Cha gio: Southern-style Vietnamese Spring Rolls 13.02.2010
Its a big claim, but these are better than any spring roll you’ve had before. You can make them more decadent by replacing the pork with more crab, or the pork & prawns with crab. The crabbier, the better – 100% crab is just fine.
Ingredients
For the spring rolls
- 120g minced pork
- 100g fresh crab meat, cooked
- 120g minced raw prawns
- 50g dried cloud ear mushrooms, soaked
- 120g taro (sub with sweet potato), grated
- 1 stock cube
- 2-3 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tblsp shallot, chopped finely
- 1 tblsp spring onion, chopped finely
- 1 egg yolk
- 12-16 pieces of rice paper or net rice paper (the net stuff is fantastic and worth searching for). If rice paper is unavailable, spring roll wrappers would do instead.
- Coconut water (not coconut milk), alternatively, use beer.
- Cooking oil for deep frying (soybean, sunflower, peanut etc)
Dipping sauce
- 2 tblsp white sugar
- 1.5 tblsp lime juice
- 2 tblsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp garlic, finely minced
- ½ tsp chilli, finely chopped (more to taste)
For serving:
- butter lettuce leaves
- A range of herbs: usually cha gio are served in HCMC with mint, asian (thai) basil and shiso leaves. Don’t both picking the leaves off the stems, just rinse and throw them all together on a platter for people to help themselves.
- frcFresh white rice noodles (bun)
Method
Soak the cloud ear mushrooms in warm water for 15 minutes. When pliable, chop finely into long strips (julienne).
Peel and coarsely grate the taro (or sweet potato) into a mixing bowl.
Add the minced pork, crab meat, minced prawns, mushrooms, shallot, springies, stock cube, sugar, pepper and egg yolk to the mixing bowl with the taro. Mix it all together, be careful not to break the crab up too much.
Interlude: Make the dipping sauce
- In a small bowl, mix sugar, lime juice and fish sauce together. Whisk briskly until sugar dissolves. It seems like a lot of sugar, and it is. Vietnamese food tastes so good because of all the sugar and salt and sweet powder (MSG).
- Add chopped chilli and garlic.
- Taste for sweet/salty/sour balance. Adjust carefully.
Pour the beer/coconut water into a glass or small bowl that you can dip your fingers in. Lay the rice paper on the bench. Using dampened fingers, spread beer/coconut juice sparingly on the rice paper. Be careful not to get it too wet otherwise they'll be soggy and lose all structural integrity.
Fold the bottom edge of the rice paper toward the centre so that you form a flat edge. Put a scant dessert spoon of filling on the doubled-over area, fold in the left and right sides, then roll up firmly. Don't use too much filling or they'll burst when they're cooking.
Get the oil on to heat. It needs to be deep enough to properly deep fry the spring rolls. These are not healthy. There's no point in shallow frying. I use a small saucepan and fry 3 or 4 at one time.
Deep fry over low-medium heat until golden brown.
To serve:
Accompany the spring rolls with a an overflowing plate of herbs, lettuce and a bowl of dipping sauce.
If you want to make a full meal of it, serve with soft white rice noodles (bun).
To eat:
Wrap everything in a lettuce leaf, including the noodles, if you have them.
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Ingrid is slowly and conscientiously sampling her way through the food of Southern Vietnam.