Pilipino Spring Rolls Pack Crunch, Pork and Shrimp

You may have simply called them Spring Rolls up until now, but culinary blog Ang Sarap teaches us they’re actually called Lumpiang Shanghai in the Chinese. And they don’t stop with the education here. They teach us etymology, a bit of Chinese history and, of course, a wonderful recipe. Apparently, Chinese pastry, or Lumpia, comes from a word in Hokkien, while the recipe itself originated in the Fujian province, from where it spread out to Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Lumpia can be served fresh or cooked, and comes under various guises and names: Popiah in Singapore and Malaysia, Chagio in Vietnam and Lumpiang Shanghai in the Philippines. The recipe on Ang Sarap is Phillippines-inspired and similar to what one may come across in Chinese yam cha restaurants.

These spring rolls feature crunchy pastry, a juicy filling and an approximate ratio of 1:1 of pork and shrimp. It includes 20% fatty minced pork, shrimp, eight shiitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped, all of it wrapped in lumpia rolls and ‘tied together’ with the aid of some sesame oil, cornstarch and seasonings for flavor. The trick is to fry the uncooked lumpia directly from the freezer, so that they pack in all the crunchiness the recipe calls for. Serve them topped with chili sauce and savor a bit of Asia on your table, no matter where you live.

(Source: AngSarap.net)