Prawn and vegetable rice paper rolls
with sticky sesame dipping sauce
Ingredients
12 dried rice paper wrappers
1 cucumber
1 carrot
1 bnch coriander
1 bnch mint
1pck bean sprouts or pea shoots
12 medium cooked prawns- crystal bay or similar
Dressing
2 tablespoons hoisin
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Juice of ½ a lime
Method
Cut the cucumber in half. Carefully cut each half in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Grate the carrot and cucumber into a bowl. Pick the leaves from the herbs and add them to the vegetables. Add the shoots and leaves to the grated vegetables and mix gently.
Pull the heads off the prawns and run your finger down between the front legs. Pull the shell up towards you, it should come away cleanly from the meat. Pull all the shell off and then squeeze out the tail. Be careful not to leave the meat in the tail! Cut each prawn in half and pull out the yucky bit. It won't hurt you but it looks pretty gross.
Fill a large bowl with hot water, ask an adult to help here. Soak the rice papers 2 at a time until just soft, about 30 seconds, when they come out they are quite sticky, you'll need to be careful to keep them flat. Lay the paper on the bench and place 3 pieces of prawn pink side down in a line across the middle. Put 3 spoons of the vegetables in a line down the middle from one side to the other on top of the prawns. Now ready to roll! Carefully lift the bottom rice paper up and wrap it over the filling. Lift the right hand side up and tuck it down then repeat for the left side making an envelope shape. Gently roll the envelope away from you . The paper should stick together making a sausage shape
Mix hoisin sauce, soy sauce, lime juice and sesame oil together. Dip your rolls in the sauce and crunch away.
Chocolate tart with summer fruits
Pastry
Ingredients
190g plain flour
70g white sugar
75ml olive oil
75ml water
Equipment
1 large (20cm) tart case with a push out bottom or a 8 small (8cm) ones ( egg rings work really well for this)
Rolling pin
Mixing bowl
Spatula
Method
Mix all the ingredients for the pastry together until it forms a soft dough. If it is a bit crumbly add a drop more water.
Put the dough in the fridge for 1 hour to rest...its very tired.
Lay a sheet of cling wrap on the bench as flat as you can. It needs to be a little bigger than your tart case.
Sprinkle the cling wrap with flour and rub some flour into the rolling pin. Rand roll the dough out until about 2mm thick or it starts to tear.
Carefully roll up the cling film with the pastry on top. Lay the roll on top of the tart case (or cases) and then unroll it so the pastry is on the bottom and falls into the case and you can peel off the cling film.
Push the pastry into the corners and trim sides. Put the case back into the fridge for 15 minutes and then into the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. You should ask an adult to help you get it out of the oven.
When the case is cool make the mousse
Chocolate mousse
Ingredients
270g milk chocolate
120g water
Kettle with 750ml water
Fruit to garnish
I have used ¼ pnt raspberries, ¼ pn strawberries and ½ an orange
Pinch coco to dust
Equipment
2 bowls- 1 medium 1 large
Saucepan the medium bowl will sit on securely
Method
Break up the chocolate into small pieces. Put the chocolate into the medium bowl. Find a saucepan that the bowl will sit on nice and securely. Boil the kettle and very carefully pour about 2 cups into the saucepan and cover with the bowl of chocolate.
Put 1 tray of ice cubes into the large bowl.
The chocolate should be a bit melty by now. Carefully measure 120ml hot water from the kettle using a measuring jug and pour it ito the chocolate. Gently whisk the water and chocolate together and when all the lumps are dissolved move the bowl of the saucepan and into the bowl of ice. Whisk the chocolate until it thickens like cream, this will take about 3 minutes.
Spoon the mousse into your tart cases, or a bowl of you prefer. Top with the fruit garnish and either eat it now or pop it in the fridge.
