Photo of Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio) courtesy of Secrets of the Red Lantern Cookbook! It’s gorgeous!
**Make sure you read through to the end…I’ve got a copy of Secrets of the Red Lantern to giveaway to you!**
One of the books that is always near my nighstand is the absolutely stunning 
Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen. I was in Los Angeles at the famous Cook’s Libarary bookstore and was drawn in by the gorgeous cover artwork. I picked up the volumous 345 page book and simply could not put it down. No, seriously, I did not let this baby out of my sight the rest of the trip and even chose to pack my laptop in my suitcase and instead brought Secrets of the Red Lantern in my carry-on baggage.
Baby, that’s true love.
I got a chance to chat with the lovely Pauline Nguyen last night and just couldn’t wait to share her recipe for Vietnamese Spring Rolls or Cha Gio with you. At her restaurant, Red Lantern, this dish is called “Red Lantern Crisp Parcels.”
Continue reading RED LANTERN CRISP PARCELS (CHA GIO OR SPRING ROLLS)
Secrets of the Red Lantern book is part cookbook, part bittersweet memoir of the Nguyen family’s escape from war-ravaged Vietnam and their struggles as they adapt to the harsh refugee life and finally making their lives in Australia. Pauline bares her soul in this debut book – it will make you smile, laugh, cry and even fume with anger. There are links at end of post to others who have written fabulous reviews of her book, so I won’t go in much detail here, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of Pauline, mom of Mia and soon to be mom of baby #2. Oh yes, and to give you her recipe for Vietnamese Spring Rolls too!
Pauline Nguyen, author of Secrets of the Red Lantern
Pauline lives in Australia and I live in Florida, so you can imagine the very thin snippet of the day where our two schedules can meet for an uninterrupted phone call! Luckily, I’m a total night owl and call her 12:30AM my time, which was 4:30PM her time. And guess where she took my call?
Summer.
35C/95F degrees
Beach.
Sydney, Australia.
Ooooh….I wanted to be right there on the beach with her! Oh yeah.
Pauline Nguyen took two years off from the busy restaurant business (oh yes, Red Lantern is the name of her restaurant she owns with her brother Luke and partner Mark) to write this book, and she penned this memoir as a heirloom for her now 4-year old daughter, Mia.
More on my phone chat with Pauline Nguyen in another post (and yes, another recipe from her book in the next post too). In the meantime, enjoy her recipe for Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio).
PrintVietnamese Spring Rolls Recipe (Cha Gio)
(Red Lantern Crisp Parcels)
From Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen
2¾ ounces dried bean thread noodles (or mung bean noodles)
1¾ ounces dried mushroom strips, such as wood ear mushrooms or Chinese black fungus
½ pound ground pork
½ pound ground chicken
1 pound carrots, grated
½ onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons fine white pepper
1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
20 spring (egg) roll wrappers, 8½ inches square
Dipping fish sauce, for serving
Soak the noodles and mushroom strips separately in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain and drip dry in a colander. Cut the noodles into 1½-inch-long pieces, then combine with all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Cut the spring roll wrappers diagonally to form two triangles, then separate them into single sheets. Place a piece of wrapper on a plate with the base of the triangle facing you. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the mixture onto the middle of the bottom edge of the wrapper and fold the two adjacent sides, one on top of the other into the center. Roll toward the apex to form a nice firm roll, and secure with a dab of flour mixed with some water. Repeat until you have filled all of the wrappers.
When freshly rolled, the cha gio can be deep-fried in oil preheated to 350 degrees F or until a cube of bread dropped in the oil browns in 15 seconds. Alternatively, you can store them in the freezer and cook when needed.
These can be cooked and eaten on their own, dipped in dipping fish sauce, or placed on top of a dressed vermicelli salad. At Red Lantern, we like to wrap the parcels in lettuce with herbs and serve with dipping fish sauce.
Note: Be sure you use the spring roll wrappers as soon as they thaw.
MAKES 40
Vietnamese Spring Rolls Dipping Sauce Recipe (Nuoc Mam Cham)
From Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen
3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cloves garlic
1 bird’s-eye chili
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Combine the fish sauce, rice vinegar, 1/2 cup of water, and sugar in a
saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir well and cook until just before
boiling point is reached, then allow to cool. To serve, finely chop the
garlic and chile and stir in the lime juice. To liven it up, add pickled
vegetables.
MAKES 1 CUP
***
Reviews on Pauline Nguyen’s Secrets of the Red Lantern Cookbook
White On Rice Couple – plus recipe for Tamarind Crab and Tamarind Shrimp
Global Gourmet – plus recipe for Steamed Cockles or Periwinkle, Bittermelon Stuffed with Pork and Black Fungus, Wok-tossed Water Spinach
with Fermented Bean Curd Sauce
and of course good ‘ol Amazon.com where you can purchase the Secrets of the Red Lantern book.
