We were treated to some amazing Asian food a few weeks ago when we visited an ex-colleague of mine. He and his wife have their roots in Hong Kong and they have also travelled in Japan a lot, so I think we were served some pretty good stuff by any standards. Oh and she's a trained chef.

One of husbands favourites out of all the goodies we were given that evening were the crispy deep fried Vietnamese prawn and turkey spring rolls. And I think they probably were mine too. I asked my friend for the recipe and he gave me the one they'd loosely followed as well as the recipe for the Japanese gyozas which also were amazing and which I will try at some point.

My sister has also really gotten into Asian food and it's been all bamboo steamers, katsucurry and chopsticks for quite a while with her. Only yesterday she WhatsApped me a picture of a gyoza miso soup she'd made for lunch. She doesn't do it to make me feel inferior. I know because she also shares the details of experiments that go wrong. Like the dumplings even the visiting dog refused to eat. To make it worse the dog was a labrador, I'm not sure I've ever seen a lab refuse anything.

But I decided to start my Asian exploration with the spring rolls as husband really loved them, and it's our special food as well. When we first started going out we'd often finish the night getting those large £1 veggie spring rolls from a little take away near Leicester Square. So I want to surprise him when he comes back with amazing tasty and crispy spring rolls. Although I suspect it won't be a total surprise as I already divulged this to all in Facebook so he will have seen it.

I didn't have any turkey mince so decided to go meatless. Also because of my current obsession with losing some weight I obviously had to modify the recipe. I left out the noodles and just used prawns and a stir fry vegetable mix of carrots, cabbage and edamame beans. I deep-fried half of the batch and oven-baked the other half to see how much difference the deep-frying makes. Sadly it does make a bit of a difference. The oven baked ones were absolutely ok, but just not quite as nice and crunchy and crispy as the deep-fried ones.

But like my bamboo steamer wielding sister said when I proudly sent her the pics, we are not likely to eat these that often, so it doesn't really matter if I deep-fry them when we do.

My Vietnames spring rolls two ways, the oven baked ones to the left and the deep-fried to the right.

I particularly loved the dipping sauce. I accidentally put in some shallot. I thought it was on the recipe, but it wasn't. But actually it works really well. So feel free to add shallot or leave it out.

This is the original recipe and my friend has substituted the pork with turkey mince and also used spring roll pastry rather than rice paper as did I.

My friend's wife (the chef!) - had commented on the picture I put on Facebook, that my spring rolls "look legit"! Now I know how the MasterChef competitors feel when Marcus Waring likes their sorrel sorbet or pigeon bonbons.

Vietnamese prawn and vegetable spring rolls with nuac cham dipping sauce

(makes about 10 medium sized spring rolls)

10 sheets of spring roll pastry
200 grams of uncooked prawns, deveined and finely chopped
1 cup of stir fry vegetables (cabbage, carrot etc), cut into thin strips
1 egg
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
Salt
Pepper

Nuoc Cham dipping sauce

1/2 shallot, finely chopped
3 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 - 1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 small grated clove of garlic
2 tsp sugar

Mix the chopped prawns and vegetables in a bowl, add in the egg, fish sauce, shallot, sugar, salt and pepper and mix well.

Take one sheet of spring roll pastry and add filling to the bottom of the sheet forming it into an even rectangular shape (there are great videos to show if you're not sure how to do this). Fold the sheet over the filling and fold in the sides neatly, roll all the way up. Brush the end with a tiny around of water to  seal the roll.

Keep both the stack of pastry sheets as well as ready spring rolls covered until you've done all. Otherwise they may dry.

To bake in the oven brush the spring rolls with vegetable oil on both sides and place on a wire rack in a 220 C oven. Turn a few times while baking. Bake for about 15 minutes or until crisp and brown on both sides.

To deep-fry, place 2 cm of vegetable oil in a sauce pan. Heat until small bubbles form when you place a handle of a wooden spoon in the oil. Place the rolls in the oil, don't overcrowd the pan. Once they are a nice colour on the bottom turn them around and cook on the other side. This should only take about 5 minutes. Take the rolls out and place on paper towels to soak some of the oil.

For the nuoc cham mix all the ingredients together, and that's it - you're done.

Serve the spring rolls with lettuce and the nuoc cham.

