.

First, make the omelette which will be put on top of the end meal. Spray the wok with oil, get it nice and hot and make one big omelette, or two smaller ones, and leave to cool on a plate.

Then cook the protein. Slice it thinly and give it a quick fry in the wok, then set aside.

Now for the veges. Spray a wok with a bit of spray oil. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and fry for a minute before adding the onion and carrot.

Keep stirring for two minutes, then add the broccoli, capsicum and mushrooms and the three sauces, as well as a couple of tablespoons of water if it gets a bit dry. Add your protein back into the wok, as well as any juices.

Cook for a couple of minutes before adding the bok choy and asparagus.

Cook for another minute or two.

Add in the pre-cooked noodles or rice and stir well to heat through.

        - Note: If you’re trying to avoid carbs, this is more than hearty on its own without rice or noodles.

Roll up the omelette/s and slice them. Decorate the finished stir fry with the egg.

Apricot chicken

Sometimes, you just can’t be f**ked cooking anything exciting. This is one of my go-to recipes for when I’m just not inspired to cook but still want something substantial, and home cooked.

Ingredients:

About 8 pieces of chicken (drumsticks, wings breasts on the bone)

1 big can of apricot nectar

1 packet French onion mix

½ cup milk

Optional extras: (depending on what you’ve got in the cupboard)

Onion, chopped chunky

A couple of carrots, diced

Potatoes, diced

To serve -  steam some rice, mashed potatoes or just some bread or rolls.

Dissolve the French onion soup mix in the nectar, mixing it up well.

Chuck everything in a big casserole container, with a lid if possible, otherwise with some foil on top.

Put in the oven for about an hour, taking it our once or twice to stir it all together, then take off the lid/foil and continue cooking for another half hour or so.

Take it out of the oven and leave it to sit for about 10 minutes, and the sauce will thicken. 

 Meanwhile, prepare whatever sides you want – steamed rice, vegetables, bread rolls – whatever you’ve got.