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Vietnamese Spring Rolls

I have come across these Vietnamese Rice paper rolls at Nature's basket recently and have found them super easy to use and great for a quick healthy snack as well as a good starter that you can impress your guests with. Beware these spring rolls are slightly expensive (INR 145 for 11 sheets - which will make the same number of dumplings) as well as very delicate to make. Plus you will have to make them last minute as you can't reheat this stuff otherwise it becomes sticky and the rolls tend to break so this is better for an intimate dinner of maximum 10 - 15 people if you do want to use this starter for entertaining.

Ingredients for 11 Wraps

1 packet Bean sprouts

1/4 Red Capsicum cut into short thin strips

1/4 Yellow Capsicum cut into short thin strips

1 Carrot cut into short thin strips

(11 medium sized prawns, or 200g boneless chicken)

Method

if you are making this with prawns clean, de-vein and pan fry the prawns in olive oil, salt pepper until cooked ( this should take around 5 minutes on the pan), squeeze lemon juice on top of prawns when done and keep aside

if you are making this with Chicken, Clean and cut the chicken into strips, pan fry in olive oil, salt, pepper until cooked (which would be around 7 minutes) and squeeze lemon juice on it and keep aside

If you have a steamer great, if you don't have a steamer, take a vessel, fill it with around 100ml of water and stick a colander on top of it (and make sure you have a cover to fit on top of the colander)

heat the vessel with water/ prepare the steamer and steam the carrots first till they are tender then switch off the heat and throw in the bell peppers (red and yellow capsicums) and the bean sprouts.

Take all this out onto a plate (and if you're not on a major diet I would highly recommend you put a small knob of butter in this and mix it up whilst everything is still hot - it tastes awesome)

Also season this vegetable mixture with salt and pepper

Now comes the fun part.

Prepare your mise en place (all the things required to assemble your super duper vietnamese rolls) on a free table top

you have to have on the work space:

a) A clean kitchen towel on which you will assemble everything

b) Your Chicken/Prawns or both dishes on the side

c) Your vegetables mixtures well seasoned

d) A large flat shallow dish which should be filled with hot water

Once you have this prepared, open the Vietnamese rice flour spring rolls packet and take one rice sheet

Dip the rice sheet in the hot water for around 10 seconds until it is soft

Remove the rice sheet and place it onto your clean towel

Put a tablespoon of the stuffing in the centre of your sheet, not forgetting your veggies prawns and/or your chicken

Follow the instructions on the back of the spring roll sheet and make a fold upwards, then fold in the two sides of the round sheet and roll up the spring roll to make a cylindrical shaped spring roll (it's really easy once you do one)

you can serve with some soya sauce, chilli sauce or any sauce of your preference

et Voila! you are ready to impress your guests!