I’ve said it before, I still say it a lot, and I know my friends from other Asian ethnicities may hate me for saying this, but I’ve tried about every ethnic eggroll I’ve been able to find, and I still contend that Vietnamese eggrolls are the best, if not the most complicated, of all eggrolls.
2–4 SERVINGS
½ pound shrimp, peeled and deveined (see The SK Way)
1 pound ground pork
½ cup dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked in hot water and softened
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded taro root
½ small onion, finely diced
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 package eggroll wrappers
½ bundle dried bean thread noodles, soaked in hot water, softened and cut in half
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
1 large egg plus more, just in case
Green or red leaf lettuce, leaves individually cleaned and stacked
Vermicelli, cooked
Pickled Shredded Carrots and Daikon
Mint or tiato, or both, cleaned and stemmed
Cilantro, thoroughly cleaned
Coco Rico Vietnamese Fish Sauce
BALLS OUT
40–80 SERVINGS
5 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
10 pounds ground pork
5 cups dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked in hot water and softened
10 cups shredded carrots
10 cups shredded taro root
5 small onions, finely diced
13⅓ tablespoons minced garlic
10 tablespoons minced shallots
3⅓ tablespoons kosher salt
6⅔ tablespoons ground black pepper
10 packages eggroll wrappers
5 bundles dried bean thread noodles, soaked in hot water, softened and cut in half
10 tablespoons sugar
10 tablespoons fish sauce
3⅓ tablespoons chicken bouillon
10 large eggs plus more, just in case
1. In a food processor, blend the shrimp into a paste-like consistency. Don’t puree it, or you’ll ruin it (“Oh NO!”). Add pork, then blend to combine. If your food processor isn’t large enough to blend both together, blend them separately and then transfer to a bowl and hand mix thoroughly.
2. Transfer the pork-shrimp mixture to a bowl (if it isn’t in one already), then add mushrooms, carrots, taro root, onion, garlic, shallots, salt, and pepper. Mix. To test the seasoning, sauté a tiny patty of meat in a pan on high heat with a little bit of oil and cook it all the way through. Taste it and adjust seasoning as needed.
3. Next, beat egg in a separate bowl. Set egg wash aside.
4. Open eggroll wrappers. Cover exposed wrappers with a damp (not dripping wet) towel to keep them moist while wrapping; they will dry out quickly if you don’t do this.
5. Take a single wrapper and lay it in front of you like a diamond. Place 1 tablespoon eggroll filling onto the wrapper, not quite in the middle, just a tad bit closer to your body. Next, spread filling from left to right, just a tad short of both edges.
6. With a spoon or the tip of your fingers, dampen the top corner of the diamond with a bit of egg wash so that the wrapper will stick and stay together when rolling.
7. Fold in the left and right corners. Next, fold the point nearest you in and roll (while pinching in the sides) toward the opposite (top) corner.
8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place eggrolls on it as you finish rolling. Cover finished egg rolls with another damp towel to prevent them from drying out and unraveling.
The more you fold the corners of your eggroll in, the shorter it will be, which means a fatter eggroll. We prefer longer eggrolls, on the thinner side.
9. Heat 2 inches of oil in a pot over medium-high heat until it reaches 350°F. Fry eggrolls for 6–8 minutes, turning frequently, until the skins turn golden and crunchy. (Rolls should bubble when they touch the oil. If they don’t bubble, the oil isn’t hot enough.) Remove eggrolls, shake off excess oil, and drip dry on a plate lined with paper towels. Let cool for 5 minutes.
10. Serve stacked Lincoln Log–style with sides of lettuce, vermicelli, Pickled Shredded Carrots and Daikon, mint, cilantro, and a side of Coco Rico Vietnamese Fish Sauce.
If you want advice on how to eat all of that (as I’ve seen how un-obvious it is to people at Button Mash, and I say that sincerely): First off, remember that “less is more” and place a little bit of vermicelli in a piece of lettuce large enough to wrap up an eggroll, some Pickled Carrots and Daikon, one to two mint leaves, one cilantro stem with leaves on, and one eggroll; wrap it all up, dip it in the fish sauce, and really . . . REALLY make sweet love to your mouth with all the flavors and textures of the most complex eggroll known to humankind!
