Lumpiang Shanghai

Fantastical Filipino Foods…that phrase sums up how my family and I feel about food and our culture. In my childhood home, my dad cooked more than my mom did (still true to this day). This was a result of my father being the baby of 8 siblings and spending lots of time with my Lola (grandmother in Tagalog, one of the many the dialects of the Philippines) in the kitchen. My father is an amazing cook and seldom writes any recipes down. He, like both of my grandmothers, can cook from memory. This is of course is a great thing, but it can be quite annoying to a daughter (me) who doesn’t want to forget anything, including her family’s delicious recipes.

This was my first attempt at making lumpiang shanghai. It is still my favorite Filipino dish at crazy Filipino family gatherings and holidays. Lumpiang are spring rolls which originally came from China. These were brought over to the Philippines by Chinese immigrants, and the Filipinos adopted them in their own way. There are three main ways they are served and also thus named: lumpiang sariwà, lumpiang hubàd, and lumpiang shanghai. The first are fresh spring rolls which are usually filled with hearts of palm, chicken, and crushed peanuts, wrapped in lettuce leaves and an egg crepe. They are served with a broth type sauce with minced garlic. The second name literally means naked spring rolls. It is the same as the lumpiang sariwà without the egg crepe. The last and final type is the type we are talking about here. It usually has ground pork or beef mixed with carrots, onions, and spices. It is served in the Philippines by street vendors and usually comes with a sweet and sour type sauce.

This is my family’s lumpia (as we call it for short) recipe as best as I could translate it from my dad’s memory. I love sharing a little bit of my childhood with y’all!

With LOVE from Texas,
The Pint-Sized Mayo

Lumpiang Shanghai

Yields 30 Mini Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/2 a carrot, minced finely or chopped in a food processor
• 1 small onion, minced finely or chopped in a food processor
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1 package of spring roll wrappers (approximately 5″x5″)
• 1 egg white
• Vegetable Oil
• Thai Chili Sauce

Directions:

The night before place the frozen spring roll wrappers in the fridge to slowly thaw out. (These spring rolls are found in the freezer section of Asian markets. It is very hard to find them in regular grocery stores.)

Fill the bottom of a large frying pan with about 1/2-inch of vegetable oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. While heating, put the pork, carrot, onion, salt, and pepper  in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

Once seasoned, grab a ball of meat and test cook it in the hot oil. Drain it on place with a paper towel. Turn off burner on the stove.

Once it has cooled down, taste it to make sure your seasoning is satisfactory. Add more salt or pepper if necessary. Carefully separate the spring roll wrappers. Make sure you have enough room for a little assembly line.

Dip a brush (I just use my pointer finger) in the egg white and cover the edge of the 3 sides with it. Grab a  heaping tablespoon of filling, and roll it into the same thickness of about a Crayola marker. Place it on the only edge of the square that does not have egg white on it. Roll and pinch the sides as you go from the meat side to the egg white side. Seal the lumpia roll on all edges.

Continue until there is no more filling left.*

To cook the lumpia, reheat the oil in the pan to medium-high heat again.  Gently place the lumpia into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes total (if frying from a frozen state, it will take about 2 minutes longer).

Once each lumpia has cooked, place on a plate with a paper towel to drain the excess oil.

Serve immediately with jasmine rice and Thai chili sauce.

*Chef’s Note: This is the point where you would freeze the lumpia if needed for a later time.

Enjoy!! I find these lumpia to be Imeldific!

“I was born ostentatious. They will list my name in the dictionary someday. They will use ‘Imeldific’ to mean ostentatious extravagance.” -Imelda Marcos, Former First Lady of the Philippines in 1965-1986