Chả Giò Chay | Vegetarian Egg Rolls
Though meatless, these vegetarian egg rolls are far from bland, especially when served over a bed of vermicelli noodles and fresh Vietnamese aromatic herbs and dressed with a <em>nước mắm </em> sauce.
Ingredients
- 500 g firm tofu
- 3-4 carrots, julienned
- 50 g dried shitake mushrooms (about 7-8)
- 50 g beanthread noodles
- 2 tbsp dried woodear mushrooms
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1.5 tsp salt (+/- to taste)
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp potato starch
- 25-30 spring roll wrappers*
- 1 egg, beaten
Instructions
Prepare filling
- In separate bowls, soak the shitake mushrooms, woodear mushrooms, and beanthread noodles in warm water until softened. Slice the shitake mushrooms after rinsing and draining them. Rinse the woodear mushrooms and drain them as well as the beanthread noodles. Then cut them into smaller pieces.
- Thoroughly drain the tofu of its soaking liquid and place in a large bowl. Break the tofu up into smaller pieces, like crumbled feta. Then, place the tofu in a cheesecloth and squeeze out any excess liquid (similar to how you would prepare the tofu for this dish). Return the tofu to the bowl, add the julienned carrots, sliced onions, shitake mushrooms, woodear mushrooms, and beanthread noodles. Add the potato starch and season the filling with salt, sugar, and ground pepper. Mix thoroughly to ensure that the seasoning is evenly distributed. After mixing the ingredients with chopsticks, I then switch to mixing with my hands, gently squeezing the filling as I mix to soften the carrots a bit.
Rolling the egg rolls
- Carefully peel a spring roll wrapper sheet from the stack and place it before you so that one of the ends is pointed towards you, like a rhombus. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the filling onto the sheet 2-3 centimeters from the corner pointing towards you. Fold the corner over the filling and tightly roll it one full rotation. Then fold each side over so that it looks like an elongated envelope. Continue to roll, being sure to roll it tight enough that it won’t fall apart. Seal the egg roll by brushing some of the beaten egg with your finger along the edges of the remaining corner.
Frying
- The best way to fry these egg rolls is in a deep fryer, but I hate cleaning the fryer afterwards. So, I usually fry mine in batches over medium-high heat in a pot filled with at least 4-5 cm of cooking oil (enough oil so that the egg rolls are fully submerged when frying). To gauge if the oil is hot enough, insert a wooden chopstick and if the oil starts to bubble rapidly, then it’s ready. When putting the egg rolls into the pot, don’t overcrowd them. Allow them to cook until they they reach a light, golden color. Immediately, transfer the egg rolls into a fine-meshed sieve to cool.
Serving
- The egg rolls are best served over vermicelli rice noodles and a bed of Vietnamese aromatic herbs with a drizzle of nước mắm sauce. Or if served as an appetizer, they can be eaten by wrapping them in lettuce and aromatic herbs and dipped in nước mắm sauce. For those who would like a truly animal-free version, my nước mắm sauce can be made with soy sauce instead of fish sauce.
Notes
It’s important to thoroughly drain the tofu, mushrooms and beanthread noodles of any excess liquid. Otherwise, the egg rolls will not remain crispy after frying. Also, the spring roll wrappers are usually sold frozen, so take them out of the freezer before you prepare the filling. By the time the filling is ready, the sheets should be defrosted. While rolling the egg rolls, keep the sheets covered with a lightly moistened dish towel to keep them from drying out. *Authentic Vietnamese egg rolls use rice papper wrappers, but I use the Tee Yih Jia brand spring roll wrappers, which are also available at Asian grocery stores in the US. They're much easier to work with than the rice paper, so I highly recommend this brand because the sheets are thin and the egg rolls always come out crispy. A package of 30 25cm sheets should suffice for this recipe.