Vietnamese spring rolls

It's been a while since my last recipe post, and I did promise Cheesecake Boy for his birthday this year that I would cook more of his favourite foods and that we would eat at home a bit more frequently.  I may not cook at home as much as I used to, but I'm hoping to change that soon.  However, when I do cook, they are mainly Cheesecake Boy's favourites, so I did keep half of the promise, if not the other half yet.  

Vietnamese spring rolls are my favourite type of spring rolls, to the point that I actually came up with this recipe so that I could whip up a batch at whim and just to my liking.  However, as this recipe does make around twenty spring rolls, I always make sure that we have guests over when I make these and there are usually never any leftovers.  I'm thankful that our friends like to eat as much as we do.

Ingredients for the filling

30g black fungus finely diced
6 large rehydrated shitake mushrooms finely diced (soaked overnight and then drained)
500g pork mince
60g dark palm sugar grated
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 spring onion finely diced (the actual onion and not the shallots)
1 small to medium to large carrot grated
50g of hydrated and roughly chopped bean thread noodles (soaked for at least 15 minutes and then drained, before chopping)
1 egg to bind all the filling together
A dash of white pepper and salt to season

Ingredients for wrapping and cooking

20 spring roll wrappers (I used Spring Home brand, TYJ Spring Roll Pastry 215mm x 215mm)
Lightly whisk one egg
Vegetable oil for frying
 

Method for the spring roll filling

Once all the ingredients have been prepared and measured out as described above. Place all the ingredients for the filling all in one bowl.  Lastly make sure that you crack the egg to bind all the ingredients together, and season with salt and pepper accordingly and place in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.  The mixture will be quite moist.

Method for wrapping the spring rolls

As the sugar content for the spring rolls are quite high, you will need to use the relatively large 215mm x 215mm spring roll wrapper to wrap each spring roll.  Otherwise, when frying the spring rolls will look quite caramelised.

1. To start make sure that the spring roll wrappers have been defrosted, and then proceed to separate each spring roll wrapper in the stack.
2. When proceeding to roll your initial spring roll, make sure that the square wrappers are turned to resemble a diamond shaped wrapper.
3. At the base of diamond about a third up, place two large tablespoons of spring roll filling onto the wrapper horizontally.
4. Take the bottom tip of the diamond, and fold it over the filling.
5. Then take the right tip of the spring roll skin and fold this tip over the spring roll filling.  Repeat this process for the left end of the spring roll wrapper as well.
6. Now you can roll your wrapper until the top tip meets the rest of the spring roll.
7. To seal the spring roll, dab a bit of whisked egg onto the top tip of the wrapper and press gently against the spring roll skin to seal both parts together.
8. Put aside and repeat this process for the rest of the spring rolls.

Method for frying the spring rolls

1. Once you have finished wrapping up all your spring rolls, heat up a wok. 
2. When the wok is hot, pour vegetable oil until the wok appears two-thirds full.
3. Wait until the oil is hot and ready to go.  Some people use wooden chopsticks to test this, so when you place your chopsticks into the oil and small bubbles appear around it, then you are ready to start frying.  My own  method is a bit dangerous, so will not mention it here.
4. My magic number seems to be seven minutes for a batch of about seven spring rolls at at time.  However, my wok is quite large, so times may differ.
5. When the spring rolls are cooked through, strain them and place on paper towel to soak up excess oil. 

Serve with dipping sauce (nouc cham), and if you want something different then wrap your spring roll up with a lettuce cup and some sprouts and herbs.  This time round I added some peanuts and rice noodles as I was going for a vermicelli rice noodle bowl, but did not want to overdose on noodles.

Cooking away, Dumpling Girl.