Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls (Bill Granger)

Summer came late and lasted later than usual this year. Nice that our Victoria Labor Day weekend including today is still warm and summery. For a nice warm like these, I wanted to serve something nice and refreshing for a picnic... Ideally, I wish to cook something stress-free with the least suffering from tears and sweats from cooking.

Ah! I see a light bulb on my head! I'm making light and refreshing Vietnamese rice paper rolls.

Good that these rice paper rolls are gluten free, low in fat and calories and very fresh and refreshing to eat. As I'm allergy to prawns, I have made a vegetarian version for me and also a vegetarian friend to enjoy.

Bright idea!??? Of course... Hope that I don't sound very ya-ya (meaning boastful in Hokkien) saying this... LOL! These rice paper rolls were gone very quickly... especially the ones with the fattest prawn!

Vietnamese rice paper rolls

The essential ingredients to make these paper rolls

I'm making the vegetarian and non-vegetarian ones.

... both with lots of GREENS!

Assemble and wrap... I think this YouTube video might help.

These are the vegetarian ones...

Ingredients to make the sauce...

Instead of peanuts, I like mine made with roasted sesame seeds.

This is how I ate my vegetarian roll... Yum!

Thumbs up that mummy used giant prawns to make these rolls!!!

I'm using this recipe which is the simple and easy one from Bill Granger at Lifestyle Food or UK TV with hardly any cooking and preparation involved. All I need to do is to assemble everything.
(with my modification in blue)

100g rice vermicelli
8 cooked and shelled prawns
1 oak leaf lettuce, washed and dried
Asian basil
coriander leaf
(I replaced this with fresh chives)
1 small Lebanese cucumber halved lengthways, then thinly sliced on diagonal.
8 large round rice paper wrappers
Vietnamese dipping sauce, see below

Vietnamese dipping sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce (I used the gluten free one)
crushed peanut to serve
(or roasted sesame seeds)

For the rice paper rolls:
Put the rice vermicelli in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for 6-7 mins, then drain.

Soften one of the rice paper wrappers in a bowl of hot water. Remove and shake off any excess water. Top the wrapper with a little vermicelli, 1 cooked prawn, some cucumber, lettuce, basil and coriander (or chive) and roll up, tucking in the sides.

For the dipping sauce:
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined. Top with the crushed peanuts or sesame seeds.
 
To serve, hold the rolls in (or without) a lettuce leaf and dip into the dipping sauce.

Note: I have made a vegetarian version with soy braised tofu. Cook 350g sliced firm tofu with 3 tbsp soya sauce in medium heat for 10-15 mins. Cool completely before using them to assemble into the vegetarian rolls.

Enjoy the last bit of Aussie summer and also these refreshing treats!

Happy Baking
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This post is linked to Cook like a Star, ALL Stars Anniversary organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Mich from Piece of Cake. 

Wanna cook or bake like Donna Hay, Barefoot Contessa, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Martha Stewart, Delia Smith, Curtis Stone, Nigella Lawson, Ree Drummond and Bill Granger? To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from their websites or cookbooks and link with us at this Zoe's, this Joyce's or this Mich's post for the whole of March and April 2014.

To use this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to us at Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Mich from Piece of Cake. Cheers!

For more details, please see this.

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking. 

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This post is also linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Moon from Food Playground at this post.

 

The Little Thumbs Up event starts on first Tuesday of the month until the last day of the month. Please join us! To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is PRAWN for March 2014 and link with us at this post. anytime until 31st March 2014. 

Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within this month. (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY or/and Moon from Food Playground. For more details, please see this.

What after March 2014? Ann from Anncoo Journal will be the next hostess of April 2014 and her theme is ORANGE!

Cream Cheese Brownies (Nigella Lawson)

Now! See this... These are heavenly creamy cream cheese brownies.



Now! See this... The cream cheese fillings disappear and they are plain chocolaty brownies!



Now! See this... They are heavenly creamy cream cheese brownies again! LOL!

Did you bake two kind of brownies? NO, I didn't and YES that they are the same brownies!!!

Are they "magic brownies"?... LOL! Not the kind that your wicked brains think. Nay that these brownies are not made with special "magical" ingredient or disappearing power but rather the David Copperfield illusionist kind. They look like plain chocolate brownies at one end and taste surprisingly heavenly with the hidden inner layer of saltiness, sourness and creaminess inside. Although this brownies is sneakily good, it is honestly straightforward to bake.

I'm baking these brownies for our bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings.  Unlike the brownies that I baked at here and here, there are no sexy shots of oozing chocolate in these flat and compact brownies. Instead, these brownies are sexy in its own way, a little like George Clooney... The distinct creamy white filling embedded within these dark chocolaty treats give the brownies a clean sleek look and also a clean-cut sexy taste.

Yum!

... and easy!

The white filling are just cold slices of cream cheese.

Assembling the black and white layers

... after baking

Cream cheese? Where??? Here!!!

The mixture of this black and white is extremely nice...

Here's the recipe mostly adapted from the book, How to be a domestic goddess by Nigella Lawson (with my slight modification and notes in blue)

Makes 8-10
125g dark chocolate (I used the Callebaut ones with 70% cocoa)
125g unsalted butter
2 large eggs
200g caster sugar
(reduced to 100g for 3/4 recipe)
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g plain flour
pinch of salt
200g cold Philadelphia or similar
(reduced to 75g for 3/4 recipe)
23cm square tin, 4cm deep, greased and lined

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced) /gas mark 4.

Melt the chocolate and butter over medium-to-low heat in a heavy-based saucepan or in a heat-proof bowl using a microwave. While waiting for both chocolate and butter to melt, idly beat the eggs in a bowl with the sugar and vanilla.
 
Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt. When the chocolate mixture has almost completely melted, take the pan off the heat. The bits of un-melted chocolate or butter will continue to deliquesce if left. Leave for a bit longer to cool slightly before beating in the eggs and sugar. Finally, add the flour and beat until smooth.

Pour half the mixture into the tin, slice the cream cheese as thinly as you can and top the brownie mixture in the tin with these thin slices. Pour over the remaining half of brownie-gunge, using a rubber spatula or whatever to make sure each bit of cheese is covered. Then put in the oven and bake for about 20 mins: the top should be slightly paled and dry, but a cake-tester poked within should reveal a still-sticky center.

Cool for about 10 mins before cutting into little squares, and eat warm or cold, though the cooler they are the easier they'll be to lift out. Reckon on a first, botched slice: cook's treat - Yippee!

Note: Using 3/4 of the recipe, I have baked the brownies in 20cm square pan at 160°C fan forced for 20 mins

Happy Baking

Here are our friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their cream cheese brownies baking. 

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 6 Mar to 13 Mar 2014.

For our next bake-along, we are baking marbled butter cake which is to be posted on 20 Mar 2014. Please bake-along with us! All you need to do is to bake this recipe and blog hop with us for the next 10 days.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Before using this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Bake-Along in your post and link back to any of our hosts' Bake-Along post, (Joyce, Lena or Zoe). (3) Appreciate if you can display the Bake-Along badge in your post when linking up with us. Cheers!

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This post is also linked to Cook like a Star, ALL Stars Anniversary organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Mich from Piece of Cake. 

Wanna cook or bake like Donna Hay, Barefoot Contessa, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Martha Stewart, Delia Smith, Curtis Stone, Nigella Lawson, Ree Drummond and Bill Granger? To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from their websites or cookbooks and link with us at this Zoe's, this Joyce's or this Mich's post for the whole of March and April 2014.