Thu-Ha Nguyen's Vietnamese Egg Rolls
These crisp, golden egg rolls are full of savory flavor and are fun to assemble and fry with family or friends.
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Recipe Summary
"Janice Nguyen Hudgins owns a popular Vietnamese restaurant outside Charleston, South Carolina, and it all started with a beloved egg roll recipe," writes Betsy Cribb for Southern Living. Hudgins grew up making fried egg rolls with her mother, Thu-Ha Nguyen; only recently did she discover that a more traditional Vietnamese rendition would use rice paper wrappers, not the wheat-based wrappers her mother had preferred. "Rice paper is really, really sticky and fickle. When my mom and aunts moved to the States, they came across the wheat ones. Everybody was using those instead. It's a lot easier, and you can freeze them, so those are what we grew up on," says Hudgins.
While you'll find a rice-paper wrapped version at Little Miss Ha, Hudgins' Vietnamese restaurant in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, this version of fried Vietnamese egg rolls is the one that started it all. These crisp, golden egg rolls are full of savory flavor and are fun to assemble and fry with family or friends. If you can't find unseasoned, freshly ground pork at the supermarket, ask your butcher to grind a pork tenderloin.
This recipe yields 60 egg rolls, so you'll want to invite a crowd (or freeze half for later). When it comes to mastering this recipe, all it takes is some practice. "Once you roll a couple thousand, you'll get it!" Hudgins says.