By Jada Doan
Country of Origin: Vietnam
Recipe:
3 sets of egg roll rice paper
5 pounds of ground pork
1/2 pound of vermicelli noodles (glass/clear)
1 pound of imitation crab
1 1/2 pound of grated carrots
2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon flavor
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of msg
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of pepper
1/3 cup of minced garlic
1 cup of diced onions
Instructions:
First prepare the vegetables by grating the carrots into long shreds. Then dice up the onions into 1/8th" pieces. Next mince the garlic. Set them aside.
In a medium bowl add warm water and completely soak the vermicelli glass noodles for about 30 minutes, drain, and cut into 1" strips.
Next cut the imitation crab in small 1/4th" pieces, then dice up more finely. Set aside.
The next step is marinating the ground pork. Add in chicken bouillon, salt, msg, sugar, pepper, minced garlic, and minced onions. Mix evenly.
You will now add in the rest of the ingredients in with the marinated pork. Mix all the ingredients until even.
Now onto the wrapping of the egg rolls: Crack an egg onto a small plate. Place next to your egg roll rolling area as you will use it for each egg roll.
Before rolling the egg rolls you will need to peel the rice paper. After each is peeled, place them into a plastic bag to keep them from overdrying.
Lay a rice paper on a flat surface with one of the pointed ends toward you. Scoop on 1 1/2 tbsp of the egg roll mixture. With your fingers form into a small 3" roll across. Fold the pointed end that's pointed towards you over the roll (away from you) then fold each right and left side over the 3" roll. You then roll away from you towards the opposite pointed end.
With a couple fingertips grab a dab of the cracked egg and smear on the pointed end to help seal and close the egg roll. This will prevent the end from unraveling while frying. After all egg rolls have been made you should have about 75 egg rolls.
On to frying the egg rolls: In a frying pan pour in about 1 1/2" deep of oil. Heat up on high until oil is hot, lower the heat down to medium.
Fill the pan up with one layer of egg rolls. Fry the egg rolls until golden brown, turning occasionally for even browning. Total frying time should be about 10 minutes for each batch. You can break an egg roll in half to check if they're completely cooked thoroughly. Enjoy!
Narrative Essay:
As I slowly started feeling pain on my finger I noticed blood dripping onto the cutting board, coming to the realization that I had just cut my finger while trying to dice vegetables.
While growing up around my grandma, my ba ngoai, I have picked up the skill of cooking. At first, they were not the best, as I was often messing up the ingredients or even slicing my own finger.
I remember whenever walking into my grandparents’ house, the kitchen would always smell amazing, mixtures of sweet, savory flavors filled the air. Different ingredients were spread all over the counters, a mess but a good kind of mess. I would most often recognize the aroma of egg rolls, my grandmother’s signature dish, always plating them on top of each other in a circle like a mountain.
The first step of this dish is the preparation of ingredients inside of the egg roll. For this specific dish, carrots would be cut into small slivers and onions as well as garlic were finely diced. The day I was finally able to help out was very memorable. Of course my eyes stung from the strong scent of onion and the cutting was definitely not precise, but it was still a learning experience. These ingredients would later be added into the marinated pork, vermicelli noodles, along with imitation crab which would give the dish the chewy as well as delectable texture.
The wrapping of the egg rolls was definitely my favorite. We start by putting special rice paper on a flat surface, with the end pointed towards us. Then after putting a scoop of the mixture in the center of the paper, we would roll it and fold the edges in. The first time I wrapped an egg roll, I ended up ripping the dough, as it was thinner than a piece of paper. This made me have to start over multiple times and despite my frustration, I continued on, determined to complete the task at hand.
Moreover, I vaguely recall the frying process, hearing the sizzling and popping of the oil whenever I walked outside. On the back porch, my grandmother had her own little frying station, closely resembling a little shed. No matter the weather, she would always be out there, cooking to her heart's desire. This inspired me to continue cooking, which allowed me to grow as a person.
After the egg rolls were golden brown on both sides, it was ready to be taken out and cooled on a plate. Upon taking a bite, the transition between the crunch of the outside to the savory chewiness on the inside is evident, making it an unforgettable dish for my family which has been passed down for years.