Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio) Revisited

Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)
(Yields 25 Rolls)

Ingredients for Rolls:

• 1 lb lean ground pork
• Fine sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
• ½ tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp fine granulated sugar
• 1 tsp sesame seed oil
• 1 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• 1 large carrot, coarsely grated
• 1 medium taro, coarsely grated
• 2 oz bean thread, soaked & cut into 2-inch pieces
• 25 sheets spring roll skin
• 1 egg white for sealing rolls
• Canola oil for frying

Ingredients for Dipping Sauce:

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

Put first set of ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Place a heaped tablespoon of mixture in the center of a sheet of skin, fold one corner over and then fold in sides. Moisten the last corner with egg white 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.

Fish out the rolls and drain on paper towels to remove excess oil. Allow rolls to cool off for a bit before biting into one--the escaping steam can be painful! :)

For the dipping sauce, 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.

I usually add chopped shrimp in my spring rolls and serve them with a noodle salad, but laziness overcame me. E and I just ate a bunch of these rolls for dinner tonight with some Thai milk tea. :)