Month: June 2021

Makes 50 to 60 egg rolls
Preparing time: 60 to 90 minutes
Cooking time: 90 minutes

Egg rolls, known as chả giò, are popular Asian finger food. Everyone has a different way of preparing egg rolls. Bác Kít, my aunt, has her special way. Traditionally, they are composed of miến noodles, mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, eggs, pork, chicken, and seasoning.

In this article, we will make our egg rolls with vegetable filling. This is a Vietnamese egg roll recipe and a vegetarian delight. The primary key to yummy egg rolls is crunchy outside yet soft with a balanced amount of tasty vegetables inside. You can also find a meat egg roll recipe online at Homemade Meat Egg Roll.

There are three different ways to eat the egg rolls:

1. Eat the egg rolls by themselves as finger food.
2. Prepare them in vegetable wrap. The egg rolls are cut into 1-inch bite-size pieces. Each piece is wrapped in lettuce with several strands of rice noodles, and a few leaves of cilantro. It is then dipped in a sweet and sour dipping fish sauce.
3. Serve with noodles. The egg rolls are cut into 1-inch bite-size pieces. The pieces are placed on top of rice noodles with lettuce, cilantro, bean sprouts, and Sweet and Sour Fish Sauce or Sweet and Sour Soy Sauce Mix. Mix all the ingredients and chow down.

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Ingredients

You may have problems finding some ingredients below in your neighborhood American grocery store. You can visit the closest Asian / Vietnamese grocery near you or Asian Grocery in Central Florida for the special ingredients. I also included a direct link to Amazon by clicking on the picture or name of the hard-to-find ingredients for your convenience.

1 (1.8-ounce) package miến bean thread noodles

¼ cup pre-chopped black dried fungus mushrooms

OR (slice them into thin slivers) 4 ears medium dried black fungus mushroom

60 frozen egg roll skins (my favorite brand is TYJ Spring Roll Pastry. You can find this brand in your local Asian Vietnamese store. If you have extra packages, you can freeze the un-open packages for another time. Make sure to keep them seal well or they will dry up. The only location I found for the online purchase is Amazon (expensive shipping and 500 in quantity)

3 carrots

1 (½ to 1pound) small cabbage

½ medium onion

1 to 2 sweet potatoes (optional purple outside and yellow flesh)

1 small 12 oz jicama

1 or 2 taro

1 to 2 blocks of firm fried tofu (Click here –> How to fry Tofu)

2 eggs (optional)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vegetarian mushroom sauce

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp all-purpose flour

3 cups vegetable oil

Prepping instructions

Soak the dried noodles and mushrooms in separate bowls of hot water for approximately 10 minutes.

Allow the frozen egg roll skins to de-thaw for 30 minutes. Clean and drain the vegetables.

Peel the carrots, taro, sweet potato, onion, and jicama. Peel and discard the dead leaves on the cabbage.

Shred the carrots, cabbage, taro, sweet potato, and jicama. You can do it manually with a shredder or with a food processor to speed up time.

Dice the onion into small pieces. Dice the fried tofu into small pieces also. Cabbage and jicama produce lots of juice after being shredded. Squeeze as much juice from the shredded cabbage and jicama as possible with cleaned hands. It is ok if you cannot squeeze out all of the juice. A little vegetable juice is better than too much. Draining the juice prevents the egg rolls from being soggy. Mix the shredded vegetables in a large mixing bowl.

Remove the mushrooms & noodles from the water. Squeeze the water from the mushrooms and noodles with cleaned hands. Cut the noodles into 1 to 2 inch long strips. If the mushrooms are not pre-chopped, chop them into fine thin pieces. Mix the shredded vegetables, diced fried tofu and onion, mushrooms, noodles, salt, vegetarian sauce, pepper, and optional eggs.

Combine flour and 2 teaspoons of water in a small bowl. Mix into a paste. Use the paste to stick the flap of the egg roll skin to the egg roll. Wrap The Egg rolls.

Wrapping procedures

(Some egg roll skin wrapper packages may contain illustrations and/or instructions for wrapping procedures):

Peel the egg roll skins apart. Place one egg roll skin on a large plate. Rotate so that a corner faces you.

