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. 

Lemon raspberry cupcakes

These are delightfully light and fluffy, and aren't a heavy dessert at all. 

200g butter, softened

3 cups icing sugar

5 teaspoons grated lemon zest

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups self raising flour

¼ cup milk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Icing: 

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

125g butter

3 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cream together the butter and icing sugar until light in colour and smooth.

Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add in half the flour, mixing well, then half the milk and repeat.

Mix in the lemon rind and the lemon juice.

Spoon mixture into cupcake tins. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

Icing:

Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in the lemon juice and the raspberries, and continue beating until well combined.

When the cupcakes are cool, decorate them with the raspberries. Fresh whole berries could be used as decoration also.