Vietnamese Spring Rolls – A Random Trial :P

Just done with my final exam in the most boring course ever: Research Method in International Business. Oh my God, believe me it was really boring. I even slept during my class once!!! But anyway it’s over now 😀 Yay yay 😀 Having a free afternoon is not something normal for me here, especially in my school with weird class schedules all year round, so I must do something – sth that I normally don’t have time to do 😕

Initially I wanted to make “bún chả”, which is a kind of rice noodle (not “phở”) with baked meat dipped in a light sauce made from Vietnamese fish sauce (“nước chấm”). But then I remember I still have some eggs left, which are about to expire 😛 haha So I decided to make Vietnamese spring rolls instead 😀 It’s such a long long long time I last had spring rolls, I think it was when I was still in Vietnam 🙂 I have never made VNese spring rolls before, I only know the “theories” – I mean method :P, but have never made them myself. This is my very first trial 😀 and it turned out great, even though I do not have enough ingredients for “standard” Vietnamese spring rolls lol 😀

So this is how I made my spring rolls: (Pls keep in my that this is only the recipe I used today. It’s not a standard one and it lacks so many ingredients, anyway the rolls are still great, for this I’m quite sure ;))

Ingredients:
Mince pork – 200gr
1 or half a carrot – grated
1 egg
Mushroom – about 50gr – diced or julienned
Wood ear – 1 big – julienned (this is also called “cat’s ear”, “black mushroom” – u guys can check here http://visual.merriam-webster.com/food-kitchen/food/mushrooms_2.php)
Salt – 1 and a half tsp
Pepper – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1/2 tsp
Fish sauce – 3/4 tbsp
Spring roll sheets – about 10-15, depending on the rolls’ sizes
Water and vinegar

Method:
– Mix all the ingredients together, except for the roll sheets, water and vinegar. With this small amount of ingredients, you can mix by a spoon, a fork or a spatula. However when u have a huge batch, it’s better to use your hand.

– Mix 1tsp of vinegar with about 75ml of water

– Make the rolls: Wet your finger tips with the water-vinegar mixture and spread on to the roll sheets. Dont get them too wet. There’re 2 reasons why we need this step: 1. It makes the sheets softer and therefore easier to make the rolls –> PLS, do not get them too wet; 2. It helps the rolls to be crispier when cooked.

Now spoon some of the meat mixture onto the sheet and start rolling. The amount of the meat mixture used for each roll depends on your own preference. As I always like the small n thin rolls, I used only a tbsp for each rolls and therefore make 16 in total. However if you would like to have bigger rolls in size, add more of the meat mixture. And if u like BiG-FaT spring rolls, this recipe here may make only 5 or 7 lol 😀

– When you almost done rolling , heat the pan to high heat, and finish the rest

– When pan’s hot, add oil, do not use too much, and reduce to medium-high heat.
I know many people often deep-fried their rolls, but believe me, only a little oil works. The only difference is that u have to turn them when browned, that’s all.

– When oil is hot, put ur rolls into the pan, u can have as many as possible, however dont make them stick together. (The oil is hot enough if u here some sizzling sound when put the rolls into it)

– Once one side is browned a bit, turn the rolls. At this step you don’t have to cook the rolls till totally done or totally browned. Just fry them for about 4-5 mins each side, then put them onto a plate covered with kitchen paper to get rid of the fat/oil.

– Cool them down for a while (at least 15 mins), then fry again at medium heat. This can make sure your rolls are ALWAYS crispy, yummy and nicely brown.
For me, as I could not (and obviously should never) eat all the 16 rolls at once, I freeze 10 after the first frying and re-fry the other 6.

So basically that’s done 😀 U can serve the rolls with rice, noodles, Asian coleslaw, or spend more time making “nước chấm” – However I was too lazy for that, I didn’t have enough ingredients either. Moreover I was so so so hungry having only 1 pulla in the morning and no lunch, I just hurried up having my rolls with rice 😛

Notes:
– Again, this is not the standard version of VNese spring rolls 😀
– You can actually increase the amount of carrot or adding some other vegetables such as onion/ cabbage/ etc (all diced or julienned) – withOUT increasing the amount of other ingredients (meat, egg, mushrooms, wood-ear)
– I will come up with a standard version asap!!!

22 Nov This entry was published on November 22, 2008 at 12:49 am. It’s filed under Pork/ Beef and tagged carrot, Egg, mushroom, Nem, Pork/ Beef, Spring rolls, Vietnamese. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.