***
Secrets of the Red Lantern Cookbook Giveaway!
<– this copy for you
My friends, since there is NO WAY I would give away my copy of Secrets of the Red Lantern Cookbook, Pauline was kind enough to have the publisher provide a copy for one lucky ducky reader.
I’ll hold the super-secret, super-random drawing on Valentine’s Day! If you’d like to enter…it’s easy. Just comment below and tell me what filling you like to have in your Spring Rolls!
{ 271 comments… read them below or add one }
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I was just looking for a recipe for Vietnamese spring rolls (the fried variety) and this is perfect!
For the variety that’s not cooked, I like to put finely sliced cucumbers & leeks, ground pork sauteed in garlic, rice vermicelli, mint and coriander leaves.
For the fried variety I like ground pork & mung bean noodles. I’m not a big fan of carrots but if they’re in there I’ll eat them. To be honest I’d wrap a lot of strange things in the egg roll wrappers but they wouldn’t be spring rolls anymore if I filled them with mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes and a fresh basil leaf.
Hi. Thanks for the great post. I think I would want a vegetarian filling…because I have 2 daughters who are vegetarian and it would be nice to learn to cook for them – lol – lol – what a mom! Jeannie
I like shitaki mushrooms, bamboo shoots, shrimp and pork, with a few beanspouts and shredded carrots! Yum! Yum!
I like mushrooms & scallions with cream cheese. Delicious! Also, fried egg with caramelised onion.
yummy!
I’m a firm believer in everything tastes good in a spring roll. My dormmate and I would essentially take any leftover meat that we had, wrap it with some lettuce, cucumbers, herbs and noodles and that’d be our delicious healthy dinner. As for the fried variety, it wouldn’t be complete without taro.
I like shredded carrots, mushrooms, celery, cellophane noodles, wood ears, and bamboo shoots in my spring rolls- meat optional.
Jaden, I have a question about this recipe. Are you SURE it contains one POUND of carrots, grated? That seems like a lot for one pound of ground meat. I thought maybe it was a typo of some kind. Curious cooks want know! If I had the cookbook, I could check, but alas not.
When it comes to spring rolls, I go with the classic bean noodles, pork and shredded veggies. Of course, anything tastes good deep-fried, so I’m not going to be fussy!
I’d like Pork and veggies in mine. I love spring rolls, much lighter and crisper than egg rolls.
Just by reading your post I’m completely sold and intensely craving spring rolls. I prefer my with bean thread/veggie/pork filling but when necessity and/or boredom strikes I grab just about anything from the fridge.
My favorite filling is my mom’s popiah filling made with shredded jicama, cabbage, carrots, pork, shrimp, and a whole lot more!
Grated turnip, carrot, mushroom and pork seasoned with lots of pepper would be great in spring rolls!
I like my springrolls with shrimp and cilantro!
My hubby makes really yummy spring rolls with crab meat instead of shrimps,pork,jicama, cabbages, carrots, bean thread noodle, blacfungus and his secret seasonings…and they are sooo good.
The vendor at my church in Bandung, Indonesia sold the best spring roll. He would spread the spring roll skin with a combination of Javanese brown sugar cooked with diluted cornstarch the he would cook the filling on the spot of mashed garlic and shallot, lots of beansprouts,chopped jicama and chopped bamboo shot. He did not fry the spring roll instead he put all the filling over the diluted cornstarch and brown sugar and wrapped them with a fresh spring roll skin…and he would add lots of sambal oelek if I request for an extra spicy one!
Love the pork and shittake mushroom combo, all minced together. Just like I had them when I went to Vietnam this fall!
Did I miss it, who won the cookbook???
This recipe is awsome for my son’s and his beautiful bride’s upcoming wedding. I was looking for a recipe for some Asian appetizers to make, to honor the part Vietnameze heritage of my future daughter in law. It’s funny her maternal grandfather’s last name was Nguyen, they were in Vietnam searching for long lost relatives this summer…sad story, very difficult to find any information, as they tell me the last name Nguyen is very common in Vietnam because of the Nguyen dynasty.
Thanks to you and Pauline for this wondrful recipe, aand if I can’t win the book I will definetely buy it, I know it will make a very nice gift
love cha gio. i also like the non fried vietnamese spring roll.
my favorite fillings are shrimp (grills if possible) and ground chicken with carrots, shitake mushroom and some herb.
I am anxious to try this recipe. I did recently purchase what said to be rice roll wrappers, but don’t look anything close to what I have seen in these pictures. They look dry and brittle. Unfortunately for the poor student, I will be cutting all the vegetables by hand. I am curious on the details of the mentioned book. I will be checking it out at my local book giant. Will let ya know how it turned out.
John
you can still use rice wrappers and fry them or use them like this: Vietnamese Summer Rolls ~jaden
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