Vietnamese Egg Rolls (nhems)

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 ounces cellophane noodles
• 3 chicken quarters, skinned and boned and ground
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped fined including the greens
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 0.5 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, diced
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (nuccman, this brand is so common it is sold in oriental section of any name grocery store)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper
• 1 (7 ounce) can crabmeat, cartilage removed and meat flaked (optional)
• 1/8 cup water
• 1/8 cup fish sauce
• 1/2 small lemon, juice of
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon flaked red chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 3 green onions, chopped fine
• 20 sheets rice paper sheets (banh trang)
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 2 cups peanut oil
• fish sauce (nuccman)
• 1 large lettuce leaf
• mint leaf
• fresh cilantro

Recipe

• 1 mix filling ingredients together, i do this with my hands.
• 2 the sauce is personal so you have to play with it until you get the taste you like.
• 3 filling:
• 4 boil water in tea kettle or pot.
• 5 place noodles in bowl and poor boiled water to cover.
• 6 let sit while preparing other ingredients.
• 7 when ready to use, drain and place back in bowl. cut many times with scissors.
• 8 combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and squish it all together like you were preparing meatloaf; set aside.
• 9 use the small round rice papers i use a big dish towel and leave it pretty wet and stretch it out on the kitchen counter.
• 10 i then place a bowl of warm sugar water big enough to accommodate a whole rice paper (the sugar in the water makes the nhems crispier when frying). use 1 tbsp to 1 cup of water make sure it is dissolved.
• 11 next to it, i place my bowl of chicken mixture, and next to that my bowl with 2 beaten eggs.
• 12 i have a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and sprinkled with cornstarch or a plate prepared the same way depending on how many i make.
• 13 i also keep a bowl of water in the sink so i can rinse the goo of my fingers (it's sticky). i can usually fit 6 rice papers on my dish towel.
• 14 dip each on in the bowl of sugar water for 30 seconds, flip it over wait 30 seconds.
• 15 place softened paper on wet dish towel.
• 16 continue with this process until you have as many rice papers as you can fit on your towel.
• 17 with a pastry brush, or fingers paint the beaten egg over the top edges of each of the pieces.
• 18 when the wrapper looks soft and transparent, place about 1 heaping tbsp of filling near the bottom, fold bottom up just to cover filling.
• 19 fold the sides towards middle keeping mixture firmly tucked into place continue to roll.
• 20 place on cookie sheet or plate.
• 21 at this point you can cover with saran wrap and cook later.
• 22 cooking:.
• 23 put 2 inches of peanut oil in a large pan bring to a med high heat and fry nhems until golden. this will take about 20 minutes.
• 24 to serve the spring rolls, proceed as follows:
• 25 arrange the ingredients for the vegetable platter of large lettuce leaves and mint leaves. using fingers place nhem in lettuce leaf cover with a couple mint leaves.
• 26 dip in sauce and try to eat just one!