LEZZCOOK

Christmas is the longest celebration we have here in our country full of festives. It starts during the so called “BER” months which include September, October, November and December. Having it’s identity as the longest one, it really occupies some major celebration and holiday like Halloween and New Year’s Eve Countdown. I connection with these stuffs, Filipinos are preparing lots of food and kakanins for reunions and gatherings specially during Christmas Eve’s Dinner or Noche Buena and New Years’ Eve Dinner called Media Noche.

One of the most famous food during this season is spring roll or lumpiang shanghai brought by Chinese Occupants during their occupation in our country together with pansit. It is also the easiest food to prepare for all ages. It’s natural ability to make people smile, feel the love of the one who cook and to ease hunger was really amazing and recognize.

The combination of Chinese flavor combined with the authenticity of oriental Filipino flavor made it to the top of the most promising food in our table. Lumpiang Shanghai type is a type of egg roll, except it’s mainly filled with meat. You could use pork or beef or both! It’s a yummy recipe and great to serve as finger food. Nowadays, this finger food becomes the everyday companion of normal or average Filipino family partnered with mainit na kanin.

Lumpia Shanghai Ingredients          1 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, grated

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

2 tablespoons salt

1 (16 ounce) package spring roll wrappers

1 1/2 quarts oil for frying

Lumpia Shanghai Instructions

In a large bowl, combine ground pork or ground beef, onion, and carrot. Make sure to completely mix everything. I suggest getting down and dirty and use your hands. Knead the meat in the bowl if you must. Gradually blend in the soy sauce , black pepper, and salt until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Lay out a few wrappers at a time on a flat surface, and place about 2 tablespoons of the filling in a line down the center of the wrapper. Make sure the filling is no thicker than your thumb, or the wrapper will cook faster than the meat. Take the bottom and top edges of the wrapper and fold them towards the center. Take the left and right sides, and fold them towards the center. Moisten the last edge of the wrapper to seal. Now repeat using the rest of the wrappers. Prepare a cooking pan filled with oil then deep fry the lumpia. Lumpia are cooked through when they float, and the wrapper is golden brown. Cut in half, or serve as is with dipping sauce. We like sweet and sour sauce, soy sauce with lemon, or banana ketchup.

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A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. 

He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, 

from the palate to the finger's end.

Walter Savage Landor

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