Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Nhems)

mo in fla's Note:

My mother-in-law taught me how to make Nhems when I lived in Tahiti on the island of Moorea. I have yet to meet anyone who could eat just one. I prefer to use chicken for the filling. What is nice about Nhems is they a similar to egg rolls or spring rolls but are much lighter in texture.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

Yield: 25.0 egg rolls

• 2 ounces cellophane noodles
• 3 chicken quarters , skinned and boned and ground
• 1 medium onion , finely chopped
• 3 green onions , chopped fined including the greens
• 4 garlic cloves , finely chopped
• 0.5 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts , diced
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (Nuccman, this brand is so common it is sold in oriental section of any name grocery store)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper
• 1 (7 ounce) can crabmeat , cartilage removed and meat flaked (optional)

DIPPING SAUCE

• 1⁄8; cup water
• 1⁄8; cup fish sauce
• ½ small lemon, juice of
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon flaked red chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 3 green onions , chopped fine

PREPARATIONS FOR ASSEMBLING

• 20 sheets rice paper sheets (banh trang)
• 2 eggs , well beaten
• 2 cups peanut oil

ACCOMPANIMENTS FOR SERVING

• fish sauce (Nuccman)
• 1 large lettuce leaf
• mint leaf
• fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Mix filling ingredients together, I do this with my hands.
2. The sauce is personal so you have to play with it until you get the taste you like.
3. FILLING:
4. Boil water in tea kettle or pot.
5. Place noodles in bowl and poor boiled water to cover.
6. Let sit while preparing other ingredients.
7. When ready to use, drain and place back in bowl. Cut many times with scissors.
8. Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and squish it all together like you were preparing meatloaf; set aside.
9. Use the small round rice papers I use a big dish towel and leave it pretty wet and stretch it out on the kitchen counter.
10. I then place a bowl of warm sugar water big enough to accommodate a whole rice paper (the sugar in the water makes the Nhems crispier when frying). Use 1 tbsp to 1 cup of water make sure it is dissolved.
11. Next to it, I place my bowl of chicken mixture, and next to that my bowl with 2 beaten eggs.
12. I have a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and sprinkled with cornstarch or a plate prepared the same way depending on how many I make.
13. I also keep a bowl of water in the sink so I can rinse the goo of my fingers (it's sticky). I can usually fit 6 rice papers on my dish towel.
14. Dip each on in the bowl of sugar water for 30 seconds, flip it over wait 30 seconds.
15. Place softened paper on wet dish towel.
16. Continue with this process until you have as many rice papers as you can fit on your towel.
17. With a pastry brush, or fingers paint the beaten egg over the top edges of each of the pieces.
18. When the wrapper looks soft and transparent, place about 1 heaping tbsp of filling near the bottom, Fold bottom up just to cover filling.
19. Fold the sides towards middle keeping mixture firmly tucked into place continue to roll.
20. Place on cookie sheet or plate.
21. At this point you can cover with Saran Wrap and cook later.
22. Cooking:.
23. Put 2 inches of peanut oil in a large pan bring to a med high heat and fry Nhems until golden. This will take about 20 minutes.
24. To serve the spring rolls, proceed as follows:
25. Arrange the ingredients for the vegetable platter of large lettuce leaves and mint leaves. Using fingers Place Nhem in lettuce leaf cover with a couple mint leaves.
26. Dip in sauce and try to eat just one!

Reviews

[AmiBeth]

I can't believe how easy these were! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!!!

[Shasha]

I didn't like the taste of the filling. But the rolls fried up nicely.

[riffraff]

These took about 2 hours to complete from start to finish. I will probably mix the filling ahead of time next time and roll them later in the day or the next day to break up the work. I used ground turkey and we thought the texture of the filling was good. The water chestnuts added a wonderful crunch. Needed a little something I think but that could be salt as I was afraid to add too much with the fish sauce and the soy sauce being so salty. I ended up with 30 rolls rather than the 20 stated on the recipe but fortunatly I had enough wrappers and will freeze the rest for another time.