Vietnamese Rice Paper Wraps

This is one of my absolute favourite, easy and creative recipes that I love doing.  Even the fiancee was proud to take them to work for lunch.  Only trick is getting your hands on rice paper wraps!  After months of searching through the UK's grocery stores I finally found a small Vietnamese Intro Pack that contained the elusive rice paper wraps.

This recipe is dedicated to my beloved aunt Helen, who showed me the art of delicate rice paper wrapping and I think of her every time I make these.  Thank you!

The beauty with this recipe is you can be as creative as you want with the ingredients.  I usually use chicken, but salmon works great as well.  The more you make these the better you get and more adventurous you become.  Even more reason to give them a try!

Ingredients:

For the wraps in this recipe.

• Rice paper wraps
• Vermicelli noodles
• 2 x Chicken breast fillets
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Cream Cheese
• Salad leaves (I would have used mint but didn't have any)

Instructions:

Pop the chicken breasts into a pot of water and bring to the boil.  Cook the chicken until cooked, strain and leave aside to cool.

Cut up the cucumber and carrot into long, thin strands. About 10-15cm in length.

Once the chicken has cooled down enough to handle, shred the meat into long strands about the same length as the cucumber and carrot.

Now prepare the Vermicelli noodles.  Place them in a bowl and cover with boiling water.  Leave to soften for 5-10 minutes.  Once softened, drain and put back into the bowl.

Get a larger bowl or dish that will fit a rice paper wrap.  Fill with warm water enough to cover a rice paper wrap.  When you are ready to start making the wraps drop one into the water.  They only take 20 seconds to soften, they should go see through.

Carefully pull the wrap out the water bath, be careful not to fold it over.  Allow the excess water to drip off and place on a flat surface.  Now the fun part (and remember you can be as creative as you like).  

Start layering your wrap.  I did salad leaves, followed by cream cheese, shredded chicken, Vermicelli noodles and finally cucumber and carrot.  Fold in the shorter sides of the wrap to cap the ends, then roll the longer edge of the wrap over to fold the wrap closed.  Voila :)

Best served with a sweet chilli dipping sauce.

Cornflake Chicken

Week 1 of the July recipe challenge: everyone's favourite - Chicken.

Now my first memory of crumbed/cripsy chicken was when my dad used to make Crispy Chicken Wings cooked to perfection and loaded with salt and vinegar spice.  Everyone would gather around the HUGE table located under the HUGE lapa, and naturally located next to the beer fridge, eagerly awaiting their precious gold.  And when I say everyone, I mean everyone! From the brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, cousins and grandparents, neighbours and random neighbours, friends and uninvited friends... the list goes on.  These were so addictive you simply could not eat 1 or 2 but 5 or 6!  So its difficult to think of a different recipe.

However... (da-da-dummmm) this recipe is absolutely moreish!  And so easy! The use of paprika, cumin, and buttermilk for the marinade ensures the chicken is delicate and moist after cooking, despite the hard cornflake crust.

A must try recipe that would go down wonders for finger food as well.  If you are not mad about chicken on the bone perhaps try using chicken fillets.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

Marinade

4 chicken drumsticks
4 chicken thighs
500ml buttermilk
1tsp salt
2tsp paprika
1tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper

Crumb
3 cups cornflake crumbs (process the cornflakes in your food processor or place in a Ziploc bag and bash them with a rolling pin)
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp paprika

Instructions:

Coat the chicken with the buttermilk and spices and cover the bowl with cling-wrap. Allow to marinade in the fridge for up to 3 hours but no less than 20 minutes.
Heat the oven to 180°c.
Remove the chicken from the buttermilk mixture but don’t take off all the buttermilk, leave enough on so that the crumbs have something to stick to.
Combine the crumbs with the salt and paprika and coat the chicken.
Place the chicken on a wire rack over a roasting tray and place in the oven.  Cook at 180°c for 20 minutes then crank up the heat to 200°c for a further 10-15 minutes to crisp the coating.
Serve immediately.

Recipe from Simply Delicious Blog

July Recipe A Week Challenge courtesy of Claudz 

Creamy Dijon Chicken

I started my first blog just about a month ago.  I had been toying with the idea for some time and a good friend convinced me to do it.  I had no idea what to call it, what to write about, and who would read it.  A month later I have 18 posts ranging from childhood stories to evaluating my worst traits, 7 followers some of whom I don't know, and some well gained confidence in writing.  Still, I felt I wasn't expressing my true self and my true passion - I needed a food blog!

So here we are.  Welcome to "What The Fork" following on from my introductory blog "What The Blog".  Here I plan to explore new (and old) favourites, as well as introduce some travelling food stories.

So... onto the recipe then!

As a novice blogger I tend to find most of my inspiration and advice from fellow bloggers, and well seasoned ones at that!  Yesterday I was tasked with cooking dinner and decided to search for some good food blogs to put my belief in blogs to test.

Voila! 

Here we have a rich and creamy introductory recipe.  Nothing like some delicious dijon to get the taste buds tingling, quite literally.  The mixture of the dijon and fresh lemon juice is quite something - I have never mixed the two together and the result is delicate but powerful.  

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

• 4 large skinless & de-boned chicken breasts (Left whole, cubed or flattened)
• 2 large leeks, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 250ml cream
• 2tsp Dijon mustard
• 1tsp wholegrain mustard
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt & pepper to taste
• starch of your choice to serve
• fresh Parsley to serve
• olive oil for frying

Instructions:

Heat 2tbs oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken until cooked through and browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.  Fry the leeks and garlic until fragrant and softened (about 5 minutes).  Add the cream, mustards and lemon juice and allow to simmer and reduce for 3 minutes.  Place the chicken back into the sauce.  Season to taste and serve with the starch of your choice and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

Tip: I think this could go really well with pasta as a creamy, fresh and zesty sauce.  Just a small twist of linguine should do the trick!  A nice white fleshy fish, like Sea Bass, would be a good substitute if you don't feel like chicken.