Chicken nems

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 40 Chickens nems, you will need:

• 1 1 carrot
• 2 1 leek
• 3 1 shallot
• 4 1 garlic clove
• 5 1 chicken breast
• 6 1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 7 100 g dried chinese black mushrooms (shiitake)
• 8 100 g fine soya noodles
• 9 40 rices sheets
• 10 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 11 3 tablespoons water
• 12 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 13 salt
• 14 pepper
• 15 1 chicken stock cube
• 16 lettuce
• 17 fresh mint leaves
• Total weight: 1,110 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 35 min.	35 min.	15 min.	2 hours 25 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Rehydrate 100 g dried chinese black mushrooms (shiitake). Drain and dry. If they are not already in strips, cut into small pieces. Set aside.
2	Wash, peel and grate 1 carrot. Set aside.
3	Wash and thinly slice 1 leek. Set aside.
4	Peel and thinly slice 1 shallot and 1 garlic clove. Set aside.
5	Chop 1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro) . Set aside.
6	Lightly cook 1 chicken breast in a little chicken stock. Note: don't discard stock after cooking, it's going to be used for cooking the noodles.
7	Cut chicken into very small pieces. Set aside.
8	Cook 100 g fine soya noodles one minute in chicken stock. Drain and set aside.
9	In a large bowl, put everything you've prepared so far: mushrooms, carrot, leek, coriander, chicken, noodles, shallot and garlic. Keep back a teaspoonful of grated carrot for the sauce. Salt and pepper.
10	Mix everything well, the best way is to use both hands. Note: This mixture can be made in advance, and kept in a sealed container in the fridge.
11	Rolling nems. Get everything you need ready on your work surface: a big clean cloth a dish of cold water Rice paper sheets a non-stick baking sheet for putting finished nems on
12	Dip 10 rice paper sheets in cold water for about 5 minutes, to soften them.
13	Remove one softened rice paper sheet from water and place on the cloth.
14	Remove excess water on top with the cloth.
15	On the edge of the rice paper, put a tablespoon of mixture.
16	Roll sheet up around filling.
17	Midway across sheet, fold sides inwards.
18	And finish rolling to create a small roll, as neat and even as possible. Make sure you keep the rice paper tight against the filling when rolling to exclude as much air as possible from the nem. You nem is now ready, put it on the tray, and make the next one. Do this with all the filling.
19	You can see how to do it in this short video.
20	Prepare sauce: in a bowl mix 3 tablespoons soy sauce with 3 tablespoons of water and 3 tablespoons vinegar. Add the remaining grated carrot and pepper generously. Your sauce is ready.
21	To cook your nems, you can use a frying pan with a little oil in, or put them in a deep fryer (in which case they will be very crisp but fattier).
22	Serve with lettuce, fresh mint and sauce.

Remarks

You can vary your nems by repacing chicken with something else. You can also omit it totally to make vegetable nems.
Nems, cooked or not, can be frozen.

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