Baked Snapper Rice Paper Rolls

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 3-4

Ingredients

Baked Snapper

2 lemongrass stalks, bruised and cut into 4-5 cm pieces

2 brown onions, chopped in wedges

1 bunch spring onion stalks

½ tsp anchovy salt

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp sugar

2 whole snapper or flathead (500-600g each)

2 tbsp of cooking oil

2 tbsp peanuts, crushed (optional)

Spring Onion Oil

1 bunch spring onions green tops

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

50ml neutral cooking oil

Nước Mắm (Vietnamese Fish Sauce)

3 bird’s eye chillies, deseeded

3 cloves of garlic

4 tbsp of fish sauce

4 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp of sugar

6 tbsp cold water

½ lime, juiced

Rice Paper Rolls

300g thin rice vermicelli noodles

Instant rice paper sheets

Vietnamese/cos lettuce

2 Lebanese cucumbers cut into thin 4-5 cm pieces

1 bunch mint

1 bunch coriander

1 bunch Vietnamese perilla (optional)

1 bunch Vietnamese fish herb

Method

To bake the fish, preheat oven to 220°C. Line a tray with baking paper and spread lemongrass, brown onions and spring onion stalks down to create a base layer. Season lightly with sea salt. In a small bowl, make a dry rub with anchovy salt, sea salt, and sugar and mix well. Place 3-4 diagonal cuts into the fish on each side and marinate the fish and its cavity with dry rub then place in the baking tray on top of onions and lemongrass and finish with a drizzle of oil. Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until flesh is just cooked through then remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

To make the spring onion oil, in a small bowl add salt and sugar to finely chopped spring onions and mix well. In a small pot or milk pan, bring 30ml of cooking oil to the smoking point. Carefully pour oil onto the spring onions then mix well and set aside.

For Vietnamese dipping sauce & rice vermicelli noodles, in a mortar and pestle, crush and pound chillies, garlic and sugar into a paste then add remaining ingredients and mix well until sugar dissolves and the sauce becomes slightly viscous. Bring a large pot of water with a tablespoon of salt to the boil then add thin rice vermicelli and boil on high for 7-8 minutes then strain and pour into a large bowl of cold water. Portion out in small serving-sized bundles immediately into a colander to prevent noodles from sticking together.

To assemble, place an instant rice paper sheet vertically onto a medium plate. Add a piece of lettuce, some vermicelli noodles, cucumber, a selection of herbs, and pieces of baked fish then roll up into an open-ended cigar with firm pressure. If using rice paper sheets that require water-dipping, dip in cold water for 10 seconds, then add as stated above towards the bottom of the rice paper sheet. Roll over twice away from you then fold in both ends and roll until the rice paper roll is sealed.