Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Northern VN eggrolls

Love me so eggrolls! Vietnamese eggrolls are super duper different from the kinds you see in Chinese restaurants. Sometimes VN eggrolls are called spring rolls as the skin wrapper is paper thin and smooth and crispy. I normally make my mom's style which is made of ground pork, carrots, cabbage, etc..however, I forgot to buy the cabaage!

So instead, I'm making the Northern VN style eggrolls. Well I call it Northern style b/c a lot of my friends who speak the northern dialect..well, their parents make it this way, so I'm just making an assumption (apologies if offending anyone!) Typical NVN eggrolls are typically made of ground pork, shittake mushroom, carrot, and bean thread noodles.

This recipe is idiot proof, even if it wasn't spiced perfectly, it's okay, b/c the dish is meant to be eaten w/ nuoc mam or fish sauce. What you will need is a lot of TIME and patience.

- 1.75 lbs ground pork
- 4 to 5 dried shittake mushrooms, rehydrated in warm water for 30 minutes, then sliced thinly
- julienned carrot (grated carrots work really well, but since i dont own one..)
- bean thread noodle, soaked in warm water at least 15 min
- green onion chopped
- garlic powder
- soy sauce
- sugar
- salt
- black pepper
- sesame oil
- spring roll sheets
- beaten egg



1. Okay, using a huge mixing bowl, add in the ground pork.
2. Throw in garlic powder, sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, black pepper, salt, carrots, mushrooms, and bean thread noodle (make sure you cut them before adding - they are LOOOOONG).
3. Mix by hand.


Okay, I was too busy (and dirty!) rolling the eggrolls, so I don't exactly have the pictures to show how to fold them in.

1. Take one sheet and lay it diamond side towards you as such.
2. Fill it in about one tablespoon of mixture, about cigar length. Make sure it is NOT thick, b/c then cooking time will increase and chances of consuming raw meat runs higher.
3. Using the bottom corner, fold it upwards OVER the mixture.
4. Taking both corners on left/right side, fold it inwards over the edge of the mixture.
5. Roll it upwards, keeping it tight.
6. Before you seal it, brush w/ egg and roll it all the way.

Damn it, I really need pictures to prove it...no worries, it'll go up one day soon.

OKAY FRYING: Heat oil up to 325-350 F. The trouble w/ frying is sometimes the skin will crisp up and become golden brown BEFORE cooking the inside meat. All of this is trial and error.

Drain and enjoy w/ a Thai chili sauce or nuoc mam. You can definitely freeze these but do it in a sheet pan. If you throw it in a zipper bag, then the eggrolls can lose their shape. Once frozen, then you can bag them. The technique again when frying to make sure the oil is low enough to cook thoroughly but high enough to crisp w/o making it soggy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious!

A said...

mMm~ vietnamese eggrolls