When my mom's cancer returned last year, one of the first things that she and I talked about was having me learn how to cook many of the recipes I grew up with. Though I do have written "recipes" of these dishes, most of them are written in what I call "Grandma's Style"...Take some pork, cook it with some onions and garlic and then add some of this and that and cook until done. I need more direction...how much pork? How much of this and that? Is done when the meat is cooked or do you mean simmer on the stove for an hour? Plus, I found that some of the recipes left out important steps (like when I made Grandma Rosie's Garbonzo Stew and the directions never mentioned adding some water...it was something that my Mom knew automatically to do, but it never made it into any of the steps).
Since my mom was born in the Philippines (she lived there until she was twelve) a lot of the comfort food she has been craving in her illness has been Filipino food. I grew up with my Moms wonderful FIlipino cooking and in fact her Pansit is on the top of the list as my most favorite food dish ever (a dish that has become standard Thanksgiving fare for us instead of a turkey). Over the years, while my mom has cooked Filipino dishes on a regular basis, the one that she hasn't made for quite a while has been Lumpia. I always thought it was a long involved process, probably because the last time Mom and I made Lumpia was for a party almost 30 years ago, where we prepped hundreds of the little rolls to be fried later in the day.
Lumpia is not as difficult or time consuming as you might think. There is a bit of prep (that can be done the night before) and once you get the hang of how to wrap them it's a quick process.To be quite honest, my first wrapped Lumpia were a mess. But after wrapping a few, I got the hang of it and they turned out like the little beauty above. Yes, there is only a photo of one Lumpia...we were eating them as fast as I was cooking them!
My Moms Lumpia is not the standard Lumpia you'll find in most restaurants. It's probably not the Lumpia you'll find made in your Filipino neighbors kitchen. In fact, it's probably not the same Lumpia many of my Aunties and cousins make. That's because, like many cultural dishes, each cook has put their own spin on a dish, changing up ingredients whether it's because of cost or availability or convenience. We've never made the slim "finger size" Lumpia, ours has always been more the size of standard Chinese Egg Rolls. This is the same recipe that my Mom has been making since I was a kid.
ROZ'S LUMPIA
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
Bacon grease
2 cans french style green beans
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 large onion minced
2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic from a jar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Rice Flour Lumpia Wrappers
Egg White for sealing edges
Vegetable oil for frying
Vinegar and chopped or crushed garlic for dipping
Saute onions in the bacon grease until almost translucent. Add garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add beef and pork and cook until done. Drain mixture in colander.
Drain the cans of french cut green beans in a colander.
Wash and dry bean sprouts.
Once everything has drained, mix meat mixture with green beans and sprouts. Add salt and pepper.
Take small spoonfuls of mixture, put in Lumpia wrapper and wrap into shape.
Heat vegetable oil in pan (doesn't have to be deep oil, a one inch layer works), about medium high. Fry each Lumpia 15-30 seconds in the oil, turning the roll so it gets golden brown all over. Remove and put on a paper towel lined plate to soak up any additional oil.
NOTE: Draining in a colander is an important step. You want as much moisture out of the ingredients as you can, otherwise you will have soggy Lumpia (and especially if you are making these ahead of time and freezing or cooking later). After letting the meat mixture sit in a colander for a bit, I turned it out onto some paper towels and pretty much let any grease or water soak up. I did this with the green beans too and was surprised at how much liquid they contained. I used a lot of paper towels drying those beans!).
NOTE: There are specific wrappers made for Lumpia. The ones I bought were actually a bit dry right out of the package which made it difficult to wrap without them breaking. Next time I'll try a different brand of wrappers (if you don't have a FIlipino store near you, a lot of Asian markets do sell them). Be sure to keep them under a wet towel while your working so that they don't dry out. My mom has a recipe for making the wrappers from scratch which I'll have to try someday.
NOTE: I'm not going to try to explain how to wrap the Lumpia. I went online and looked up videos of Lumpia wrapping (yes, there are quite a few). It's similar to wrapping a burrito in that you put the mixture on one side, roll, then pull the sides in and roll again.
NOTE: Because the wrapper seems a bit big and you're making more of an egg roll size roll, you might try to put more filling in the wrapper than is necessary. I kept breaking the wrapper until I put much less filling in. This gives the Lumpia lots of wrapper to get that nice crunch.
NOTE: Per Mom, the filling is already cooked so you just want to heat it up a bit with the frying and crisp the outside wrapper. If you've made the filling the night before, let it come to room temperature before wrapping. Basically you are frying the wrapper so it looks nice and just heating up the filling. Depending on how hot your oil is (we just fried in a stove top wok but plan on using a cast iron skillet next time) you may fry these more or less than the 15-30 seconds.
NOTE: I fried these one at a time because we were pretty much eating them as they were cooked. Some of the ones towards the end came out a bit dark because I was running out of oil. Best to start with a good amount of oil or add more as you go. You can obviously fry more than one at a time.
NOTE: If one of the wrappers breaks while frying, do try to get as much of the filling out of the oil as possible, otherwise it burns and colors the oil and doesn't make for pretty Lumpia.
NOTE: This may seem a bit bland so adding a good amount of garlic and salt and pepper to the filling helps. Also, we dip our Lumpia in a mixture of vinegar and garlic which to me makes the dish. There is special FIlipino vinegar if you can find it, but we've used apple cider and white rice vinegar.
NOTE: My mom has also made this with potato...You would want to dice them real small.
Obviously, you can add other ingredients to the filling. You can usually find julienned carrots, cabbage and other assorted vegetables in most Lumpia. You can go all pork. You can add some shrimp. You can doctor this up all you want. But for my Mom and I, this is Lumpia.
