Smoked salmon rolls

“I met an artisan in London who makes the best smoked salmon I had ever tasted. Yes, he used the freshest salmon from Norway, and fragrant wood chips, but I do think the main factor behind the excellent quality of the salmon is the fact he actually sings and plays the piano to the salmon as it hangs in his smoking room.” Luke Nguyen, Luke Nguyen's United Kingdom

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 3 fresh flat rice noodle sheets (20 cm x 10 cm)
• 9 slices smoked salmon
• 9 Asian basil leaves
• 9 shiso leaves
• 2 cups pork floss (see Note)
• 1 Lebanese cucumber, cut into batons
• 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
• 2 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced and placed in iced water
• 1 long red chilli, julienned
• handful baby shiso leaves

Soy mandarin sauce

• 100 ml white wine
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 mandarin, juiced
• zest of ½ mandarin

Instructions

To make the sauce, place the wine in a saucepan and simmer until reduced by half.  Add the soy sauce, sugar and mandarin juice and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the zest and set aside. 

Place the rice noodle sheets on a large chopping board with the shorter ends closest to you. On the base of each noodle sheet, place 3 smoked salmon slices followed by 3 basil leaves, 3 shiso leaves, 1 tablespoon of pork floss, 2 cucumber batons and about 6 pine nuts. Fold the rice noodle sheets up to enclose the herbs and salmon, and continue to roll towards the top to form a nice tight roll.

Trim the ends off the noodle rolls, then cut in half. Transfer to a serving platter, then drizzle some of the warm soy mandarin sauce over the top of the noodles. Add some more pork floss over the noodles, then garnish with spring onions, chilli and baby shiso leaves.

Note

• You can purchase soft rice noodle sheets and pork floss from your local Asian market or Chinatown.

Visit the Luke Nguyen's United Kingdom website to catch-up on episodes online, scroll through recipes or find out more about the show.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.