Revisiting My Friend's Healthier Lumpia

After 11 years, I'm making the popular Filipino spring roll again — with some minor improvements

Still room for improvement, but I got the rolling right for next time. The key is to roll several layers over — either in a large circle or square. Forget the triangles; they show too much filling.

The day finally came for me to revisit my friend’s chicken lumpia, that tasty Filipino potluck snack — made a little healthier. The last time I made a batch, it was May 20, 2011, and my contribution to my son’s end-of-season sports potluck.

I’ve made lumpia several times, also for church. Everyone loves them, even cold and soggy, they’re a crowd favorite.

For bible study tonight, I decide to bust out the old recipe and try again. I learned a few tricks, too. Here are a few:

• Chop onion and mince garlic separately and by hand to avoid excess liquid. If you chop/mince them together in a food blender, you’ll get onion water and have to cook down the filling a little longer.

The second time I made lumpia this week today, I used a mix of Menlo (square) and Simex (round) wrappers. Menlo’s easier to handle, but Simex is thinner. Someone online suggested to wrap in damp towel and microwave for 30 secs. after thawing in fridge overnight or a few hours the day-of on the counter…to avoid tearing and breakage.

• If you have a food processor, use it to grate the carrots and Napa cabbage to save time.

• Thaw lumpia wrappers in the fridge overnight or on the counter for an hour or two the day of.

• Don’t cut your square lumpia wrappers into triangles to save on extras. They tend to not be enough layers, and the filling shows through after frying, which looks a little un-lumpia-like. Keep them square and turn them around into diamonds when rolling the filling like a tight burrito.

• Cut off the hardened dry edges before rolling. Those don’t stick well. And these wrappers will harden, even if you cover them in a damp towel.

• Cover your stack of wrappers in a damp kitchen towel anyway to keep from drying and tearing.

• If you tear one, just double wrap.

• Lots of people pipe their raw filling down a line as long as their ring finger right on the edge of the bottom of the wrapper. I tend to favor the center with space all around, and my filling’s cooked.

• Use egg wash (egg and water), not water, it sticks the wrapper better.

• Freeze the wrapped lumpia while waiting for the oil to heat to 350 degrees F. It’ll help keep them from unraveling. Filipino families tend to make a day of filling and wrapping, then freezing hundreds and hundreds for holidays later, since it’s so labor intensive, much like Mexican families do with tamales.

This recipe makes 28 lumpia.

• If you get Sinex, the round wrappers, put the filling in a line across the middle with space all around, then tightly wrap. Filipino lumpia is different from Thai spring rolls in that they’re very long and very tightly wrapped with thin filling. It’s okay to make them shorter, just wrap them tightly, no air bubbles.

• When deep frying, it’s better to heat the pot a little over 350. That way, when you add four or five lumpia at a time, the heat won’t go down below 350. Better a little over than under for the grease factor.

• You will get grease, get used to it. That’s what makes lumpia taste so good.

• Since the filling is cooked, you only need to watch for the wrappers to get golden. Don’t over-fry, or they’ll get too hard. A minute or so each side. You will have a hard time flipping them, since their cylinders, but don’t worry about it, there’s plenty of oil.

• You can fill three cups of oil or just enough to cover the lumpia.

• Keep them crisp and warm in a 200-220 degree F oven. Even if they’ve been sitting on the counter awhile, they’ll still maintain some crispness. I know people who’ll eat them cold, no problem.

I worried they were frying too long. But the ecstatic look on my husband’s face trying the first test lumpia was enough for me to want to make more.

I brought my lumpia to bible study and most of them were gone in seconds. The son of our neighbor friends begged me to make more later this week.

Hmmm…maybe Thursday?

The recipe makes good use of everyday pantry ingredients. Carrots, onion, garlic, Napa cabbage, salt, soy sauce, pepper, ground poultry…that’s about it. As long as you have a pound of ground meat to 1 tsp. salt and 1 tbls. soy, you’re fine. The flavor will surprise you. No need for oyster sauce. My friend suggests adding a little chopped shrimp and bean sprouts, but those are optional.

These were so tasty, with simple ingredients (read: no seafood, or icky pork for some picky eaters) that everyone dove in.

Be privileged to get this recipe at all. My friend swore me to secrecy. Filipinos tend to hide their family recipes as a source of pride.

You didn’t hear it from me…;)