Place 1 heaping tablespoon of the meat and vegetable mixture in the center of the paper. Spread the mixture 2½ to 3 inches perpendicularly to the corner facing you. Flip-up the corner facing you over the mixture, such that the fold is flush against the meat and vegetable mixture. Flip the left and right corners evenly over the first fold such that the new folds are flush against the meat and vegetable mixture.

Roll the folded shape tightly away from you. Make sure any loose ends of the egg roll skin are neatly tucked in. Tucking in loose ends reduces crumbs when frying. The roll should be tight enough to prevent the mixture from escaping during frying. Spread flour paste thinly on the last corner of the paper and continue rolling over the corner. The paste glues the end to the roll.

Warning:

When frying, do not allow the oil to become too hot. The outside of the egg rolls will burn but the inside will be uncooked. The deep fryer maintains the oil at a constant temperature hence the cooking inconsistency will be eliminated. I have been using a brand DeLonghi deep fryer for over 10 years. It has been serving me very well. I allowed the oil to preheat for 9 to 10 minutes then I fry the egg rolls for 7 minutes or as golden as you like. It’s simple and splatter-free.

Frying Instructions

If frying in a frying pan, preheat the oil in a deep fryer or a deep non-stick frying pan for 1 to 2 minutes at medium heat. Dip the tip of an egg roll into the fryer to test for the temperature of the oil. Wait until the oil fizzes. Place the egg rolls into the fryer. Fry the egg rolls in batches of 10 or until you cannot fit anymore. Avoid stacking them.

Depending on how hot your heat is and at your judgment, fry each batch at medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to constantly rotate the egg rolls frequently (like every 1 to 2 minutes). Place two paper towels on top of a plate. Transfer the fried egg rolls to the plate. Use a paper towel to blot the excess oil from the egg rolls.

Baking Techniques

You can also bake the egg rolls as well as using an air fryer. With the baking in the oven or air fryer, make sure to brush a little vegetable oil on the outside of each egg roll before you bake them. Bake them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden. I have not tried the air fryer yet but my aunt has. She said it turned out very good for her.

Conclusion:

Egg rolls are great appetizers and fun finger food. I often make a big batch to eat over a period of time. There are usually leftovers so I freeze them.

You can freeze the egg rolls in two ways:

1. Freeze the wrapped and uncooked egg rolls until ready to be fried. When ready to fry, do not de-thaw the egg rolls. Place them immediately into the hot oil. This prevents the egg rolls from becoming soggy.
2. Freeze the fried egg rolls until ready to eat. Heat them with a toaster oven, an oven, or an air fryer.

Place the egg rolls side by side in a large Ziploc freezer bag. Do not stack them. One gallon bag can hold from 16 to 18 egg rolls.

Tips:

After frying many egg rolls for 30 to 40 minutes, many burnt flakes and crumbs blacken the oil in the frying pan. If you do not own a deep fryer, one way to avoid blackened egg rolls when frying is to fry them in two separate pans. Pour 2 cups of vegetable oil into a non-stick frying pan. Preheat the oil at medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

Do the fizz test with an egg roll. Place the first batch (10 to 12 egg rolls) into the frying pan. Fry the egg rolls for 2 minutes on each side. Pour 6 cups of oil into a non-stick deep saucepan. Preheat the oil at medium heat. After 4 minutes of frying on each side of the egg rolls, transfer the egg rolls from the frying pan into the saucepan.

Place the second batch of uncooked egg rolls into the frying pan. This time, allow the second batch to fry for 16 minutes in the frying pan. Rotate every 2 minutes. Fry the transferred egg rolls for 11 minutes in the saucepan. Rotate occasionally. Fry the egg rolls for the last 5 minutes at medium-high heat.

Transfer the finished egg rolls to a dish. Transfer the second batch of egg rolls from the frying pan to the saucepan. Continue to fry for 4 more minutes at medium-high heat. Apply the same procedures to the remaining uncooked egg rolls. This process is rather lengthy, but it will produce nice golden egg rolls.

I love to hear about your experiences. Please leave your comments below.