Dinner in the garden

My lovely boyfriend has gone away for over a week and so I am alone. To send him off I decided to cook us up a feast.

I lived in Japan for 5 years and was lucky to be able to travel all round Asia while I was there. The amazing tastes and flavours have always stayed with me and I tend to cook lots of Asian food at home, since I've usually got some of the base ingredients like ginger, garlic and chilli in the house. This meal was no exception and on the spur of the moment I decided to make some Vietnamese fresh spring rolls and then some Oriental style steamed trout, since I picked up a couple of gorgeous fresh trout at the supermarket for hardly any thing.

It was a warm evening, so we sat outside with dinner and a bottle of prosecco. Divine!

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls
This is a really simple version of a really mouth tingling starter.

1 bundle rice noodles
4 round rice paper wrappers
1 tbsp sesame oil
large handful cooked prawns, about 100g
2 tsp nam pla fish sauce
2 spring onions
handful each, whole mint, coriander and basil leaves

Place the rice noodles in a bowl, pour over boiling water and leave to soften (or do as instructed in the packet). After 5 - 10 minutes when the noodles are softened, drain and refresh in cold water. Place in a bowl and toss through sesame oil and grind over black pepper.

In a small bown mix the prawns with the nam pla.

Cut the spring onions into julienne strips about 5 - 7 cm long, using the green bits as well.

Fill a shallow bowl or baking dish with hot water and one at a time dip in the rice paper wrappers to soften. Cut in half carefully, pressing the knife down onto the wrapper rather then dragging it over, as this can tear them.

On each half arrange first a small bunch of spring onion, so that strips are poking over the edge of the wrapper. Top with a bundle of rice noodles, a few prawns and an assortment of the herb leaves. Roll one side of the wrapper over the bundle of goodies, tuck the bottom up and over then roll up completely. This should create a tube that is sealed at one end.

Serve with dipping sauces and enjoy!



Oriental style steamed trout
I served this with some fragrant rice and stir fried mange tout.

2 rainbow trout, cleaned and gutted
1 double thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and cut into julienne strips
4 spring onions, green and white parts cut into julienne strips
125ml shaoxing rice wine (or use dry sherry)
50ml soy sauce
groundnut oil
1 red chilli, thinly sliced diagonally
2 -3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
handful coriander leaves

Pre-heat an oven to 180C/ 160C fan oven. Lay out a large sheet of tin foil and place the 2 fish in the centre. Divide the ginger strips and the green parts of the spring onions between the 2 fish, putting some in the chest cavity and scattering the rest on top. Fold the sides of the foil up and pour in the rice wine and soy, then fold the foil together to seal completely. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

Pour the groundnut oil into a small pan, to come to about 2cm up the sides. Heat over a medium high heat then shallow fry the chilli and garlic until they're golden and crisp (I slightly over did mine.....). Scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

When the fish is done, remove from the oven and plate up. Drizzle over some of the soy and rice wine juices, top with the white stips of spring onion, the crispy garlic and chilli and scatter over coriander leaves.