Batch of Summery Fresh Summer Rolls

So summer rolls are the fresh healthy version of spring rolls - not deep fried, and full of crunchy vegetables. Perfect for a hot sunny day like today was!

I first had these at my FAVOURITE London restaurant, Cay Tre Soho, a vietnamese. They're brilliant for only needing one specifically asian ingredient: the rice paper rounds. I got mine from a Chinese supermarket for £2 for a massive pile which I barely made a dent in this evening.

First, speed peel a carrot into thin slices, slice up about 5 big iceberg lettuce leaves into strips, and cut up ⅓ of a cucumber into matchstick sized sticks. Also, cut 12 cooked king prawns in half down the middle and rip up some coriander leaves (about 16 leaves will do).

Now, fill a large, shallow bowl with water and put a chopping board ready, with your fillings in easy reach.

Drop the first rice paper round in the water a poke it a bit with your fingers, then turn it over a poke it some more until it starts feeling a little soft (maybe 15 seconds, not long at all!). Put it on the board and lay three prawn halves outside down about a quarter of the way down. 

Next, layer your cucumber, carrot, lettuce and coriander on top of the prawns, keeping it fairly neat. Don't overfill it (my mistake on my first one), but do be prepared to make a few awkward looking ones before you get the knack.

Now to roll it up... Tuck in the sides a little, then just roll it up from the top, trying to keep it tight. Again, it will take a few tries before they start looking nice, but don't try to undo it once it's been rolled, just accept it and moooove on.

Yay! Misshapen slimy things. Practice makes perfect though, right?

So, to draw attention away from your sculpture work, time to make a dip. (And then you can laugh at everyone else losing their cucumber into it. Not that I would be that mean.) I'm not entirely sure I mastered the dip to be honest, so I'm not going to write it out here, but it revolved mainly around garlic and sweet chilli sauce, which was also from the Chinese supermarket although I'm sure you can get it at Tesco too.

Because Christian needs lots of food, we also stir-fried some noodles with the leftover sliced vegetables, some spring onions and soy sauce, and, of course, served it with jasmine tea, with afters of sake and cappellino cake.