Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Ingredients
Rolls:
  • ½ lb lean ground pork
  • ½ lb fresh shrimp, shelled & chopped
  • 2 oz bean thread, soaked & chopped
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 6 stalks scallions, thinly sliced
  • 1 large carrot, coarsely grated
  • 1 medium taro, coarsely grated
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 bird’s eye chili pepper, minced
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • fine sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
  • 25 sheets spring roll skin
  • Canola oil for frying
Dressing:
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 Persian lime, juiced
  • 2 big garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 bird’s eye chili peppers, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
Instructions

Put first set of ingredients except skins and oil in a large bowl and mix well. Place a heaped tablespoon of mixture on a sheet of skin, roll over once, and fold in sides. Moisten the last corner with water and roll over once more and tuck in firmly. Finish off the rolls and heat up canola oil in pot/wok. Gently lower each roll in the oil to deep fry until golden brown and crisp.

For the dressing, bring ½ cup of water to a boil and dissolve sugar into the boiling water. When sugar is dissolved completely, pour this simple syrup into a small bowl to cool. Once cool, add the lime juice, garlic, chili peppers and fish sauce and stir together.

Serve with dressing as an appetizer or top a noodle salad for a complete meal.