Lumpia (Filipino egg rolls)

Drum roll, please...

You guys kept asking for it, and here you have it! This is one of the most famous Filipino dishes amongst Americans, next to Adobo. I have had so many people ask me for this recipe, but up until a couple of weeks ago, I'd never attempted it on my own. My mother and I used to roll the egg rolls together and I always use to enjoy fixing this with her. I remember her using the recipe as a way to make a little extra money because everyone absolutely loved her egg rolls.

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a big Filipino cooking kick (for lack of a better word) and I tried everything from lumpia to mungo beans to pancit. I loved the way every single one of the recipes turned out but since this is such a popular one, I figured I would share this now.

This recipe means  a lot to me because, like I said, my mother use to make it with me and it was kind of our bonding time, so it was very hard for me to decide whether or not I would share this. Even now, I'm having second thoughts. :) After doing a little research, I got an idea of exactly how my mom did hers. It brought tears to my eyes when I tasted it and it tasted just like hers. Proud is an understatement!

INGREDIENTS:

1 LB Ground beef

2 Cups cabbage, thinly sliced

1 cup shredded carrots, shredded

1/2 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3-4 tbsp soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 package lumpia wrappers

Vegetable oil

PREPARATION:

If your lumpia wrappers (which, by the way, you can find at the Oriental Market or any Asian market) are frozen, you want to let them thaw out for at least two hours. While I was letting mine thaw out, I went to the grocery store to kill time and clean up. Just so you know, I was pretty excited about making lumpia again! :)

After getting everything chopped, sliced, and ready to go, go ahead and start cooking your ground beef. You're going to need a pretty large frying pan or wok to get all of the ingredients in there, so be prepared!

When the ground beef is no longer pink, drain off most of the grease and throw in the rest of the vegetables, soy sauce, and salt and pepper. Let the vegetables cook for about 5-8 minutes over medium heat. You don't want the cabbage and carrots soft because (as stated several times before) I like the vegetables with a crunch. You definitely want these vegetables to be a little raw because when you begin to fry the egg rolls, the vegetables with cook a little more.

Now for the hard part: pulling the egg roll wrappers apart one by one. Believe me, it's a pain in the rear! Just make sure that when you are pulling the wrappers apart, start from one corner or edge, and slowly, and I do mean very slowly pull the wrapper back. If you do it too fast, you're going to rip it!

After all of the wrappers are pulled apart, you're going to start filling them. I usually put about three small spoonfuls in the middle of the wrapper.

Next you're going to fold the wrapper up and over the filling. You're going to want to use very gentle movements with your fingers so that you don't tear the wrapper, which is very easy to do!

Now you're going to gently fold the right side (or left, whichever you feel more comfortable with) over and you'll do the other side exactly the same.

Once your wrapper looks somewhat like an envelope, you're going to want to secure your egg roll. When I secure my egg rolls, I use a small bowl (about 1/4 of a cup) of vegetable oil, get my fingers wet with the oil, and wet the edge of the egg roll wrapper with it. The oil is used as an adhesive to keep the wrapper together. Once this is wet enough, I roll my egg roll up and lay it edge-down in my casserole dish so that the weight of the egg roll will keep it from coming open.

This recipe should make right at about 25 egg rolls.

After I'm done making all of my egg rolls, I like to freeze mine overnight. You don't have to do this, but I do it because I know that the wrappers will be completely secured and they're much less likely to bust open while frying.

When I'm ready to fry my lumpia, I usually put about a cup or so of vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry them like that. There are several ways that you can fry an egg roll, but this is the way I prefer to do it. I usually let them fry on each side for about one minutes turning them 3 or 4 times until each side of the egg roll is golden brown. Be careful and make sure you watch them closely because they burn quickly! Not that I would know, of course! ;)

This last picture is the sauce that I like to use with my egg rolls. It's actually a Thai sauce! My family introduced this to me a few weeks ago when I went to their house for dinner. It's delicious! I have an egg roll sauce recipe that my mother used to make me make for our guests when they would come over, but I haven't made it in years so I am going to hold off on tell you guys how to make it right now.

I really hope you all enjoy recipe as much as we do. Even my fiance (who, by the way, is one of the pickiest eaters I have ever met) told me it's the second best egg roll he's ever had, so I was definitely happy with the results!

*Note: I don't mind anyone messaging me and commenting on my Facebook statuses about the recipes, but my blog doesn't look like it's getting any love. Only I can see the awesome amount of traffic it's getting when I look at my stats, so please comment here too! It'd make me super happy! Thanks! :) :) :)*