Sep 12: Lumpia and Pancit

Dinner tonight is homemade lumpia and pancit. Both are pretty standard Filipino dishes and these are my attempts to make my version of those classics.


I grew up in a diverse neighborhood, but my friends through grade school to community college were all Filipino. My neighbors were Filipino too. A couple dishes seem to come to mind when I think about potlucks and parties are lumpia and pancit.

Today, I’ll detail my recipe for lumpia.
Tomorrow, Pancit (Lumpia and Pancit Part 2)

A lumpia is essentially a Filipino egg roll or spring roll. The main difference is a lumpia was rolled into a tighter package with sizes ranging from AA batteries to small cigars. I’m sure people do made lumpias larger, but small is what I remember.

A couple other characteristics I remember was the fried lumpia was smooth, while Egg rolls tend to have a coarse bubbly exterior. The filling was mainly ground meat (pork?) and maybe bean sprouts. I just seem to remember it was pretty much an all meat filling.

For my attempt, I made more of an egg roll filing - ground pork and veggies. I added garlic chives and water chestnut which I needed to use up before they went bad.

In other words, the filling is just what you have available.

Fried Lumpia

The Fixins'
1 lb Ground Pork
1 C Cabbage, Shredded
1 C Bean Sprouts
½ C Carrot, coarse chop
½ C Water Chestnut, coarse chop
1 Green Onions, coarse chop
1 ½ C Garlic Chive, coarse chop (Optional)
2 T Soy Sauce
2 T Oyster Sauce

Some chopped veg…


Sauté the ground pork until almost cooked and add the rest of the ingredients.
Drain mixture in a colander and allow to cool.

The completed filling


These wrappes are round. I thought they would be square. Also, the wrappers are similar to a thin crepe.


Filling and Rolling
2 T of filling in a line about ¼ away from edge. Fold over and pull the top fold towards you to compact the filling.


Fold over edges


Roll…


For some reason, egg or water couldn't seal the end of the roll.


Heat oil to about 350F. One way to check if the oil is ready is to use a bamboo skewer. If the oil boils vigorously around the skewer, then the oil is ready. Personally, I'll stick with a thermometer.


Fry lumpia with the loose end down… The frying locks the end into place.


The completed lumpia… Note it has the smooth outer shell.


Overall, the flavor was good and the lumpias are crispy.
Not bad. Authentic? Maybe.
I still need to work on rolling the lumpias tighter and maintain consistent sizes.

Edit: Sep 13...
I just looked at YouTube. People actually posted videos on how they make lumpia.
One thing I noticed. The filling is raw! Ingredients appeared to be chopped finely and mixed with the raw pork.

Using raw ground meat seems to be the key to rolling a tight lumpia. The raw filling conforms to the roll so you don't end up with air pockets. I'll have to try that the next time around.