When I include two recipes on one post there is usually a common theme or ingredient and the one here are the intriguing Vermicelli Noodles. They are made from mung beans but are commonly mistaken to be a type of rice noodle. They are also easier to cook than rice noodles, you just need to soak them in boiling water and are also much stranger, looking like loads of jellyfish tentacles. If you wanted to use egg noodles in the soup you could, but I would always prefer the beanthreads. You can't substitute them in the spring rolls, however. You can get them in any Asian food shop. To cook them put them in a bowl and soak in boiling water for about 5 minutes, checking when they're soft but still with a little bite to them.
Both recipes are also Asian, but the noodle soup is inspired by Thailand and the spring rolls are Vietnamese. This means they obviously wouldn't be served together, but I decided to as a plate of cold spring rolls with dipping sauce isn't what you crave on a cold English day. The soup is also not traditional as it is slightly creamy from coconut milk whereas a normal one would be a thin broth which again is not very comforting for this time of year. I recommend meat like prawns or cooked chicken in the soup; I used cooked chicken thighs but I think breast would be better. When you cook the chicken, save any juices for flavour in the soup and leave it to cool in a foil package to help it go nice and tender.
1)I'll start with the spring rolls. Take a rice paper wrapper and run it under warm water until it's soft but not hard to handle. Carefully dab off any excess water. Keep it as flat as possible while working with it, you don't want creases.
2)Take some fillings like matchstick carrots, peppers spring onions, beansprouts (I'll write an entry on how to sprout beansprouts in the future) whatever veg you like. You could also use some cooked chicken or prawns if you like. Also use some cooled soaked noodles. Make a small pile of fillings on the side of the wrapper closest to you, carefully pull the wrapper over the fillings and roll it up like you would a fajita. I rolled them in another wrapper afterwards to keep everything tight, but this is optional. Serve them raw with a nice dipping sauce or the soup.
1)For the soup, mix a tablespoon or so of Thai curry paste, red or green, into 1 litre of good chicken stock.
2)Bring to the boil and add some soy sauce, lime juice, fish sauce if you have it (I didn't), a teaspoon or so of turmeric, about 3.5cm of grated ginger, 2 snipped up lime leaves, a bruised lemongrass stalk, chopped coriander, stalks and all, some muscovado sugar or honey to balance out the flavours and a few chopped spring onions. Bring to the boil and add 400ml of coconut milk.
3)From here it's mostly up to you, add some quick-cook veg like sugar snap peas, baby corn, spinach, pak choi, some cooked meat and your beanthreads noodles. Let it all cook together until the veg is cooked but still crunchy and the noodles are warmed through. To serve it, use a spaghetti server to scoop the solid matter and a ladel to serve the liquid so you get an equal amount of material in each bowl. Eat it with a fork and spoon (Thai food is not traditionally served with chopsticks) and top with fresh coriander.
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