Vietnam: Egg rolls

Jason Hai Dang

Egg rolls: Vietnam

Starting when I was a young teenager I’ve questioned myself multiple times about what my favourite food or meal was. Everything tasted the same; nothing tasted special, and mainly because everything I ate was from my culture. I had an epiphany one day. I was eating at an Asian restaurant and I had an egg roll. While munching on this egg roll I started to question how they had made it. It was plain, as if they bought it from the frozen section of a super market. While eating this plain egg roll I came to the conclusion that I have never ate any other egg roll that’s either the same or even better than the ones my mom makes at home. My mother grew up in Vietnam and she adopted the Vietnamese cuisine while she was young, learning from my grandmother and those around her. So to me her food was the only real example of a Vietnamese meal. Because she bought recipes straight from Vietnam and for other unknown reasons, it can’t be compared to other recipes from my culture. It’s just how my mom makes it. I don’t usually eat egg rolls every day but only once in awhile, which is what makes them taste really good. Either they are for a special occasion or for when guests are over. So therefore in the end I have decided to choose egg rolls, only the ones that my mom makes, as my favourite meal of all time.

THE RECIPE

·         Ingredients (for egg rolls (100pieces)

• -ground pork (2Lb)

• 6 extra large eggs
• Jumbo shrimps (2Lb)

• -Carrot (1Lb)
• -Dried Mushroom Strips (100g)
• -2 red onions
• -1/3 of whole garlic (3-4 pieces)
• -1 table spoon of fish sauce
• -1/3 table spoon of monosodium glutamate
• -1/3 table spoon of table salt
• -1/3 table spoon of ground black pepper
• -2 packs of spring roll pastry (preferably TYJ Spring Roll Pastry from Spring Home. This could be found mainly in Asian super markets)
• -2 packs of rice vermicelli

·         Ingredients for sauce

• -1L of hot water
• -10 table spoon of granulated sugar
• -8 table spoon of fish sauce
• -1/3 of garlic (3-4 pieces)
• -3 red jalapeno peppers
• -carrot

·         Procedure

The sauce

1. -Take a large bowl; pour a litre of boiling hot water into it. Then add 10 table spoons of granulated sugar and 8 table spoons of fish sauce into the bowl.
2. -Take 1/3 of a garlic (3-4 pieces) and cut it up into tiny pieces just a big as the tip of a pen.  You will also add this into the bowl.
3. -cut your carrot by its circular surface area, no bigger than 3 millilitres. Add this to the bowl.
4. -finally, cut your 3 red jalapeno peppers into pieces like the size of your pinkie. Add this to the bowl.
5. -mix your sauce and taste it, if it’s too salty then add more sugar and hot water and vice versa.
6. The egg rolls
7. -start off by taking the dried fungus strips and putting them into and bowl of hot water. This will let the fungus strips expand and not be dry anymore. Leave it sitting in there for 30minutes. When done take it out, rinse it, and clean it thoroughly with your hands.  
8. -take your jumbo shrimps and peel of the skin and cut of the head. Then cut them into pieces no bigger than your pinkie.
9. -cut up 2 red onions into pieces no bigger than your pinkie. Also at the same time cut up 3-4 pieces of garlic to the size of the tip of a pen. The same thing will be done with your 2Lb of carrot.
10. -take a large bowl and add 2Lb of ground pork, your fungus strips, jumbo shrimps, carrots, red onion, garlic, 1 table spoon of fish sauce, 1/3 table spoon of monosodium glutamate, 1/3 table spoon of table salt, 1/3 table spoon of grounded black pepper, and 5 large eggs. Mix all of these ingredients together uniformly.
11. -crack open an egg and extract the yoke and place it in a small bowl.
12. -the hard part is where you have to roll it and this should be done on a large plate. Start of by taking a spring roll sheet and put it on the plate with one of the diagonals facing you. Take roughly two to three table spoons of the mixed portion and place it, not in the middle but closer to you, on the sheet. Take the diagonal that’s facing you and roll it over the mixed portion. Take the two adjacent diagonals and fold them  to where the first diagonal was folded to. Then, with your finger, dip it into the red yoke and wipe it across the last diagonal that has not been rolled yet. Then simply roll your egg roll. Then red yoke acts like glue which will keep your spring roll sheet intact. This should be done till your entire mixed portion is finish. Hopefully you’ll end up with 100 pieces.
13. -now take your 2 packs of rice vermicelli and boil them in hot water till the noodles become soft, roughly 10 minutes once done rinse out the water.
14. -the last part will be the deep fry. Either you’re using a pot or an automatic deep fry kettle; let it sit with maximum temperature till it starts to boil. Then add the egg rolls that you have rolled. Immediately turn the heat down to medium once you’ve add them. They will sit in the deep fry process for roughly 5-6 minutes.
15. -to serve you will first add a portion of a hand full of the rice vermicelli onto a plate or bowl. Then add the egg rolls on top and pour sauce over it till you’re satisfied.
16. And Enjoy!

Source

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/Steamykitchen_chinese_egg_rolls.jpg

As I mentioned before, my mom only serve egg rolls during special occasion. So therefore I couldn’t get her to make any for me to take a picture of. That is why I used one from Wikipedia.