"So you pay someone to make your face red?" asked husband when he came home tonight and I asked if my face was any different after my electro-current facial I had together with lovely exfoliation and masks and moisturising etc. Apparently very much the same, but a bit red. He did concede after some squeezing, that it looked a bit smoother.

I also had my almost non-existent eyebrows waxed and tinted. "You hhhave destrroyed them some time, no?" Asked the Eastern European beautician lifting her immaculate, dense eyebrows in astonishment and accusation? I tried to defend myself telling her that I'd never done anything particularly dramatic with them, that they'd always been a bit pathetic. How does one destroy eyebrows anyway.

Baking salmon with a sour cream topping is quite a traditional everyday way of cooking salmon in Finland. We like our sour cream, we call it Smetana. It's one of the few good things that has come to us across our eastern border. No, just kidding, although miraculously can't think of anything just now. Other than that the Finnish food culture is indeed very interesting, because we have all the western Scandinavian influences as well as the Eastern European touches on top of our original Finnish cuisine. We love smetana with fish roe and pretty much anything fishy and many a soup and sauce is improved by an added blob of Smetana.

This was our Saturday dinner with the kids last week. I often opt for meat, because I think kids like that more, even though they have been pretty good with salmon. But this time traumatised by the Friday night meat fest at my company Christmas do (I don't know why he chose the turkey and pigs in blankets etc. when there was also fish on the menu) husband specifically asked for fish, so I thought I'd make this juicy version.

If you want to go all fancy-pants, you can do the same with wild Atlantic salmon and crayfish tails. Not long ago I did exactly that inspired by the crayfish that I found on the fish counter. I asked for a whole side of gorgeous, bright orange wild Atlantic salmon. As the fishmonger weighed it on the scales he mentioned the price which was quite a lot. I had read the wrong label with less than half the kg price.

At that point I should have said "oh dear, that's a bit expensive, how about that perfectly fine looking piece of farmed Norwegian salmon, how much would that be". That would have been completely reasonable and the fishmonger probably would not have laughed at me or pointed at me with his fish scaly finger shouting to all other customers: "look at this one - can't even afford to buy a piece of fish - should have gone to Lidl".

Instead I just smiled slightly stiffly and took the package without a flinch pretending I routinely buy stupidly expensive food and wished the stupid greedy monger a nice day. It's the same with the hairdresser, sorry, stylist, you can never tell her that she has completely fucked up your hair and happiness for the next 4 months, you thank her smiling sycophantically in your horrible 3-year-old-boy-hair, buy some stupidly priced heat protection spray you're never going to use and leave the salon to run into the dressing room of the first women's clothing store (in my case it's the Covent Garden Next) and burst into tears while trying to stretch your hair to cover your forehead, which in my case is a long distance.

So my advice regarding the fish (for hair I have nothing), is to do this with a normal lovely fresh salmon and prawns. It's just as lovely unless it's a special event and you want to impress. You can even skip the prawns, but they make it a bit more interesting.

Salmon topped with sour cream and prawns

1 side (750g-1kg) of Scottish, Norwegian or Atlantic salmon (or appropriate amount of fillets)
Bunch of fresh dill
1 lemon
Salt
Lemon pepper
1 pot (170ml) sour cream
1/4 cup single / double cream
 200g prawns (or crayfish)

If you can, season the salmon a few hours before cooking with salt and lemon pepper, a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh dill and the zest and juice of half a lemon. Let it sit in the fridge for maximum flavour.

When ready to cook heat the oven to 190C. Mix the sour cream and cream, season with salt and lemon pepper, zest and juice of half the lemon and a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh dill. I just thought of this, a spoonful of runny honey might work really nicely here, Spread about half of the sour cream mix on the fish. Mix the prawns with the rest of the sour cream mix and keep for later.

Place the salmon in the oven and cook for about 20-30 min (depending on thickness of your salmon) until the fish is almost done. Insert a knife into the thickest part of the fish to check doneness. I like my salmon pretty well done but not overcooked, so I will cook it until it flakes and has just turned pink. Some people like it a bit underdone in the middle and leave it slightly orange.

So about 5 minutes before your salmon is perfectly done to your liking take it out and spread the rest of the sour cream and prawns on top. Cook until the prawns have just turned pink. Garnish with fresh dill and lemon segments serve immediately with potatoes or rice and salad.

