My mom is a fantastic cook, and also a generous person. Her keen flavor and her unwavering persistence allow her to refine recipes until they’re ready for sharing. Mom’s food that helped make their kitchen the place to gather for dinner and lunch several times per week.
In addition, she willingly contributes large amounts of home-cooked meals to family get-togethers. The most frequent requests is for Cha Gio (egg rolls)* – The identical recipe I’m going to share with you in the following post.
The Vietnamese egg rolls were made from pork and balanced with vegetables Mung bean thread and mushrooms. When you choose the correct wrappers, they come out golden brown and irresistibly crisp. The most common way to eat the wrappers is to put them inside fresh herbs, green leaf lettuce and then dipped in the sauce for dipping fish obviously!
Maybe you love it: Bún Chả Giò Recipe – Vermicelli Rice Noodles & Spring Rolls
Egg roll’s past in Vietnam
They can be called spring rolls eggs, spring rolls, cha gio , or Nem Ran (the Northern Vietnamese term) they are all delicious. The deep-fried treats are typically made from papers made of rice ( banh trang) however, they are often made using wheat-based wrappers. This is probably because wheat varieties are simpler to work with.
The rice paper versions don’t get brown and requires an additional step of soaking before using. Additionally the wrappers don’t remain as crisp as wheat wrappers. So, rather than throwing tradition out of the window and opting for wheat wrappers.
What egg roll wrapper brand to use?
Menlo Wrappers of the brand to be precise. It was my first time trying Spring House wrappers and got disappointing results. They were pretty crisp however they were not brown after being fried. The Menlo wrappers however are MAGICAL. My mom suggested them after my very first, sloppy attempt.
I was reminded of my childhood when I saw these at the market. These were the exact wrappers that my mom used around two decades ago! The package should defrost for some before separating the wrappers to ensure you don’t break them.
Begin in the process of soaking your Mung beans threads into warm tap water, and the dried mushrooms into hot water. It is possible to put the tap water in the microwave to make it more hot. This will accelerate the absorption process for the mushrooms. Soak for around 20-30 mins or until they are soft and ready for cutting.
While you’re at it, make jicama as well as onions. You want them to be small. can shred them should you wish. My mom was very happy to offer a trick for making crispy egg rolls that even her cooks did not know about: we need to get rid of any excess moisture from these heavy-water ingredients to give the wrapper an opportunity to be crispy. Simply squeeze the onion into your hands after it’s been cut finely. Plenty of water will escape. Put salt in the Jicama, and heat it up until it is somewhat soft (maybe 15-25 minutes) and then squeeze it to eliminate moisture, too. It is not necessary to wash the salt off.
Once our ingredients are finished in the soaking process, chop finely the beans and cut the threads into 1-1.5 inches pieces. Use the large mixing bowl and add all the ingredients , excluding the pork and the jicama and mix thoroughly. This allows for an uniform distribution of the ingredients in the meat.
Add the meat, and mix until it’s evenly dispersed. Jicama is last added since it’s the least fragile and doesn’t require to break down further.
Divide filling for uniform rolls
This recipe yields 25 rolls in the shape shown above. Make your pork mixture, and cut it into 5 equally-sized sections (use an appropriate scale to ensure accuracy). Then , split each into five more evenly-spaced sections.
This will create egg rolls that are more uniform, and will ensure that you’re not short in wrappers, or the filling. Once you’ve mastered the art of the recipe, you can simply use a specific size spoon and estimate the amount of each wrap.
Wrapping egg roll wrappers
What to do when wrapping egg roll wrappers (step by step instructions)
1. Wrap a piece of wrapper around it in a way that one corner is pointed towards you (so you’re seeing an equilateral diamond). Fold the bottom corner about 2/3 of the way to the top
2. Place the egg roll mixture on the bottom of the wrapper, leaving the gap of 1/4 inch between the filling and the edge on the bottom on the wrapper. The filling shouldn’t go across the edges where we’ve folded up in a triangular shape. This creates a double layer of wrapper to ensure that the filling doesn’t spill out to the fryer oil and cause burning.
3. Fold the left side over approximately 1/3 of the way, repeat the process on the right.
4. Make sure to roll it up and keep it in place while rolling your first layer, then close out the filling. The first revolution will determine how tight your rolls will get.
