Chả Giò (Eggrolls/Fried Springrolls)

Spring rolls or Egg rolls…which is the correct name to call this? Let’s call it by its Vietnamese name Chả Giò. What makes a good Chả Giò? First of all, the filling should be juicy but not soggy. When you take a bite into a Chả Giò you should notice the crispy texture. Furthermore, the rolls should be somewhat dense, meaning the filling should be tightly rolled up within the wrapper to ensure the filling does not fall all over the place when you munch on the rolls.

There are also many ways to serve these delights. Most common is to serve them as a snack or an appetizer. Many prefer to serve Chả Giò with rice vermicelli, fresh herbs, beans sprouts, cucumbers, sour stuff, crushed roasted peanuts, fried shallots, and fish sauce…sound familiar? This way of serving is known as Bún Chả Giò (pictured above) which translated into English, just means noodles with egg rolls. However, it has come across my ear many times that some people also call this a “salad”…probably because we use so much fresh veggies in the dish that it seems like we’re eating a salad…but we’re not. I would like to make it clear that we are eating noodles with egg rolls; the veggies are just a “condiment”. Another method of serving is to take a piece of lettuce and use it as a wrapper; fill with an egg roll, fresh herbs, sprouts, sour stuff, dunk the roll in fish sauce and into the mouth it goes. A little messy but soooooo good.

Traditionally Chả Giò is wrapped using Bánh Tráng (rice paper). However, using wrappers made of wheat flour is much more convenient and easier to work with. Thus, almost everybody these days uses premade wrappers which can be found in the frozen section of 99.99% of all Asian grocery stores. Try to avoid egg roll wrappers sold in American or “western” grocery stores as they tend to be too thick and doughy. They are actually many versions of fried spring/egg rolls. This is the basic recipe. With the recipe below you can tailor it to make the other versions.

Ingredients:
-1lb ground pork
-2 carrots
-1/2 onion
-1 Bundle of cellophane noodles
-5 Nấm mèo (dried woodear mushrooms)
-1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp pepper
-1 egg
-1 package spring roll wrappers (24 wrappers)

What to Do:
Peel and shred carrot into thin strips. Chop onion into little pieces. Soak black fungus and slice into thin strips. Cut noodles into shorter pieces. Mix everything together with one egg white (save the yolk for wrapping the rolls later). Put filling in the middle of wrapper and fold in the 2 sides and then roll starting at the bottom. Roll the as tightly as you can. Brush a little egg yolk on the top end of the wrapper secure the filling.

Frying Method:
For every 2 cups of oil add the juice of ½ a lime or lemon, or 2 tsp vinegar while the oil is still cool. Once oil is heated, drop in egg rolls and fry until golden. Frying time should take about 15 mins. If it is golden before that time; the oil it too hot which means, the filling might not be cooked, and spring roll will be soggy when cooled.

Different Variations:
Chả Giò Tôm Thịt (Shrimp and Pork):
Reduce the meat to 1/2 lb and add in 1/2 lb minced shrimp.

Chả Giò Cua (Crab):
Use 1 lb of crab meat instead of meat, or use 1/2 crab, 1/2 pork

Chả Giò Tôm Cua (Shrimp, Crab, and Pork):
Omit pork and replace with 1/2 lb of each shrimp and crab.

Chả Giò Khoai Môn (Taro):
add 1 1/2 cups shredded taro, and omit 1/2 the amount of cellophane noodles (use only 1/2 bundle of cellophane noodles)
**you can also make crab and taro spring rolls, shrimp and taro rolls, etc...