Vietnam - Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)

Vietnamese Spring Rolls 

(Cha Gio)

1 serving

Ingredients

FILLING

-       2 oz Cellophane noodles, -soaked in warm water for -20 minutes, then drained -and cut into 1-inch lengths

-       1 lb Ground pork

-       1 lg Onion, finely chopped

-       2 tb Tree ears, soaked in warm -water for 30 minutes, then -drained and finely chopped

-       3 Cloves garlic, finely -chopped

-       3 Shallots or white part of 3 -scallions, finely chopped

-       1 cn (7 ounces) crabmeat, -cartilage removed and meat -flaked with fingers

-       1/2 ts Freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATIONS FOR ASSEMBLING

-       20 Sheets dried rice papers -(banh trang)

-       4 Eggs, well beaten

-       2 c Peanut oil

ACCOMPANIMENTS FOR SERVING

-       Basic Vegetable Platter

-       Carrot Salad

-       Double recipe of Nuoc Cham

Directions

-       Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

-       Cut a round rice paper sheet into quarters.

-       Place the cut rice paper on a flat surface.

-       With a pastry brush, paint the beaten egg over the entire surface of each of the pieces.

-       Before filling, wait for the egg mixture to take effect, softening the wrappers; this takes about 2 minutes.

-       When you become adept at this, you can work on several wrappers at a time.

-       When the wrapper looks soft and transparent, place about 1 teaspoon of filling near the curved side, in the shape of a rectangle.

-       Fold the sides over to enclose the filling and continue to roll.

-       After filling all the wrappers, pour the oil into a large frying pan, put the spring rolls into the cold oil, turn the heat to moderate, and fry for 20 to 30 minutes, until a lovely golden brown. (This is Bach's special method of keeping spring rolls crisp).

To serve the spring rolls, proceed as follows:

-       Arrange the ingredients for the vegetable platter (lettuce, mint leaves, coriander, and the cucumber slices) according to the directions preceding.

-       Have ready the carrot salad and a bowl of nuoc cham.

-       Each person has a bowl into which he places a bit of lettuce, 2 or 3 mint leaves, some coriander, and 2 cucumber slices.

-       Each person then adds 1 or 2 spring rolls to his bowl, sprinkles with the nuoc cham, and eats the spring rolls and vegetables together, using chopsticks or a fork.

-       Additional carrot salad may be added to taste.

Another very popular serving method calls for placing the vegetables on a lettuce leaf, adding the spring roll, and rolling it into a cylinder. Holding the cylinder with his fingers, each diner then dips it into his own small bowl of nuoc cham.

NOTE: We have found that frying the spring rolls in peanut oil keeps them crisper than frying in any other oil.