Today we are going to make Vietnamese Fried Crispy Spring Rolls. They are very similar to Chinese
ones, but Vietnamese use rice paper, so they are super crispy on the outside. They are served
with Vietnamese, nuoc cham, dipping sauce. It s super savory and refreshing all at the same time.
To prepare the glass noodles, rehydrate them in warm water for 30 minutes.
Drain and cut it into about 1 1/2 inches long.
Finely chop the wood ear mushrooms. I m using the fresh ones today,
but you can also use the dried ones and rehydrate them.
Julienne the carrot.
Mince the shallot and garlic.
Slice the red pepper. It s best to use bird s eye chilies, but I couldn't find them,
so I replace them with finger hot peppers instead.
Mince the shrimp. This is peeled and deveined shrimp.
To make the dipping sauce, in a bowl, add in the hot water and sugar.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Then mix in the fish sauce, lime juice,
2 garlic cloves, and finger hot pepper.
To make the filling, in a large mixing bowl, combine the pork, shrimp, glass noodles,
wood ear mushrooms, carrot, beansprouts, shallot,
2 garlic cloves, salt, black pepper, fish sauce, and egg. Mix until combined.
To wrap the spring rolls, in a bowl of water,
add the rice vinegar. It helps the spring rolls to brown better while deep-frying.
On a flat working surface, place rice paper on it.
Brush some water on both sides of the rice paper until softened and not overly wet.
The frying oil will splatter a lot if the rice paper has too much moisture on it.
Place about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the filling by the bottom corner. Fold it up,
fold the sides of rice paper toward the center, and roll it all the way
up. Repeat.
To fry the spring rolls, in a pan over high heat, add the extra light olive oil,
heat it up to 325 degrees F or 163 degrees C. Place in the spring rolls a few at a time. Make
sure that they don t touch each other because they are really sticky at this point. Fry
for 5 minutes until golden brown and the pork is cooked through. Flip a few times.
Remove the spring rolls.
Heat up the oil to 350 degrees F or 177 degrees C. Return the
spring rolls and fry until super crispy, 1 to 2 minutes. Also, flip a few times.
Double frying makes the spring rolls super crispy and not greasy.
Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
Serve!