Fried Vegetable & Meat Lumpia (Eggrolls)

Lumpia (eggroll) is a wonderful Filipino food beloved by all back home in the Philippines, and it's one of the three most well-known Filipino dishes outside the country (the other two are, arguably, adobo (vinegar-braised meat) and pancit (noodles)). This can be a challenging dish for the uninitiated, and if you've never rolled an eggroll before, you are going to need some practice to make perfectly tight rolls like the ones you see in the photo above. A loosely-wrapped lumpia will not survive the frying -- it will open up and spew out the filling. There are several different kinds of lumpia, and the list is too long to include in this headnote; I'll test a few of them in the near future and post them here. 

I like making a good amount of the filling, and then freeze the left-over for future meals (and if I'm feeling a bit lazy, I don't even bother to make the rolls--I just re-heat the filling and put it on top of some steaming rice -- yum!).

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, diced small

1 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef

3 tbsp fish sauce (patis)

½ cup good white wine

1 cup chicken stock (you may not use the whole cup)

1 large carrot, diced medium

2 celery stalks, diced medium

1 small turnip, peeled and grated

1 medium cabbage, sliced into small strips (remove the hard ribs)

2 cups diced green beans

5-6 cups bean sprouts, washed and picked over

3 scallions, chopped small

1 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

20-30 eggroll wrappers

2 cups canola or vegetable oil (for frying)

Directions:

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat; add the garlic and sauté until golden in color. Add the onions and sauté until soft, about 8 minutes.

Add the pork and beef, and stir to break up the meat, and sauté until the meat is completely cooked and nicely browned (about 10 minutes).

Add the fish sauce and stir to combine. Stir in the wine and bring back to a gentle boil; reduce heat, cover the pot, and let simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a little bit of chicken broth if the mixture gets too dry.

Turn the heat back to medium; stir in the carrot, celery, and turnip, and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables are almost tender. Add the cabbage and the green beans and stir until well combined. Stir in the bean sprouts, green onion, and parsley.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the mixture into a colander set in a bowl to drain. Let the mixture cool completely before wrapping.

Have a small bowl of water at hand. Lay one wrapper on a plate with one corner closest to you (like a diamond). Place 1 tablespoon of the filling in the lower middle part of the wrapper, fold the bottom part of the wrapper on the filling and roll a little bit; fold the two sides tightly over the rolled bit, and keep rolling away from you and towards the other far corner. Seal with a dab of the water.

Heat the oil in a frying pan; doing it in batches, place the eggrolls in the pan without touching each other and fry until golden brown. Serve with sweet/spicy eggroll sauce, or a vinegar/crushed-garlic/salt dip. 

Makes about 30-40 eggrolls, depending on the size of the rolls.