When Brian was small, we belonged to a group of families who had adopted from Vietnam. One of them knew a Vietnamese woman and invited her to be part of our group. This woman taught us how to make Vietnamese egg rolls and won ton soup. Every birthday, this is what Brian requests. So, in honor of his #17, I’m sharing these recipes with you. Today: egg rolls. Please forgive me if this recipe is not precise. She only showed us, never wrote it down, and I’ve only ever made it from memory.

1 package egg roll wrappers
1 pound ground turkey (use can also use ground chicken and probably ground pork)
3 scallions, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoon sugar
dash of pepper
couple of dashes of fish sauce
handful of rice noodles, soaked in hot water until soft (takes about 15 minutes or so)
1 egg, beaten
oil for frying

Mix together ground turkey, scallions, carrot, sugar, pepper and fish sauce. I lay out a few egg roll wrappers at a time. Across the middle, lay a few rice noodles. On top of that put a heaping tablespoon of the meat mixture so that it resembles a hot dog. Don’t go all the way to the ends. Brush all the edges with egg. Be generous. Fold over the edges perpendicular to the meat mixture. Brush both ends with egg. Fold over one end parallel to the meat and roll. Press firmly to seal. Repeat with the other wrappers. If you get helpers in the kitchen, this goes quite fast!

Fry in the oil until golden brown. You can either deep fry or fry in a skillet, turning them once. Drain on paper towel and serve hot with nuoc mam. You can find a recipe for that here.