Aren’t there just some days where all you can think of are those simple meals that your mother made that you date not cook yourself because it’s just better when she makes it?
Today was one of those days!
We had recently eaten gyoza, and I was craving more! The last batch yielded some leftovers to be frozen, so we just let it thaw overnight and prepared some lumpia filling. Lumpia is a Philippino food and I’m not sure if my mom always knew how to make it or if one of her Philippino friends taught her to make it or what, but I know that we made loads of it for dinner when we were to eat it and we would eat plate after plate of it, dipping it in ketchup and fighting over the leftovers the next morning.
Sometimes fried foods are just delicious, filling and hits the spot. It’s not the most healthy I suppose, but I go with what tastes good and boy does this taste good! I called my mother to check on the list of ingredients and away we went!
Now the idea is to roll the lumpia so it is thin and long… but I was having issues with getting the filling amount right, but I had issues getting the shape right as well so we wound up with fat, squat ones and I just didn’t care since it tasted great and hit the spot! We served it up with ketchup and Mae Ploy sauce which is a Thai dipping sauce that sweet, sour and has a bit of heat but not enough to overpower your food. We also made more gyoza so we made our sauce for that too and some plain white rice and dinner was served! We ate until we were full and then some. By the time Mei and I woke up the next morning, there were absolutely no leftovers.
The sign of a well-received meal!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 3-4 carrots, diced
- 1/2 bunch of celery, diced
- garlic powder, to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- soy sauce
- lumpia wrappers – large, square wrappers often frozen, if so they need to be thawed
- 1 egg white
In the bowl of a food processor put the carrots and celery and process until the veggies have been thoroughly ground.
Put the veggie mix in a bowl with the ground beef and season it to taste with the garlic, salt, pepper and soy sauce. You want to be able to smell all the seasonings in a sweet but salty way when you lift a spoon of the lumpia filling to your nose. If you are unsure of the seasoning, you can fry a bit of the filling and taste it to see if it is to your liking.
Put one lumpia wrapper on a plate with one point facing towards you so that it appears as a diamond shape in front of you. Spoon enough filling to make a fairly thin layer from just above the tip closest to you, up to the halfway point to the top of the wrapper. Fold the sides of the wrapper (the bottom tip and tips on the left and right) up to meet each other so that the wrapper resembles an envelope shape. Then roll the bottom of the wrapper with the filling towards the tip furthest away from you, at the top. Dip your fingers in the egg white and spread it across the two sides of the top tip to “glue” the wrapper shut once it has been rolled up.
Fry it in a neutral oil at 350F until golden brown on all sides and the filling has been cooked through. Serve warm with any dipping sauce you like and steamed white rice. Enjoy!