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plate of Vietnamese fried spring rolls with lime and lettuce leaves behind
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5 from 2 votes

Vietnamese fried spring rolls - cha gio

These tasty bites are crisp on the outside with a delicious and flavorful filling. Great as an appetizer.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time5 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Appetizer/Starter
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Servings: 12 rolls
Calories: 203kcal
Author: Caroline's Cooking
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Ingredients

For spring rolls

  • ¼ cup dried wood ear mushroom (¼ cup is around ½ oz)
  • 1 oz dried vermicelli noodles traditionally mung bean, can be rice - also called cellophane noodles
  • 2 shallots
  • 1 carrot
  • ½ lb ground pork
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 12 spring roll wrappers (see notes)

To cook

  • ½ cup soybean oil or canola oil, or more as needed

For nuoc cham

  • ½ red chili small, or more/less to taste
  • ½ clove garlic
  • 2 tablespoon water
  • 1 ½ tablespoon lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • ½ tablespoon sugar
  • teaspoon salt

To serve

  • butter or red lettuce leave, herbs such as cilantro, Vietnamese mint and/or perilla

Instructions

For spring rolls

  • Place the wood ear mushrooms and vermicelli noodles in small bowls and cover both with hot water. Leave each to sit until the mushrooms expand and the noodles become white, around 5-10 minutes for each. Drain both and chop the mushrooms finely and the noodles into small lengths.
  • As the mushrooms and noodles are soaking, finely chop the shallots and peel and grate the carrot.
  • Mix together the ground pork, mushrooms, noodles, shallots, carrot, salt, pepper and sugar. Use your hands if necessary to mix well (they may not all completely stick together but that's fine). Divide the mixture into 12 relatively equal pieces.
  • Lay one spring roll wrapper on a clean surface with a corner pointing towards you. Have a small bowl of water ready next to you. Fold over the nearest corner of the wrapper inwards to almost the middle of the wrapper and then put one portion of the filling on top in a small log cross-wise near the folded edge.
  • Fold in both sides to just be covering the end of the log and so the folds formed are parallel with each other. Fold the first folded edge over the filling, making sure the sides stay folded in to avoid the filling from escaping, and keep rolling up until only a triangle is left. Try to avoid having much air inside as you roll.
  • Dampen the tip of your finger and moisten the edges of the remaining triangle of the wrapper then keep rolling so that the end of the wrapper sticks flat onto the roll. Repeat with the rest of the wrappers and filling.
  • Warm the oil in a skillet over a medium-high heat (you can either do a few in a smaller skillet at a time and cook more in a larger skillet - it will be quicker more at a time but probably easier to turn before they cook too much if cooking smaller batches). Add the rolls to the oil and cook for around 2-3 minutes on each side until they are golden all over. Remove from the skillet and drain on kitchen paper. Repeat to cook the rest of the rolls, topping up the oil as needed.

For nuoc cham

  • Finely chop the chili and garlic. Combine all ingredients (water, lime, fish sauce, chili, garlic, sugar and salt) and stir so that the sugar dissolves. Use as a dipping sauce for the spring rolls - traditionally you wrap a roll in a lettuce leaf, along with a couple stems of herbs, before dipping.

Video

Notes

Look for the thin spring roll wrappers, not the thicker egg roll wrappers for these.
Wood ear mushrooms can also be called black fungus and are sold as shredded, dried pieces.
Traditionally, these are cooked in a wok-style pan and more deep fried, which you can do if you prefer. Just use a larger quantity of oil if you do, and you will probably only need to turn once. If more shallow frying, as described above, you just need a thin layer of oil in the skillet and may need to turn two or three times to get all sides. 

Nutrition

Calories: 203kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 220mg | Potassium: 110mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 854IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg