For New Year I decided to turn over a new leaf and try my hand at some of the lovely food I've eaten in South East Asia. Top of the list was Vietnamese spring rolls, as they looked easy to make... unfortunately I'm the type of person who can burn water in a kitchen!

Basically I got some vacuum-packed rice vermicelli (not the dried stuff) and boiled it until hot, then cut up mint and coriander leaves. I got some spring roll rice paper and soaked it in cold water briefly and laid it on a plate, then added the rice vermicelli and sprinkled the herbs on, then rolled it up into, er, a roll. Voila!

Only problem was my "victims" who were trying the rolls thought they were too "slimy". I agreed with them... I don't remember fresh vietnamese spring rolls being as slimy as my conconctions. Any idea what I did wrong?

My thinking is that maybe I should've soaked the rice paper in warm or hot water to remove any starchiness? Or maybe I got the wrong rice paper (it was Vietnamese, and although the instructions said it was for frying in oil it looked like the right stuff).

Any recipes, knacks or techniques for how an absolute beginner should create a proper Vietnamese spring roll would be most welcomed!

Steve, try not soaking the rice paper...just pat it with your wet hand. I'm not an expert - my friends and I had some Vietnamese spring rolls after our trip back from Ho Chi Minh City and they were pretty good. My friend took the trouble to mince some chicken meat and prawns which we added to the mint, basil & coriander leaves. She also julienned some carrot & cucumber.We had the sauce made - a mixture of fish sauce, fresh lime, warm water, garlic chilli sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar & chopped peanuts - no measurements, just taste!

Steve, having done a cooking class in Hoi An at Red Bridge I can tell you that you wet them too much! Better still, start from first principles and make them from scratch... easier than it sounds, I assure you.

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