Cha gio or Vietnamese spring rolls or egg rolls

cha gio

January 23, 2012 is Tet, or the Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the dragon!

While you might be on a New Year's resolutions kick and are trying to eat healthy, here's a recipe for traditional cha gio, or the Vietnamese version of egg rolls or spring rolls. Vietnamese rolls are a bit different from Chinese ones.  They are traditionally wrapped in rice paper rather than a wheat flour wrapper.  The filling has meat, or sometimes a mix of pork and shrimp, veggies like carrot and sometimes jicama, cellophane noodles, and flavors of fish sauce.

This is a recipe you can make for party or gathering, or if you're feeling inspired by the Lunar New Year!

I like to make these pretty small instead of the big full-sized ones so they fry up quickly and you don't have to worry so much about whether or not they are cooked all the way through. Also, really traditional cha gio will use a rice paper wrapper as I use here, but it's pretty common to see them done with a Filipino lumpia wrapper, which is thinner than typical Chinese egg roll wrappers, is easy to use to make uniform, neatly wrapped rolls, and gives you a nice crisp outside. They stay crispier longer, and are also a little easier to work with and to fry without creating bubbles or spatters.  But I really like the flavor of the rice paper wrapper, and it's also gluten-free if you're concerned about that.  They don't get quite as crispy but you the flavor and texture is so good.  You are welcome to use lumpia wrappers if you prefer.  

Also, these are traditionally made with ground pork, and with crab or shrimp sometimes added to the mixture as well.  I've made these with just ground pork, but you can use a combination, or could also try them with ground chicken or turkey if you like, though dark meat is probably better than white meat so they don't dry out. 

I use these triangular rice paper wrappers, basically large circle wrappers that have been cut into quarters.  They're great for making small cha gio that are about 2-3" long.  You may not be able to find these as easily, so if not, you can use the small circle wrappers.

Once you roll up a few, you'll be amazed how quickly you can churn them out - I made about 50 of them in no time!  And of course, if you have friends or family around and can get a little help, it will go even faster.  I learned a little tip from Andrea Nguyen's  fantastic Vietnamese cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - add a little sugar to the water you use to rehydrate your rice paper wrappers to add a little color to your cha gio when frying them up.

Serve with lettuce, herbs like mint and cilantro, and nuoc cham dipping sauce, or serve as is if you like. You can also try my vegetarian dipping sauce, nuoc cham chay, made with soy sauce instead of fish sauce. Traditionally, cha gio are placed on a lettuce leaf with a few herbs placed on top, rolled up and dipped into nuoc cham.

Makes about 4 dozen smaller 2-3" inch long cha gio, or about 2 dozen larger ones

• 48 smaller triangle or quarter-circle rice paper sheets, small rice paper sheets, or for larger rolls, you can use 24 x 8" or 9" rice paper sheets
• Warm water for soaking rice paper sheets
• 3 to 4 Tbsp. sugar
• Peanut, corn or vegetable oil for frying

Filling:

• 1-1/2 lb. ground pork, or a mixture of ground pork and chopped up shrimp
• 2 -3 carrots, peeled, trimmed and grated on a box grater
• 1 bundle of cellophane noodles, soaked in hot water until they've softened a bit
• 1 yellow or white onion, finely chopped
• 4-5 scallions, finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, stems removed, and finely chopped
• 4 - 5 wood ear mushrooms, soaked and finally chopped, or you can find dried thinly sliced mushrooms already - soak a few pinches of them
• 1 egg
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. sugar

Preparation

Pork filling

Prep all your veggies. Soak, drain and prep the mushrooms and cellophane noodles. Cut the noodles into roughly 2" pieces. I just take a big scissors and start snipping away all over them - no need to be too careful here.

In a large bowl, beat the egg with the fish sauce, salt and pepper, and the 1 tsp. of sugar.  Add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix to combine. Make a tiny patty and fry up or cook quickly in the microwave to taste. Adjust the seasoning if needed with more salt or fish sauce if you want it saltier, or a little more sugar if you like. Cook and taste a bit of the filling again until it is to your liking.

Pour your warm water into a large, shallow bowl that you can easily dip your rice paper into.  Stir in the sugar and stir to dissolve.

Set up your work space - your bowl of filling mixture, the shallow bowl of water, the rice paper wrappers, a cutting board or other surface to roll up your spring rolls, and a large tray or platter to hold them as you complete each one.

Assembly

Dip each piece of rice paper into the water to moisten all over.  Shake off the excess water and lay it flat on your work surface to soften.  I usually do them two or three at a time. Here are your step-by-step instructions on assembling them:

Put a large spoon of filling on to the rice paper.

Roll up once from the bottom.

Fold one of the sides in.

Roll up from the bottom again.

Fold the other side in.

Roll up again until it's completely rolled up.

Repeat with the remaining rice sheets and filling mixture until all the filling is gone.

Frying

Set up a rack over a baking sheet and a metal colander over a plate, or a some paper towels or paper bag to soak up oil on the counter near where you are frying. In a heavy pot or Dutch oven, heat about 2 inches of oil over medium high heat. Heat the oil until it reaches 325 degrees F (use a frying thermometer).  If you have a deep fryer, by all means, use it.

Add the rolls, with the seams down, into the oil a few rolls at a time until you have enough in the oil without them touching each other too much. Let the rolls fry until they are golden brown and crispy, and 7 - 10 minutes or so, turning them if necessary to cook evenly. Don't let the oil go over 350 degrees F, regulating the heat as necessary. 

If large bubbles start to form, gently poke with a chopstick or something long to break. Use chopsticks or tongs to remove the rolls from the oil when they're done and set in the colander for a bit to drain or blot on paper towels or paper bags and then place on the wire rack to cool.

Do in batches, adding a little more oil if needed between batches and bringing the oil up to to 325, 350 again. Try to really stay on top of controlling the heat throughout the process. If the oil gets too hot, they'll start burning on the ends a bit before the insides are thoroughly cooked all the way through.

If making them ahead of time, you can gently refry them before serving. You can also gently reheat in the oven before serving, but they are best and crispiest when freshly fried. I don't mind them not super crispy and at room temperature if they were made a few hours before, but if you want to serve them at their crispiest, gently frying them before serving is the best way to go.

Serve with a plate of lettuce leaves, some cilantro, mint, and nuoc cham dipping sauce, or serve as is if you like. You can also try my vegetarian dipping sauce, nuoc cham chay, made with soy sauce instead of fish sauce. Sometimes it's nice to grate a little carrot, or finely julienne a little carrot, and add it to the nuoc cham, or you could also serve some Vietnamese pickles, or do chua alongside everything. You can also serve them with bun thit nuong - a Vietnamese dish of grilled pork over rice noodles, do chua, and everything else mentioned above.