Vietnamese Fried Egg Rolls

My friend came over at 8:30 bright and early one morning to teach me how to make these Vietnamese egg rolls.  She guided me through with all the tips she could think of.  I am glad that she told me to prepare some of the ingredients the night before. Hence, we were able to finish frying the egg rolls by 11 o'clock and were able to enjoy the food before the kids got out of school.   I also made this quick pickled mustard soup to go with the egg rolls.  They were so delicious that the family almost finished all the egg rolls at dinner time. The way she taught me how to eat the egg rolls were better than just eating the egg roll alone.

Makes 75 Egg Rolls

Ingredients:

3 pkg. O'tacy brand egg roll wraps (2pkg. for 1lb. ground pork)
2 lb. ground pork
6 Carrots, peeled and shredded
1 small hicama, peeled and shredded
1 sweet onion, peeled and shredded
1/4 cup vermicelli, cut to short pieces (no need to soak it)
1 cup shrimp,  peeled and julian
3 gloves of garlic, paste
Pepper to taste
Canola oil (or safflower oil)

Directions:

1. Squeeze and drain excess liquid of chopped ingredients.
2. Add shrimp and garlic into food processor and make a shrimp paste.
3. Mix all chopped ingredients together in a big bowl, add pepper, do not add salt.

4.  Peel and place a piece of egg roll wrap on a plate in a diamond shape, add 1 tablespoon of mixed ingredient,  and try lengthen the meat so it is not too thick to cook through. 

5.  Fold and pinch the filling tight with the wrapper into a long tube shape.

6. Fold in both ends and make sure they are straight like an envelope, so the egg roll will be even.
7. Roll and seal the end with water. Do not roll it too tight as it may burst while frying.

8. Turn heat to medium low, heat up enough oil to fry egg rolls.  Fry at medium low heat until golden brown, turn occassional to make sure they are cooked evenly.  Be patient not to rush through it.  When the egg rolls are done, allow them to cool off vertically in a coriander with a bowl under to collect the dripping oil.  This is the best way to ensure all sides are crunchy when they are cool off.

To serve these egg rolls, you can make some vermicelli to go with them:

Boil 4 cups of water and add vermicelli, then stir and separate the vermicelli. Bring to another boil and stir. Turn off heat and let it sit in the pot for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Fluff with chopstick from time to time to make sure it cool offs and does not stick together.

When ready to serve, cut up an egg roll in 1/3, wrap it inside a lettuce with some vermicelli. Dip into the fish vinegar sauce. For fish vinegar sauce recipe, please refer to my previous post on Vietnamese Food.

Another way to serve it is to lay some bean sprouts over vermicelli and lettuce; and dip into the fish vinegar sauce to eat. 

Note:

Tips to remember:

No salt is needed to add in the ingredients.  Squeeze and drain the excess vegetables juice which would make the egg roll soggy.  Olive oil is not a good choice for frying.  Use lower temperature to frying.  Drain in coriander vertically to keep it crunchy. These can be refrigerated and reheated in a toaster oven.

La Sen Vietnamese Restaurant - Fremont, CA

One of our friends recommended this restaurant which just opened for a few months ago. I went there with a few friends for lunch last week.  We first ordered this spring rolls as appetizer.  It was wrapped around shrimp, mint leave, lettuce and dipped in hoisin sauce. It was just fresh and so good.

This is a mango salad.  It tasted sweet and sour and very refreshing.

We all loved the eggplant with fried tofu.  It came with a small bowl of soup.

This is seafood noodle.  The noodle was deep fried.

We also ordered the grilled pork from the lunch menu.  It came with cold rice noodles, some chopped noodles, cold salad and some fish sauce on the side.   I believe you are supposed to mix everything together and pour the fish sauce over it.

This is grilled beef.  It was served with the same ingredients on the plate. The beef was also a little dry.

The average price on the menu was about $6 to $7 per dish.  The food tasted great with great prices. The place was clean in a very nice setting.  Overall, we liked the fancy plating and food.  I will definitely go back there again.  Here's the address of this newly open restaurant:

La Sen
181 Fremont Hub Courtyard
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 494-8300

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

My Vietnamese friend was kind enough to invite me over to have lunch with her.  She made these delicious fried spring rolls:

She told me this is how they eat these in the summer, with fish sauce over the rice noodles:

She packed a platter of egg rolls to bring home for my kids, and I served them the noodles and these:

These were so crunchy and delicious that my kids ate them all without leaving any for my husband.  I will have to learn this from her since we all love fried spring rolls and always order it from the restaurant.

Vietnamese Food

Last week my Vietnamese friend invited me to her house.  She was very nice to make everything in advance just to show me some Vietnamese food. I was happy to learn about the common food she made at home for her family.

Breakfast Rice Noodle 

Flat Rice Noodle - Shredd to small pieces and heat up in microwave.
Top with fresh fried shallots and fried tofus.
Serve with fish vinegar sauce (see note)

Fish Vinegar Sauce (Dipping Sauce)

2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup water
Minced garlic
Hot green chili (optional)

Mix well, refrigerate any unused portion in a glass container.

Note:
I tried to mimic the sauce at home. The taste was pretty close to what I had at my friend's house.  I added a little minced garlic and green chili to spice up the sauce.  I forgot to add the fried tofu to the noodle but it should be included.

Vietnamese Shrimp Toast

Shrimp - shell the shrimp and make it into a paste
Add some black peppers
1 tsp Oyster sauce
1 tbsp Mirin Wine (sweet taste)
1 tbsp Soy sauce

Spread on slices of bread to toast at 300 degree for 10 minutes.
Cut up into triangle shapes to serve.


Vietnamese spring rolls

Cooked rice vermicelli according to package
Rice wrappers
Shrimp meat balls (See below for recipe)*
Thai basil
Mint leaves
Lettuce

Dipping Sauce: fish sauce,lime juice, sugar, chili (see above note for recipe of sauce)

Steps:

1. Fill a bowl with warm water. Dip a rice wrapper into the warm water for 1 second to soften. Lay wrapper flat.  Place a small piece of lettuce, basil, mint leave, small amount of vermicelli, and 2 shrimp balls on the wrapper.  Fold and roll the wrapper into a rectangular shape. Repeat to finish making the rest ingredients into spring rolls.

    2.  In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, sugar and fresh chopped chili. 
    3.  To serve, dip spring roll into sauce.
 

*Shrimp Meatballs

Shrimp paste
Ground Pork
Japanese Mirin Wine
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Black Pepper

Mix all ingredients and shape in to small balls.
Fry in a little oil and scoop out when it's done.

Vietnamese Basic Noodle Soup

Daikon
Celery
Yellow Onion
Carrot
Ginger
Chicken

Add all the ingredients in a big pot of water and cook for 2 hours.
Shred the chicken meat and save for later use and discard the rest.
In a bowl, add shredded chicken meat and rice noodle or vermicelli with this soup.
Add mint leaves, bean sprouts and fresh lemon.
Serve with hoisin sauce and chili or hot sauce.

Note:

Serve the shrimp meatball and noodle in this soup as lunch.