Feelin' hot hot hot

Decidedly, me and Fig are not liking the crazy heatwave of the past few days! In fact in my household only Nino II enjoys balmy weather. Nino II by the way is my pet cockroach. More about him later.

Hence, except for the one crazy evening when I stubbornly decided to bake the pecan and olive buttermilk bread, I haven't turned on the oven for days. Today I made these Vietnamese spring rolls for lunch, absolutely yummisimo!! No heating necessary.



Goi Cuon (Fresh Spring Rolls)
serves 4

3 ounces rice vermicelli
8 large rounds dried rice paper (banh trang)
1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
1/4 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
Leaves from a bunch of mint (vietnamese of course)
Leaves from a bunch of coriander
16 small prawns, cooked and peeled
16 flat garlic chives
serve with nuoc cham

Pour boiling water over noodles in a bowl and leave for 6-7 minutes. Drain, then transfer to a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 1 more minute. Rinse in cold water and drain again.

Dunk each rice paper round in warm water for a few seconds until soft. Spread out to drain on serving plates.

On each paper, put some shredded lettuce, noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts, mint and coriander, and fold the rice paper toward the centre to form a firm roll. Tuck in 2 prawns, fold in ends of rice paper, and put 2 garlic chives in the crease so they protrude by about 1 inch. Roll into a neat sausage shape. The rice paper will stick to itself and hold the shape. Serve with nuoc cham for dipping.

Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)
2 red chillies, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc mam)
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp white rice vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar

Pound or blend chillies with garlic. Add fish sauce, lime juice, vinegar, water, and sugar.


Leftover that put a smile to my face. Recipes taken from Noodle by Terry Durack, a book I had coveted for awhile, a Christmas present I bought for myself.

Note:
1. So yes I did switch on the stove to boil some water.
2. The nuoc cham was lip smackingly good! and not as sweet as ones I normally get in Vietnamese eateries here in Sydney.
3. I used rather large prawns not small ones. Figgy ate like a royal on big juicy prawns this afternoon, having endured hardship living in my sweltering little joint these past few days. (and a girl *blush* ate like a piglet).

Now back to Nino II. Ok... so of course he not a cockroach! Nino II is the successor to Nino I my sourdough starter that I had to discard before I left for Christmas holidays. (Before, I used to forget and ignored his feeding time, but then I came across Pim's blog about Bob. I thought that was a nice idea so I gave mine a name too. Nino after Nino Quincampoix. Ever since he had a name I fed him more regularly and didn't leave him to starve too often.)

ps: because now it seems that I'm very behind on my NY resolution, I'm rather desperate and have changed the T&Cs that even cooking now would count. So this is my first of 50. Yay!!