No, they are not massive ugly mis-coloured dolmades. They are traditional Finnish Kaalikääryleet cabbage rolls, every child’s worst nightmare. Just the evil smell of the boiling cabbage will make you want to run away and be adopted by someone from Italy. Mamma mia, they would never do this to their children.


Even as an adult I haven't particularly fallen in love with cabbage. I couldn't do the cabbage soup diet which in Finland lots of women torture themselves with. I'd rather be fat. And I generally even like vegetables. I was vegetarian for almost 20 years for God's sakes! Although that time my diet consisted mainly of bread, cheese and alcohol, none of them strictly speaking vegetables. But I do love veggies, cabbage though somehow, not a favourite. Not even in the top 50, so the only reason I made these is because they look gross and would make an interesting blog post. No, not really.

I actually thought husband might like these - and he did, he had seconds. But most importantly there is some interesting and promising research to cruciferous vegetables and their health benefits, amongst them their anti breast and prostate cancer properties. So cabbage is part of my new attempt to live forever supported by phytochemicals that will mold my microRNA in a way that makes me unbreakable like Bruce Willis albeit with more hair (as published in the Lancet). And husband of course. Without me he would be a complete cardiovascular timebomb. I have managed to coax ( = nag) him into a healthier diet and lifestyle, because I need him here with me for as long as possible.

Sometimes I wonder if my fussing is more detrimental than helpful. Even my dad who is a doctor told me to stop measuring husband's blood pressure all the time. It’s not like I’m chasing him around the house with the monitor. Not all the time. Often he's just sitting on the sofa unsuspecting and I lasso the cuff around his arm with no chasing whatsoever.

But then he is one of those men who just can’t help themselves. Just a couple of days ago he texted me, he was working late, “I am having McDonalds, thanks for letting me.” Winky face. So he’ll still have the odd cheeky take away and of course he should, I don’t want him to be miserable. Although I don’t get how McDonalds can add to anyone’s happiness. Unless you’re a shareholder, in which case you don't deserve to be happy. The food is horrible. I wouldn’t even call it food. I tried once to talk the kids out of chicken nuggets by telling them how they are made – it did nothing to their appetite for the nuggets. They were just like oh yeah - what's wrong with peroxide?

These rolls can be made with ground beef, or a mixture of beef and pork, but I opted for lamb, because it is more tasty and I think it goes well with cabbage and husband loves lamb. I found a leaner ground lamb to keep things healthy.

By the way the cabbage takes forever to soften. It really quite annoyed me, because the smell was getting on my nerves. Also mine was too small, so I was left with half the filling, which is fine because I was really fed up with the fecking cabbage and the rolling business when the leaves finished. I’ll just make pastry or get some fillo and do samosas with the rest of the filling. But if you want to get the about 30 rolls that’s supposed to be the yield and I honestly don’t see why you would want that, get a massive cabbage which will take about 2 years to cook.

Doesn't this just make your mouth water?

Traditional Finnish Kaalikääryleet cabbage rolls recipe

2 kg cabbage (for about 30 rolls)
1 yellow onion
1-2 garlic cloves
400 g lamb mince (or beef/pork)
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp dried marjoram
1 dl rice (uncooked)
1 lamb stock cube
2 eggs
Syrup (I used maple syrup)

Carve out the stalk of the cabbage. Boil the cabbage in salted water cutting the leaves free as they start to soften. Cook until soft. This will take about 30 minutes for a medium sized new cabbage and up to an hour and then some for and old big one. Drain and cool the leaves under cold water. Place on a kitchen towel and dry. Keep the small inner leaves for the ground meat mix.

Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry the onions, garlic and ground meat. Add salt, pepper and marjoram. Cook until meat is done. Make sure it's well seasoned, you can crumble a stock cube in the mix and loosen with a bit of cabbage water to add to the taste. Leave to cool.

Cook the rice in lamb stock, save some of the stock for later, drain and add to the mince meat. Add the eggs and mix well. Chop the small inner leaves of the cabbage and add to the meat mix.

With each leave use a rolling pin to flatten the stalk part a little, so it's easier to roll, Place a dollop of the filling on the leaf (stalk part) and then roll into parcels and place in an oiled baking dish.

Bake in 200C oven for 15 minutes until they start to colour a bit. Then add a bit of stock into the baking dish, brush the rolls with maple syrup and bake for another 20 minutes or until nicely coloured outside.

In Finland these might be served with lingonberries. In the absence of lingoberries you can use cranberries, but just a nice salad will do.