Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Nhems) Recipe - Food.com (2024)

• 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)

• DIPPING SAUCE

• 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

• PREPARATIONS FOR ASSEMBLING

• 20 sheets rice paper sheets (banh trang)
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 2 cups peanut oil

• ACCOMPANIMENTS FOR SERVING

• fish sauce (Nuccman)
• 1 large lettuce leaf
• mint leaf
• fresh cilantro

directions

• Mix filling ingredients together, I do this with my hands.
• The sauce is personal so you have to play with it until you get the taste you like.

• FILLING:

• Boil water in tea kettle or pot.
• Place noodles in bowl and poor boiled water to cover.
• Let sit while preparing other ingredients.
• When ready to use, drain and place back in bowl. Cut many times with scissors.
• Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and squish it all together like you were preparing meatloaf; set aside.
• 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.
• 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.
• Next to it, I place my bowl of chicken mixture, and next to that my bowl with 2 beaten eggs.
• 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.
• 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.
• Dip each on in the bowl of sugar water for 30 seconds, flip it over wait 30 seconds.
• Place softened paper on wet dish towel.
• Continue with this process until you have as many rice papers as you can fit on your towel.
• With a pastry brush, or fingers paint the beaten egg over the top edges of each of the pieces.
• When the wrapper looks soft and transparent, place about 1 heaping tbsp of filling near the bottom, Fold bottom up just to cover filling.
• Fold the sides towards middle keeping mixture firmly tucked into place continue to roll.
• Place on cookie sheet or plate.
• At this point you can cover with Saran Wrap and cook later.

• Cooking:

• 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.

• To serve the spring rolls, proceed as follows:

• 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.
• Dip in sauce and try to eat just one!