Lumpiang Shanghai

My youngest daughter, Cherlin asked for lumpia yesterday. After making sure that I still have lumpia wrappers in the freezer, I promised her that we?ll have lumpia for dinner. After picking up my eldest daughter from school, I started preparing it. Since Lumpiang Shanghai is the lumpia variety that I frequently cook, I thought that it's what Cherlin wanted. I was almost done wrapping when she asked me why I?m doing the small ones. She said she wanted the bigger kind of lumpia, like the ones we had last Saturday at a friend?s birthday party. So I realized she was asking for Vietnamese egg rolls. I explained to her that I haven?t cooked that kind of egg roll so I still have to find the recipe. Good that she understood mommy! We all enjoyed Filipino egg rolls for dinner with matching crab and corn soup. But she made me promise that I?ll cook Vietnamese egg rolls today. In times like this, I?m really glad that there?s the internet where I can search for anything in a matter of minutes.

So today, I?m sharing with you the recipe for Lumpiang Shanghai that I did last night, and tomorrow, the recipe for Vietnamese egg rolls that I?ll be doing later.

Lumpia is the Filipino version of egg/spring rolls. There are a lot of lumpia variations in the Philippines and Lumpiang Shanghai is one of them. Lumpiang Shanghai has pork as its main ingredient. Other variations are Lumpiang Sariwa(the Filipino version of spring roll which contains lettuce and peanuts as well as other vegetables and meat), Lumpiang Ubod (it has the same ingredients as lumpia sariwa but differs in the addition of coconut shoots), Lumpiang Hubad (unwrapped Lumpiang Sariwa) and Lumpiang Basah("wet spring roll" which means spring roll without frying. It is similar to the Vietnamese spring roll with bean sprouts, carrots, shrimp and/or chicken, and served with sweet tauco sauce).

Lumpiang Shanghai is another party favorite and such a great appetizer. It is typically stuffed with pork, shrimp, and vegetables. Most of the ingredients to make Lumpiang Shanghai fillings are easy to find, but the Filipino lumpia wrappers can be difficult to find here in Texas so I?m using Chinese spring roll wrappers that can be bought in Asian Stores.

My husband and I enjoy dipping lumpiang shanghai in spicy vinegar with crushed garlic and chopped chili pepper. My daughters love it with sweet and sour sauce.

Try this Lumpiang Shanghai recipe! I'm sure you'll love it!

Prep Time: ~1hour          Cook Time: 10 mins.          Yield ~45 pcs.                               

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1. In a pan, sauté garlic in olive oil until light brown.

2. Add onions. Saute until almost translucent.

3. Add the ground pork and sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp blackpepper. Stir-fry until no more pink color is showing.

4. Add carrots, oyster sauce and fish sauce.  Mix well.

5. Add shrimps and cook until pink then add egg. Mix well and remove from heat. Allow to completely cool down. Drain if necessary. Set aside the sauce.

8. Serve the lumpia or Filipino egg rolls with your favorite sweet and sour sauce or a spicy vinegar sauce.



Note: You can prepare Lumpiang Shanghai ahead of time. Just put them in freezer bags and freeze until ready for cooking.