Seeing as Mum and Dad have decided to go on diet number 183647, I thought I might try and make something healthy and light for the two of them, as opposed to my Butter Cookies/Titty Cakes which were so very tasty, but didnt get eaten. So I attemped the Vietnamese Prawn Rolls – light, tasty and only 78 calories per roll. Perfect!
This is what they’re meant to look like, for those that arent exactly sure what they are…
Now, lets compare and contrast…
Not too bad, if I do say so myself. However the same can NOT be said about the taste. Basically the idea is to soak the vermicelli noodles in hot water, then mix them up with some shredded wombok (didn’t have it so I used carrot), crushed mint leaves, tablespoon of lime juice and a teaspoon of brown sugar. Once the mixture is made in a bowl, you then fill up another bowl full of hot water to soak the rice sheets in to make them soft and sticky so they can be folded later to keep everything tightly packed.
Before everything though, shell about 500g of king prawns, making sure to take weird photos to freak out pussy’s like Sinead who can’t handle sea food or any other living animal for that matter.
Then wrap them all up into tight little parcels, cut in half and serve cold with a side of hoisin dipping sauce mixed with 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar.
I served them to my Mum, Dad and my Nan with high hopes that they would enjoy them… however the look on their faces said it all. They tasted horrible, but its ok! Because I know where I went wrong. I didn’t soak the noodles for long enough in the hot water, so they were still very hard and dry. Also, I made way too many noodles for only a small amount of mixture (the lime, carrot, sugar and mint) so the flavour was not very strong at all. I ended up tasting one, and it just tasted like old rice. If this happens, just drown the sucker in the dipping sauce and it therefore becomes somewhat eatable.
I’ll get it right next time.