5. Once you have reached the top, apply a little bit of the mix of water and flour in the upper corner of the wrapper. Finish rolling. This will help seal the roll.
Frying
Choose a neutral oil such as canola or vegetable. Drop them into hot oil at 325 degrees F until the golden brown color and taste. It typically takes 12-16 minutes for each batch.
Par-frying is a method of freezing storage
To cook it, heat at 325degF for approximately seven minutes, or till barely brown. After that, put them within the freezer, in sealed bags or containers. For the final stage, place them in the refrigerator for a night and fry at 325°F till golden brown. The color of the wrapper will not be as dark brown using this method.
Serve with an additional serving of Pickles (do the chua) in fish sauce (nuoc cham). The pickles can be enjoyed all on their own as well wrapped with lettuce, and some fresh herbs as well. Yum!
What do Vietnamese egg rolls referred to?
In Vietnamese egg rolls are referred to as Cha Gio.
What is the best way to do you Vietnamese egg roll?
Vietnamese eggs are served along with pickles ( do chua) with seafood sauce ( nuoc cham). The egg rolls on their own or wrapped with lettuce, and Vietnamese herbs, too.
Maybe you will like Banh Xeo
What is the difference between egg rolls and spring roll?
The main difference between egg rolls and spring roll is the egg roll typically wrapped with more thick wrappers that are deep-fried, whereas spring roll are created of small rice paper wrappers that aren’t deep-fried.
What are the strings that are clear inside egg roll?
The stringy, clear ones in egg rolls are beans thread noodles, also known as cellophane noodles. They are usually made of mung beans potatoes, potato starch and tapioca starch or rice flour.
How can you ensure that egg rolls that stay crisp?
I love using Menlo Wrappers from Menlo to create the most crisp egg rolls when deep-frying. To ensure that they are as crisp as you can, after frying and cooling, put them on a kitchen towel to cool off on a drying rack . Try not to pile them up as this can cause them to swell up because of the oil that has accumulated.
Do egg rolls contain shrimp inside the rolls?
Although the spring roll (goi cuon) usually contain shrimp but you can also include shrimp in egg rolls if that’s your taste! I prefer egg rolls without shrimp.
See more:
What is the reason it’s known as”an egg roll?”
The term “egg roll” is due to the wrapping paper used in order to create egg rolls contain eggs as one of their main ingredients. However today, you can discover a variety of egg rolls which don’t contain eggs in the wrappers.
CHA GIO – Vietnamese Egg Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 pack Menlo egg wrappers
FILLING
- 1 Lb ground pork
- 1 medium jicama (about 1/2 cup)
- 2/3 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup of bean thread noodle , cut into 1''-1.5 Threads
- 1/8 cup chopped wood ear mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp. pepper
- 1 teaspoon sugar
WRAPPING the SEALER
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1 Tbsp of flour
SIDES ACCORDING TO PARTICIPATION
- dipping fish sauce (nuoc cham)
- Green leaf lettuce
- Vietnamese perilla (kinh gioi)
- Vietnamese balm (tia to)
- mint
Instructions
- Soak the bean threads with hot tap water, and mushrooms in microwaved hot for 40 seconds. tap water, until it becomes soft. Around 30 minutes.
- Finely chop or shred onion and squeeze any excess water out with your hands. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the jicama, microwave until soft, then squeeze out any excess moisture by hand.
- Once soft, roughly chop mushroom threads and bean noodles.
- Add the bean thread, onions, mushrooms as well as salt, pepper and sugar to an enormous mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. Add pork and mix thoroughly. Add jicama , then mix thoroughly.
- Make sure to taste and cook the mixture: Place 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture onto the plate, then microwave for just a few seconds until it is completely cooked. Check it out and adjust the recipe by adding salt, pepper, or other modifications to suit your taste. Remember that the rolls are intended to be served with the sauce used to dip fish.
- Mix flour and water together to make egg roll sealers, and then microwave until it is barely boiling. Cover the egg rolls (see pictures above for the method).
- Cook at 325 degrees F to golden-brown and completely cooked. Aproximately 12-16 minutes for each batch.
