By Stella Bui-Rivet

These fried spring rolls are a specialty from Quang Ngai, Viet Nam. Although the combination sounds strange, they taste great. Growing up as a little kid in Quang Ngai, my husband used to love to eat these. As he grew older, his mother taught him how to make this special dish. Give them a try and I hope you enjoy them.

Ingredients

• 3 ears of corn
• 1 cup grated coconut
• 1 bunch of green onions
• Rice Paper
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 1 Shallot

Garnish (optional)

• 1 head of Lettuce
• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Tomato

Directions

With a vegetable peeler cut the corn off from the cob, letting all the liquid and pieces fall into a bowl.

Poke a hole in the coconut with a nail and let the liquid drain out. When all the liquid has drained wrap the coconut in a towel and smash it with a hammer to open it. Pop out the flesh from the hard shell you may have to peel off the dark exterior. Grate the coconut with a cheese grater.

Add 1 cup of graded coconut to the bowl with the corn. Add 1 tsp. fish sauce, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper and stir the contents.

Wash the green onions, cut off the majority of the green part and set aside (to use as garnish). Cut the remaining parts into about 1 inch pieces.

Mince the shallot and garlic.

Heat an oiled pan on low heat. Sauté the minced shallot and garlic until lightly golden.

Once the shallot and garlic is golden add the rest of the ingredients and raise the heat to medium. Stir constantly for about a minute. Let cool.

Take one piece of rice paper at a time and soak in warm water until it just starts to get soft. Lay on a cutting board. Take one tablespoon full of the cooled corn and coconut mixture and place in the middle of the wrapper, add one piece of green onion and wrap it all up tightly like an eggroll. (Do this by folding in the left and right sides of the wrapper towards the middle so they meet. Then fold the bottom half up and try and tuck it under the mixture so it is tight and then roll the rest of the way). Place the roll on a plate and continue on to making another piece of rice paper soft. Continue until all the spring rolls are wrapped. Heat a deep edged pan with about 1-2 inches of oil. Fry each of the rolls until golden brown.

Prepare the serving plate with washed lettuce covering the bottom of the plate and arranging sliced tomato and cucumber around the edges. Place the fried spring rolls on the plate in a nice arrangement.

Dip in fish sauce dipping sauce or any other type of dipping sauce you would like. Such as plum, peanut or soy sauce.

By Stella Rivet and Viet Bui