Lumpiang Gulay - Vegetable Spring Rolls

Filipinos have their own version of spring rolls which we call lumpia.  Although I am now Canadian, I will always refer to myself in this blog as Filipino.  We Filipinos have several types of lumpia, two of which I cook every once in a while.  First, which I cook more often, is called lumpia shanghai which uses ground pork as main ingredient and the second, called lumpiang gulay is pictured above.  Lumpiang gulay literally means vegetable sping rolls.  This can be a vegetarian meal if you want, just omit the inclusion of any meat product.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground pork

1 lb. bean sprout, washed, blanched, set aside to cool in a strainer

1 lb. cabbage, washed and sliced thinly

1 lb. green beans, washed and sliced thinly

1 med size carrot, peeled and sliced match sticks size

1 large camote or sweet potato, peeled and sliced twice the size of match sticks

2 packs spring roll wrapper or 50 pcs.

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onions, chopped

4 tbsp corn oil

1 liter corn oil

salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

1.  In a large wok or large frying pan, saute garlic and onion, add ground pork, season with salt and pepper and cook until water is gone and pork is frying and started browning.

2.  Add carrots and sweet potato, a bit of salt and pepper, stir fry a little bit and remove from the pan while still half-cooked.  I use a big pyrex dish to transfer the contents of the frying pan so that the stir fry is cooled a lot faster instead of a huge bowl which would keep the heat more.  Remember, we want it half-cooked.

3.  Add a little oil, add green beans, stir fry a minute then add cabbage, stir fry one minute, season with salt andn pepper then remove from pan, transfer to a second pyrex dish.  Allow it to cool down.

4.  When vegies are cooled, put all together, mix well.

5.  Wrap the vegies using the spring roll wrapper.  Look at the picture above to get an idea. Practice makes perfect, remember.

6.  Deep fry in a deep fryer or if you don't have a deep fryer use a medium sized, heavy bottom cooking pan, use about 1-2 inches of corn oil, fry until light golden brown.

7.  Drain the oil, use a paper towel.

8.  Sweet chili sauce, store bought, bottled, product of Thailand is good sauce but we use vinegar/garlic/salt dipping sauce for this kind of lumpia and sweet chili sauce for lumpia shanghai.