Lumpia / Lumpias

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 40 mins Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1/2 lb ground lean lamb
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 small onion, finely diced
• 1/3 cup water chestnut, chopped
• 1/3 cup cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 small carrot, shredded
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• canola oil (to 3/4-inch depth in skillet)
• 12 frozen spring roll wrappers (8-inch across, extra thin. *not* egg roll wrappers)

Recipe

• 1 begin thawing the frozen spring roll wrappers 30 minutes before using. when thawed, cover the stack with a moist towel so they don't dry out. i keep a spray bottle of pure water on hand to spritz it periodically. spring rolls are very fragile, so handle carefully.
• 2 combine meat, carrot, onion, water chestnuts and cabbage in a large bowl and mix well.
• 3 add soy sauce, pepper and garlic, and mix thoroughly again.
• 4 over medium heat, cook this mixture, breaking up meat as it browns, for about 10-12 minutes or until cooked through. drain.
• 5 gently peel one wrapper from the stack (recover with damp cloth) and place it on a flat surface with one of the corners pointing toward you.
• 6 place a loosely-packed 1/4 cup of the meat filling in a horizontal line across the wrapper leaving about 2 inches of wrapper on the left and right ends of the filling.
• 7 roll the corner nearest you up over the filling, very gently tucking the tip of that corner under the meat. roll as tightly as possible about halfway up.
• 8 then tuck in the left and right corners (these will be the lumpia ends) and continue rolling the lumpia as tightly as possible, but gently, away from you until it's a complete cylinder.
• 9 moisten the last corner furthest from you (a squirt bottle comes in handy here) to seal the wrapper, and then place it on a plate until cooking. you can also just dip your fingers in water and seal that way as well.
• 10 continue rolling all lumpias in this fashion until the meat mixture is finished.
• 11 heat oil to about 350°f.
• 12 turning once halfway through cooking, fry no more than 3 lumpia at a time, or the temperature change will be too drastic to cook them properly. too low and they'll become too greasy; too high and they'll burn….as demonstrated rather skillfully in my photographs. *lol*. total fry time is entirely dependent on the color you want your lumpias to have. since the filling is actually already cooked, you don't need to worry about under-cooking! it's almost idiot-proof, unless you're me and believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that you can multitask. <insert eye roll here> i like a medium-dark golden color which was achieved (after a bit of trial and error) after about 2 minutes per side.
• 13 drain on paper towels and serve with dipping sauce.