Cha gio (spring rolls)

Yield: 80 Servings

Ingredients:

2 oz Cellophane noodles soaked i -n warm water for 20 mi
1 lb Ground pork
1 Large onion finely chopped
2 tb Tree ears soaked in warm wa -ter for 30 minutes th
3 Cloves garlic finely choppe -d
3 Shallots or white part of 3 -scallions finely chop
1 c Crab meat; cartilage remove -d and meat flaked
1/2 ts Freshly ground black pepper
20 Sheets dried rice papers (ba -nh trang)
4 Eggs; well beaten
2 c Oil

Instructions:

peanut Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Cut a round rice paper sheet into quarters. Place the cut rice paper on a flat surface. With a pastry brush paint beaten egg over the entire surface of each of the pieces. Before filling wait for egg mixture to take effect softening the wrappers; this takes about 2 minutes. When you become adept at this you can work on several wrappers at a time. When the wrapper looks soft and transparent place about 1 tsp. of filling near the curved side in the shape of a rectangle. Fold the sides over to enclose the filling and continue to roll. After filling all the wrappers pour the oil into a large frying pan put the spring rolls into the cold oil turn the heat to moderate and fry for 20 to 30 minutes until a lovely golden brown. (This is Bach's special method of keeping spring rolls crisp).