Lumpia!

Hello Lovers of Little Town Tea. Today I have a very special treat for you. A few weeks ago my friends and I had a potluck and I learned how to make lumpia. So, today I am going to teach you how to make this very yummy dish. Lumpia, for those of you unfamiliar with this dish, is, basically, a egg role from the Philippines, but, in my opinion, much better. My Aunt Jane is Filipino and whenever I visited her she would make me lumpia, but it was not until now that I knew how to make it myself. Thanks to Greg, that guy who taught me how to make that fantastic clam dip that I posted the recipe for, which can be found under the label cooking, I now know how to make oh so wonderful lumpia!

First what you need to do is go buy some chicken, green beans, and carrots. The chicken, by the way, is optional. Pure veggie lumpia is fantastic too. Cut all of the ingredients into very small pieces, as seen in the bowl above, put in your desired amount of garlic salt and pepper, coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil, and cook the ingredients until they look ready to eat.

Next, you need to start rolling the lumpia. The wrappers Greg bought were from an Asian grocery store and can be used for spring rolls, egg roles, and lumpia. The wrappers are very thin and stick together, so while you are pulling them apart and rolling the lumpia make sure you do not tear them. So, when you are ready to roll the lumpia take a small amount of the cooked vegetables and meat, like a small hand full, and put it at one corner of the wrapper. Begin rolling the ingredients. Once you get to the middle of the wrapper, fold in the corners on the left and the right and roll the rest of the way. Once you have finished rolling, put a little bit of water on the exposed corner and press it to the roll so that it will stick and not open up while the lumpia is frying.

Next, you will need to take a pan and fill it about a third of the way up with olive oil. Let the olive oil get very hot. You can check to see if it is hot enough by taking little pieces of the lumpia wrappers and seeing how well they fry.

Take some kitchen tongs and set the lumpia in two or three at a time, depending on the size of your pan. Make sure to let each side fry evenly. Once the lumpia looks nice and crisp take it out with your tongs and set it in a bowl that has paper towels inside. Make sure to set the lumpia up on its side so that the oil can drip out of the roll and onto the paper towels.

Once your lumpia has all been fried and has had a chance to cool down, sit down with your friends, grab some banana catchup (which is amazing, by the way) and enjoy your delicious lumpia.