Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)

I seldom deep-fry anything, but there was some spring roll skin that has been sitting in the freezer for over a year now that I wanted to get rid of. The first and last time I made spring rolls was when I had a few friends over for dinner, and I got my friend to do the frying for me. I don't know why, but I'm absolutely terrified of deep-frying and baking. So the rolls turned out pretty good, but for some reason the skin had little air bubbles in them. E told me that the bubbles formed because the skin was too moist. So, let your rolls dry for a bit before frying them if you don't like bumpy spring roll skin. :)

Rolls:

• ½ lb lean ground pork
• ½ lb fresh shrimp, shelled & chopped
• 2 oz bean thread, soaked & chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 6 stalks scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, coarsely grated
• 1 medium taro, coarsely grated
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bird’s eye chili pepper, minced
• 1 tsp sugar
• fine sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
• 25 sheets spring roll skin
• Canola oil for frying

Dressing:

• ½ cup water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 Persian lime, juiced
• 2 big garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 bird’s eye chili peppers, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce

Put first set of ingredients except skins and oil in a large bowl and mix well. Place a heaped tablespoon of mixture on a sheet of skin, roll over once, and fold in sides. Moisten the last corner with water and roll over once more and tuck in firmly. Finish off the rolls and heat up canola oil in pot/wok. Gently lower each roll in the oil to deep fry until golden brown and crisp.

For the dressing, bring ½ cup of water to a boil and dissolve sugar into the boiling water. When sugar is dissolved completely, pour this simple syrup into a small bowl to cool. Once cool, add the lime juice, garlic, chili peppers and fish sauce and stir together.

Serve with dressing as an appetizer or top a noodle salad for a complete meal.