Pritong Lumpiang Gulay (Fried Vegetable Spring Rolls)

Spring rolls come in different size and shapes as well as variations. There are fresh, fried, steamed variants. Also the filling comes in a vast array of versions of which one for fried spring roll I have given here.

Ingredients:

½ kg Ground pork

¼ kg Large prawns, shelled, deveined, chopped

½ kg Mung bean sprouts

¼ kg Sweet potatoes, peeled, julienned

½ cup Carrots, julienned

½ cup Green beans, cut into small pieces

½ tsp. Iodized salt

5 pcs. Garlic, minced

1 pc. Onion, medium, thinly sliced

½ tsp. Black pepper powder

1 tbsp. Safflower oil, for sautéing

1 cup Safflower oil for frying the spring rolls

Lumpia (spring roll wrappers)

Cooking Instruction:

Heat oil in a wok and sauté the garlic and onion until the garlic turns golden brown and the onion starts to caramelize. Add the prawn and stir. Allow to cook for about two minutes. Add the ground pork and stir intermittently to cook the ground pork and to evaporate excess water. Add the black pepper powder, iodized salt. When no more runny water remains. Add the vegetables and toss to mix well. Cook for about two minutes and turn off flame. Do not overcook the vegetables as it will become runny with juices from the vegetables. Anyway, they will be cooked once fried inside the wrapper. Cool and wrap in lumpia wrapper. One piece will contain approximately 2 to 3 heaping tablespoonfuls of the filling. Fold and seal with water.

Heat the oil in a Teflon coated pan and fry the lumpia until golden brown, place on top of paper towels to remove excess fat. . Serve with plain coconut vinegar or you may try out something to improve the vinegar sauce as follows:

Special Vinegar Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup Coconut vinegar

5 pcs. Garlic, minced

1 pc. Onion, small, thinly sliced

½ tsp. Black pepper powder

1 tsp. Premium dark soy sauce

1 ½ tbsp. Brown sugar

2 pcs. Red hot peppers, very thinly sliced

1 pc. Ginger, fresh, thinly sliced and julienned (about ½ tsp.)

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients and a bowl and stand for about 30 minutes. Serve with the lumpia.

Fish Cordon Bleu Spring Rolls

Cordon blue usually employs chicken with fillings of cheese and ham. Spring rolls or ‘lumpia’ is a popular dish which you almost always find in festivities in the Philippines. Sometimes you also find them as part of the ordinary Filipino fare. I have created a recipe which combines the technique making spring rolls with the delicious taste of fish which is accentuated by ham and cheese. Another recipe that has cheese which is one of my favourite food item.

Ingredients:

1 kg Fish fillets (cut into 1 cm width and 7 cm length)

¼ kg Cooked ham (cut into strips almost similar in size as the fish fillets)

Quick melt cheese Cut into strips almost similar in size as the fish fillets)

½ tsp. Black pepper powder

100 pcs. Lumpia wrapper

4 cups Safflower oil (for frying the spring rolls)

Cooking Instruction:

Sprinkle the black pepper powder on the fish fillets and toss to mix well. Wrap in each lumpia wrapper the following in layers. First layer is ham, then cheese in the center and then fish on the top. Seal the spring roll with water and deep fry until the wrapper is golden brown. Place cooked lumpia on paper towels to remove excess fat. Enjoy with ketchup or with sour cream with garlic dip which is prepared as follows:

Sour Cream with Garlic and Herb Dip

Ingredients:

1 cup Sour cream

½ tsp. Garlic powder

½ tsp. Onion powder

1/8 tsp. Freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp. Dried chopped basil

½ tsp. Dried chopped marjoram

¼ tsp. Iodized salt

Preparation of the Dip:

In a suitable bowl, fold in all of the ingredients and serve cold as dip for a variety of dishes like for the spring roll recipe on top. You may also enjoy this dip with fried fish fillets, or with various fried meats like chicken or pork chops.

Spring roll (Lumpiang Shanghai)

Spring rolls come in all sorts of sizes. They also have all sorts of fillings. In the Philippines, they also come in different varieties and recipes which is locally termed as ’lumpia’. This variety of which the recipe I will be sharing is known specifically as ‘Lumpiang Shanghai’. A versatile dish which you can customize to your own taste. This one I reduced the meat content by replacing some of the ground meat with tofu. Still tastes almost similar to the 100% meat spring rolls minus some of the fats.

Ingredients

100 pcs. Spring roll wrappers

¼ kg Lean pork (roughly ground)

3 pcs. Dried shiitake mushrooms (hydrated in about 1/3 cup of water)

¼ kg Tofu (hard, minced into fine cubes)

1 bulb Garlic (fresh, finely minced)

1 pc. Onion (finely minced, medium sized)

¼ cup Celery (finely minced)

¼ cup Carrot (finely minced into small cubes or medium grated)

2 pcs. Eggs (beaten)

3 tbsp. Cornstarch

2 tbsp. Premium dark soy sauce

1 tbsp. Sesame oil

½ tsp. Black pepper (ground)

½ tsp. Iodized salt

2 cups Safflower oil

Cooking Procedure:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl except the spring roll wrapper and sunflower oil. Fold to have uniform mixture. Wrap in spring roll wrapper.

Heat oil in wok or suitable frying pan to near smoke point and fry each of the spring rolls until the wrapper is golden brown. Set aside atop paper towels to absorb excess oil. Enjoy while freshly cooked. It is more appetizing to have it with some dipping sauce like ketchup but the recommended dipping sauce is made of vinegar as follows:

Ingredients for Dipping Sauce:

3 pcs. Garlic (finely minced)

1 pc. Onion (thinly sliced)

1/8 tsp. Black pepper (powder)

½ cup Coconut vinegar

1 pc. Chilli pepper (finely sliced)

1 tbsp. Sugar

¼ tsp. Iodized salt

Preparation of Sauce:

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and set aside for approximately 1 hour before use so that flavours are infused into the vinegar. Serve with the spring rolls.