Lumpia Recipe (Filipino Egg Rolls)

This is a recipe that I learned from my Filipino mother. I love this recipe for Lumpia because it appeals to more palette than your regular egg rolls that are over packed with vegetables. My mom's recipe has more of an American taste for the Asian appetizer that it is.

The first thing you'll need is:

A lot of patience! Especially if you have never worked with Lumpia wrappers before. The Lumpia wrappers [available at most local Asian Food Market these days] are very thin sheets of dough that you will use to wrap your fillings. For some reason and I have never understood this; they package the Lumpia wrappers all stuck together. Leaving it very difficult to separate them from one another. Recently, they have began selling Lumpia wrappers individually separated. However, they only sell 25 sheets per pack instead of the normal 50 per package. It also cost a few cents more; so depending on your time and patience that is your choice to make. To me the extra few cents spent is worth it, especially if preparing for a party or wedding. Please don't let this discourage you from making this tasty treat! The time is surely worth the end product and you will definitely have future requests for this appetizer.

Now for the Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 teaspoon or 2 cloves minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons season salt
• 1 package of 50 Lumpia Wrappers or 2 packages of 25 individually separated Lumpia Wrappers
• 1-1 1/2 cup(s) vegetable or olive oil
• Small bowl of water

First, you'll want to brown your ground beef with your chopped onions, shredded carrots, garlic, pepper, and season salt, over medium high heat in a skillet or frying pan. (I recommend using a frying pan that is at-least 1 1/2" to 2" deep. I use the same pan to fry the lumpia in once it is rolled and finished.) When the meat is nice and brown drain the excess grease and set aside.

Now, here comes the fun part. Separate the Lumpia wrappers. In all my years of making Lumpia I have not found any easy way to separate this darn things but I will tell you how I do it; maybe you can come up with an easy way. The wrappers need to be defrosted if they are frozen. You'll also want to have a plate to set them on as well as a damp kitchen towel to cover them, we don't want our wrappers to dry out! Open the package and take out the stack of Lumpia wrappers, start at the edges and gently start peeling the edges upward, continue around and round until you eventually get to the center and loosen the individual sheet off of the stack. Now, place the loose sheet on your plate under the damp towel or cloth. And basically repeat until the stack or package is done. Sounds easy right? It's not! It will take you a few times of separating before you get the hang of it, probably midway between the stack.

We are now ready to assemble our Lumpia Rolls.

• Take 1 of the Lumpia wrappers and spoon 1-2 tablespoons of your ground beef mixture into a line near the edge on the Lumpia wrapper.
• Fold Lumpia wrapper over the line of meat you just spooned.
• Now, you will begin to roll the meat into a tube. Stop rolling when you are to the middle of the wrapper.
• Fold the right and left sides of the lumpia wrapper to the center
• Continue to roll to the end of the wrapper
• Dip your fingers in the small bowl of water and lightly moisten the exposed edge of the lumpia wrapper
• Fold wrapper edge onto itself pressing it down gently. So it seems to glue itself down.
• Place to the side for now and repeat, repeat, repeat! Until there isn't anymore wrappers or meat left.

All that's left to do now is heat your oil in your frying pan on medium high heat. You only need about 1/2" of oil across the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot place about 4-5 Lumpia across the pan and lightly brown each side of the lumpia. About 3-5 minutes each side. It will also vary with your stove. So if it seems like they are burning quickly turn your burner down. They should be a nice golden brown color. Now you want to let them cool and drain some of the excess grease off of them. My mother and I have always used a colander, feel free just to set them on paper towels or napkins. Repeat until you've made desired amount or they are all done. You can store extras(before they are fried in oil!) in the freezer to fry later on. That's another great benefit to this recipe, you can make 50 at a time and only fry 10 one day and saved the others for when you feel like it.

Voila! You've just made Lumpia! It's okay if they're not all perfect or the same size. Over time you will learn how to make them all uniform. Trust me it took me years to master the art of Lumpia rolling.

You can use any type of dipping sauce you prefer. My choice is pain old ketchup. I know some people who like to use the store bought sweet and sour sauce and duck sauce. Some people like them plain. They are great either way. But I strongly recommend trying them with ketchup. They're a perfect pair!

Once you master this base recipe you can always make your own variations to it and make it you own. You could add your favorite vegetables like shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, sliced celery, ect. You can even change the type of ground meat; my mother sometimes used ground beef and pork together. You could probably also use ground turkey. Whatever your preference, whatever your favorites are the possiblities of different combinations are endless with this base idea.

I love this recipe because of its versatility and its appeal. This is a great appetizer for all occasions like office/work parties, weddings, funerals, holidays, and birthdays. Your family, friends and guest will not be let down. You will see with your own eyes that it is the first appetizer to dissappear. The recipe makes approximately 50 Lumpias (provided you didn't rip and tear any wrappers) so just double, triple, or quadruple the recipe when making it for parties. Think 2-3 Lumpia per person.

I hope you try this and love it!