Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Nhems)

"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."
 
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photo by riffraff photo by riffraff
photo by riffraff
photo by riffraff photo by riffraff
Ready In:
1hr 20mins
Ingredients:
26
Yields:
25-30 egg rolls
Serves:
6-8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Mix filling ingredients together, I do this with my hands.
  • The sauce is personal so you have to play with it until you get the taste you like.
  • FILLING:

  • Boil water in tea kettle or pot.
  • Place noodles in bowl and poor boiled water to cover.
  • Let sit while preparing other ingredients.
  • When ready to use, drain and place back in bowl. Cut many times with scissors.
  • Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and squish it all together like you were preparing meatloaf; set aside.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Next to it, I place my bowl of chicken mixture, and next to that my bowl with 2 beaten eggs.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Dip each on in the bowl of sugar water for 30 seconds, flip it over wait 30 seconds.
  • Place softened paper on wet dish towel.
  • Continue with this process until you have as many rice papers as you can fit on your towel.
  • With a pastry brush, or fingers paint the beaten egg over the top edges of each of the pieces.
  • When the wrapper looks soft and transparent, place about 1 heaping tbsp of filling near the bottom, Fold bottom up just to cover filling.
  • Fold the sides towards middle keeping mixture firmly tucked into place continue to roll.
  • Place on cookie sheet or plate.
  • At this point you can cover with Saran Wrap and cook later.
  • Cooking:

  • 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.
  • To serve the spring rolls, proceed as follows:

  • 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.
  • Dip in sauce and try to eat just one!

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Reviews

  1. I can't believe how easy these were! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!!!
     
  2. I didn't like the taste of the filling. But the rolls fried up nicely.
     
  3. 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.
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

moved to the middle of FL. last Aug 2005 after my hubby passed on.He helped me write a cookbook while we lived in alberta which I will publish one of these days in his memory when I can afford it. I am not working at present,My sister and I are taking care of our elderly parents. For fun, relaxation, and my passion is the garden, and feeding all our baby ducks. when we get a break, its water sports, boating scuba diving in the keys.
 
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