Featured Recipe: Vietnamese Prawn Rolls

• Cooking time: 30 mins / no cooking
• Skill Level: Easy
• Servings: 12

Ingredients

Dipping sauce:

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 small red chilli finely chopped

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger

1 tbsp golden caster sugar

3 tbsp fish sauce

Juice of 1 lime

Rolls:

100g vermicelli rice noodles or bean thread noodles

12 x 20cm round rice paper wrappers

Handful mint leaves

18 cooked prawns, cut in half lengthways

2-3 large iceberg lettuce leaves, torn into 12 pieces

1 carrot, cut into thin batons

Coriander

Thai basil

Chives

50g beansprouts

Method

1.     Make the dipping sauce by pounding the garlic, chilli, ginger and sugar together using a pestle and mortar. Then stir in the fish sauce and lime juice.
2.     Soak the rice noodles in a bowl of hot water for 15 mins, then drain well. Assemble all the prepared filling ingredients – once you start, you will need everything to hand.
3.     When you are ready to make the rolls, dip one of the rice papers in a bowl of hot water, moving it around until the whole wrapper is soft – about 10-15 secs– then drain on a tea towel.
4.     Place a rice paper wrapper on a board and at one edge of the wrapper, add a few mint leaves, then three prawn halves.
5.     Place some lettuce on top of the prawns, followed by some noodles, a few strips of carrot and cucumber, some more herbs and finally some beansprouts. Don’t overfill them or they will be hard to roll.
6.     Lift the edge of the rice paper wrapper nearest to you over the filling and, holding the filling in position with your fingers, start rolling up tightly.
7.     When you’re about halfway, fold the ends of the rice paper in and over the filling so that it is completely enclosed.
8.     Keep on rolling tightly until the whole rice paper wrapper is rolled up. To serve, cut the rolls in half on the diagonal.