Oriental Summer Rolls from The Family Kitchen Garden

Grow, harvest and eat as a family. Kids love to help out in the garden and to keep them interested there is the (almost) instant gratification of fresh flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland’s The Family Kitchen Garden offers a slew of ideas and activities relating to the garden—and all are child-friendly. Offering crafts, information on growing seasons, plant varieties, and recipes for family meals, there is something for everyone year-round.

Oriental Summer Rolls are one of August’s highlighted recipes and can be made with fresh peppers and herbs plucked straight from the garden.  But not to worry, even if you can’t grow your own, you can still indulge in this seasonal snack…

Oriental Summer Rolls
This dish is great for getting the kids involved, as there is lots of rolling and filling. Serves 4.

200g/7oz vermicelli rice noodles (about 4 cups)
8 large rice paper wraps (see below)
1 avocado, sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
2 scallions
1 carrot
1 bunch of fresh mint
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
16 jumbo shrimp, cooked and peeled (or two cooked chicken breasts, sliced)

For the dipping sauce:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 red chilli pepper
½ cucumber

Each wrap can be varied slightly by using a different combination of fillings. Rice paper wraps are available in some supermarkets or in Thai food stores. There are usually two sizes available: go for the larger size, approximately 8 ½ in. in diameter, as they are easier to handle. You can make the rolls in advance, wrap them individually in cling film and keep them in the fridge for up to a day.

Prepare the rice noodles by pre-cooking them and then putting them under running cold water so that they stop cooking and cool off. Prepare the rice paper wraps by soaking them in cold water.

Slice the vegetables into 3-4 in. sticks. Add one or two mint leaves and a bit of cilantro.

For the dipping sauce, mix the soy sauce, fish sauce and rice vinegar, topping it off with a few bits of red chilli and cucumber very finely diced.

Get everyone to make their own wraps. First gently take out a soaked rice paper wrap and place it flat on your plate. (Be careful not to tear the wraps if you have more than one soaking at a time.) In the middle place a thumb-sized row of cold rice noodles, leaving a space of about 2in. at the edge of the wrap on each side. Add 1-2 jumbo shrimp (or slices of chicken), a few slices of avocado, some spring onion, red pepper and mint. To wrap, fold each side into the center, fold the bottom over the filling and then roll the wrap. If you find that your roll does not close, do not worry: it will stick if you leave it for a few minutes.