Bún Thịt Nướng Chả Giò

On our trip home to Texas in May, I had some of my mom's home cooking that I hadn't had in 10 months. There's only one "true" Vietnamese restaurant in the area. While I like the food there, their prices have been rising, the selection has dwindled, and they're open only on weekdays. I've been wanting to make Vietnamese food on my own, but the impetus was never there until now.

One of my favorite Vietnamese foods is egg rolls (I have no idea why it's called an egg roll, since there's no egg in it) or chả giò; Jessica is also a fan of them. The Vietnamese version is not like the kind you get from Chinese restaurants in which the egg roll is stuffed mostly with cabbage. Vietnamese chả giò are mostly ground meat (usually pork) with other filling. I've given up on getting recipes from my mother, so I just found one online that was close.

Source: http://steamykitchen.com/2456-vietnamese-spring-rolls.html
From "Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart" (a biography/cookbook) by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen

We followed the recipe almost exactly. I added about 2 tbsp of soy sauce to add a little tang to the filling; otherwise, this recipe seems to be just like my mother's. Get the thinnest spring roll wrappers that you can for the crispiest rolls.

The filling: ground pork, bean thread noodles, Chinese black fungus, carrots, onions,
sugar, salt, pepper, fish sauce, and soy sauce.

Filling with the halved spring roll wrappers.

Jessica perfected the amount of filling for each roll.

Jessica also rolled every single of these, so I didn't have to. Thanks, bab 

 

Audra is going to learn how to make these before she leaves home (in addition to knowing how to do laundry).

I put too much oil at first, and so they just floated when I tried to turn them over to fry evenly.
You don't need as much oil as you think.

  

Mmm...there's that golden brown color.

Everyone in the family is a fan.

We ended up with almost 70 of these.
This picture doesn't show all of them, since we had been munching on them throughout;
we also gave out some to our neighbors.

Jessica also likes vermicelli, so I went ahead and tried doing that to not much success (pro tip: vermicelli needs to air dry for an hour after you boil the noodles). To go even further with making my own Vietnamese food, I also made grilled pork (thịt nướng) to go with it all.

Source: http://www.hungryhuy.com/bun-thit-nuong-recipe-vietnamese-grilled-bbq-pork-with-rice-vermicelli-vegetables/

The presentation needs more work, but you get the idea.

The thịt nướng was familiar but wasn't the kind I was going for. I also didn't get to grill these (I used the oven instead, since it was raining outside that day) so that may have affected the flavor.

However, the egg rolls turned out fantastically, and we will definitely be making these on a semi-regular basis. It's doesn't take too long when you have a team, and it's definitely more cost-effective than getting them at the restaurant.