Nothing says Christmas like Vietnamese Eggrolls

Someone requested my recipe for Vietnamese eggrolls. My mother wrote up her recipe several years ago and gave it to me when I went off to college. These are the eggrolls that I remember her making when I was growing up. Since then, she has changed her recipe quite a bit. She now uses pork instead of turkey. I have stuck to the old recipe and really enjoy it.

My mom can make a batch of these in one evening for work potlucks or to give to friends. I usually make a lot of them at once, so I only make them once a year for my annual Holiday party.

I used to cut the vegetables by hand but that took a long time. If you have a food processor, it cuts the prep time in half. You can find most of the ingredients in a regular market. However, the wood ear mushrooms and eggroll wrappers are usually found in Asian markets.

I also make a vegan version of these rolls by replacing the turkey with 2 slabs of firm tofu that I have broken into pieces. After I have mixed the ingredients, I allow them to sit in a strainer overnight to leech out some of the water. This makes the rolls easier to cook and they are less likely to break apart. To seal the rolls, I use a mixture of water and flour rather than egg. And I make a dipping sauce with soy sauce.

Eggrolls

2 lbs cabbage, shredded
3/4 lb onion, shredded
4 carrots, peeled and shredded
1 bag bean thread or rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes and cut into strips
1/2 oz dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, rinsed and then chopped into strips
2 lbs ground turkey
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt
1 tbs black pepper
1/6 tbs MSG
2 bags eggroll wrappers
1 egg, slightly beaten
Vegetable oil

Mix all of the ingredients together up to MSG. The wrappers are frozen and need to sit on the counter for a couple of hours to thaw. To wrap, place a wrapper in front of you on its point so that it looks like a diamond. Put 1-2 tbs of the mixture on the top third of the diamond. Shape the mixture into a longish tube. Fold in the sides. Fold the top point down over the mixture and continue to roll the wrapper until you have about 1/4 inch of wrapper left. Smear that part with some egg and roll the wrapper over to seal.

This recipe makes 50 eggrolls. You can make make the mixture and wrap the rolls one day ahead. If you're stacking the rolls for storing overnight, be sure to slip in some wax paper to keep the top stacks from sticking to the bottom.

When you're ready to fry them, heat a pan with at least 2 inches of oil in it to 275 Fahrenheit. Drop in a few rolls and cook them until they are golden brown on the outside. To make sure they are cooked through, you can cut into one and if the cabbage is translucent, then the roll is done.

I serve these rolls with a dipping sauce made with equal parts fish sauce, sugar, water and white vinegar. Mix all of the ingredients together until the sugar is fully dissolved. You can add shredded carrots and sliced garlic for more flavor.

To make a meal, you can serve cut eggrolls on top of a bed of rice noodles with shredded lettuce, carrots, basil, mint and bean sprouts with the dipping sauce on the side.