Persimmon Prawn Rice Paper Rolls

I was inspired by this recipe to make dinner last night.


This is my first time using rice paper rolls. They're fun to play with. You just dip them in water and they become like gladwrap for any food! I served them with hoisin sauce and a chilli concoction.


To make the rice noodles just soak them in hot water for 20minutes or so. This whole meal requires no cooking at all. Just a big bowl of hot water. It's fantastically easy to prepare. I got one of my dinner guests to julienne the persimmon whilst we were drinking wine and catching up. Too easy! :)


For the rolls I used mung beans, prawns, mint, coriander, persimmon, spring onion and rice vermicelli. Per person this costs about $3.50 ($2.50 100g prawns + $0.50 herbs + $0.50 vermicelli and wraps) in addition to the Food Connect ingredients.


I also grated carrot (you can see in the background on the left). But, I ended up mostly ignoring it.


Fresh red chillies, fish sauce, lime juice and garlic.


Friends eating together by candlelight on our balcony. I feel like Jamie Oliver!

For dessert I served roughly chopped apples with brie cheese. I also poached up some pears with muscato, a cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, cloves and brown sugar. Served with mascarpone cheese with vanilla sugar.Unfortunately I have no photos of the end of the night due to rather a large amount of wine being consumed. Hehe. Yummo!

Tuna San Choy Bow

Over the weekend we visited Melbourne and caught up with family and enjoyed a wedding of old friends. Melbourne food is fantastic, but eating out reminds me of how delicious eating in can be.

Getting home tonight I was craving Food Connect veges! My cats were grumpy with me, so I tried (without success) to tempt them with a small tin of tuna. That committed me to making something with tuna. So, here's what I did.


Tuna San Choy Bow

Tuna mixture

1 x 95g can of Sirena tuna
1 clove garlic mashed
2 tsp grated ginger
2 small stalks celery finely chopped
2 tbsp whole egg mayonnaise
Handful of sprouted mung beans
1/2 lime's worth of juice
2 green tops of spring onions (I plant them on my balcony, rather than put them in the fridge)
Splash of soy sauce
A few drops sesame oil
Sprinkle of salt



Mix all ingredients and spoon onto a small cos lettuce washed and peeled. Steam a cob of corn and carve off kernels and sprinkle on top.


Crack fresh pepper over the top and splort garlic chilli sauce according to tastes.


Eat with your hands and sigh a big sigh of relief that you're home! :)


I used Frank's Hot sauce. I got to know this whilst living in the USA. It's a gorgeous product and deserves a place in your chilli cupboard.

Eggplant, Mushroom & Pumpkin Thai Curry

The next challenge is: eggplant! Tonight my booful husband Morgan made thai curry.

Ingredients
1 onion finely chopped
3 baby eggplant cut in slices
2 small sweet potatoes diced
1/4 butternut pumpkin diced
4 swiss brown mushrooms sliced
Marinated tofu
1 can coconut milk
Green curry paste (from a jar)
Fish sauce
Fresh coriander
Lime juice

Method

Salt the eggplant and leave to drain out the yucky bitter juices. At the same time put pumpkin and sweet potato chunks into a moderate oven for 1/2 hr.

Update: Apparently fresh, small eggplants don't need to be salted--thanks to my readers for pointing this out. I guess living for so long with old, stale supermarket produce has affected the way I approach my veges.


Pre-dinner snacks of rice cakes, re-fried beans, (tin of re-fried beans mixed with sour cream, lime juice, garlic, jalapeno, pinch of cumin) and spouted mung beans.

Saute onion in some peanut oil. Add curry paste (plus extra red chillies if you wish) and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add eggplant (well-rinsed), mushrooms and coconut milk and bring to the boil (add a few kaffir lime leaves and a spoon of palm sugar if desired). Simmer for ten minutes. Add the roast veges, tofu and fish sauce and heat through.


Serve with fresh coriander on brown rice (we were lazy and used a microwave pouch).


Eggplant triumph! :)

Cleaning up the kitchen tonight I saw the empty bags from my tofu and rice and thought I'd share them. Anyone living in Brisbane can buy these at a local supermarket.


Soyco Tofu & microwavable brown rice. It's so easy to have these long-life items in the fridge and pantry to make week day meals a breeze.