{"id":10787,"date":"2026-02-15T19:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recipe4thecook.com\/\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:02:50","slug":"fried-spring-rolls-cha-gio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/blog\/2026\/02\/15\/fried-spring-rolls-cha-gio\/","title":{"rendered":"Fried Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"left\"><b><font face=\"comic sans ms\" size=\"5\">Ingredients<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p>8 ounce(s) thin rice vermicelli (bun) or<br \/>\n2 bunch of japanese alimentary paste noodles (somen).<br \/>\nnuoc cham<br \/>\nvegetable platter<br \/>\nfilling<br \/>\n6 dried chinese mushrooms<br \/>\n1 Tbsp. dried tree ear mushrooms<br \/>\n6 water chestnuts or 1\/2 small jicama, peeled and chopped<br \/>\n4 ounce(s) fresh or canned lump crabmeat, picked over and drained<br \/>\n8 ounce(s) raw shrimp, shelled, deveined and minced<br \/>\n12 ounce(s) ground pork shoulder<br \/>\n1 medium onion, minced<br \/>\n4 shallots, minced<br \/>\n4 garlic cloves, minced<br \/>\n2 Tbsp. nuoc mam (vietnamese fish sauce)<br \/>\n1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper<br \/>\n3 eggs assembling and frying<br \/>\n1\/2 C.(s) sugar<br \/>\n80 small rounds of rice paper (banh trang), each 6 1\/2 inches in diameter<br \/>\npeanut oil, for frying<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b><font face=\"comic sans ms\" size=\"5\">Cooking Instructions<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Boil the noodles. Prepare the nuoc cham and vegetable platter. Set aside.  Prepare the filling: soak the two types of mushrooms in hot water until soft, about 30  minutes. Drain. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and squeeze to extract the  liquid. Mince the mushrooms. Combine the mushrooms with the remaining filling  ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands to blend. Set aside.  Assemble the rolls: fill a mixing bowl with 4 C. of warm water and dissolve the sugar  in it. The rice paper sheets are brittle and must be handled with care. (the water is used  to soften the sheets for handling. Sweetening the water helps the rice paper turn a deep  golden color when fried and also produces crisper rolls. ) Work with only 4 sheets of rice  paper at a time, keeping the remaining sheets covered with a barely damp cloth to prevent  curling. One at a time, immerse a sheet in the warm water. Quickly remove it and spread  flat on a dry towel. Do not let the sheets touch each other. The rice paper will become  pliable within seconds.  Fold up the bottom third of each round. Put 1 generous tsp. of filling in the center  of the folded over portion. Press into a compact rectangle. Fold one side of the paper  over the mixture, then the other side. Roll from bottom to top to completely enclose the  filling. Continue until all of the mixture is used.  Fry the rolls: if possible, fry in 2 skillets. Pour 1 to 1 1\/2 inches of oil into each skillet  and heat to 325f. Working in batches, add some of the rolls to each skillet, but do not  crowd or let them touch, or they will stick together. Fry over moderate heat for 10 to 12  minutes, turning often, until golden and crisp. Remove the rolls with tongs and drain on  paper towels. Keep warm in a low oven while frying the remaining rolls.  Traditionally, cha gio is served with the accompaniments suggested in this recipe.  To eat, each diner wraps a roll in a lettuce leaf along with a few strands of noodles and a  variety of other ingredients from the vegetable platter before dipping it in the nuoc cham.  If served as an hors din.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vegetarian<\/p>\n <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/blog\/2026\/02\/15\/fried-spring-rolls-cha-gio\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vegetarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recipes4thecook.com\/vegetarian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}