Egg rolls with vermicelli noodle (Bun cha gio)

Egg rolls, they are not difficult to make but it is definitely time consuming.  Therefore, I rarely make them due to this reason. It can easily take me at least a couple hours just to sit there and roll these little guys up. We are having a birthday party for my oldest son this weekend, so I've decided to put my patience to test and make these for the party. I didn't get to finish rolling them up until later in the night when everybody was sound asleep. However, the result is well worth it. My sons, especially the oldest one, love these for snack or as appetizer. I like them served with vermicelli or just plainly rolled up in a piece of lettuce with mint leaves dipped in garlic fish sauce. Yummy!!! 

I usually make them in a large batch and freeze them for later consumption. It's quite convenient for a busy weekday dinner, where you only need to prepare the vegetables, herbs and boil some vermicelli noodle. Fry up the frozen egg rolls until golden brown and in no time dinner is ready to be served.

You can either fry the frozen egg rolls all the way until they turn golden brown, or for better and longer crunchy texture, you can fry them twice. Either way, they won't last too long for you to be able to tell the difference ...

 

Ingredients for egg rolls:

(Make about 100 egg rolls)

1. 2&1/2 lbs of ground pork

2. 1 lb of peeled, deveined shrimps

3. 1/2 can of crab meat (Costco brand)

4. 1 small jicama (shredded or julienne)

5. 1 small carrot (shredded)

6. 1 small onion (minced)

7. 2 oz of dried wood-ear mushroom (soaked in hot water, minced)

8. 1 bunch of glass noodle (cut into 1 inch)

9. 2 eggs

10. 3 tsp fish sauces

11. 6 tsp sugar

12. 2 tsp of bot nem (mushroom seasoning)

13. garlic powder and black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix thoroughly by hands (wear gloves). 

Lay out the egg roll wrapper on a plate and add a tbsp of meat mixture on top and roll it up as demonstrated in the pictures below. At this point, you can either heat up the oil and fry them to serve immediately or wrap them up tightly in the zip lock bag and store in freezer.

 

To serve with vermicelli noodle:

Boil 1 bag of small, thin vermicelli noodle according the instruction, rinse thoroughly with cold water and drain in a colander. 

Wash and clean the minty herbs, green leave lettuce, chop them coarsely. Cut cucumber into thin strips and mix together with the chopped herb/lettuce mixture and bean sprouts.

Make green onion oil by putting chopped green onion in a small bowl, add a few tablespoons of oil and a small sprinkle of salt. Microwave the mixture for 45 seconds and set aside.

To make fermented carrot and daikon pickle, add the shredded carrot and daikon into a solution of water, vinegar, sugar and salt.

Prepare garlic fish sauce with fish sauce, vinegar or lime juice, minced garlic, minced red chili pepper, sugar and some water for dilution.

 

Assemble the noodle and vegetables side by side in a bowl, top with green onion oil. Add in fried egg rolls, sprinkle with chopped peanuts and garnish with pickle carrot/daikon (do chua). Pour a few tablespoons of garlic fish sauce over the noodle and serve.

ENJOY!