My family has a lot of traditions. We’re German, so that pretty much explains it, because as you probably know, Germans love their food. However, though we eat lots of German traditional food like Bratwurst (it’s pronounced brawt-vurst by the way, the W in German is pronounced like the English V, so few people know this!), Apfelkuchen, Schnitzel, and Rouladen, we also celebrate diversity! My dad spent six months in Japan once and came back teaching us how to make sushi (which is now my favorite food), and we also tried a lot of ethnic dishes growing up. One of my favorite food traditions was Lumpias. It’s like an eggroll, but it has thinner paper, and a meatier potato center.
Sometime during my childhood we, as a family of six, decided that Lumpia sounded kind of like Olympics, and that we should make O-Lumpias every Summer Olympics! We could freeze them for a long time, too, so during the Winter Olympics we’d eat the ones we saved from the Summer Olympics. It’s a good deal since it is so much work to make! The tradition stuck, and so yesterday I spent the day with my friend Lorraine making Lumpias. I thought I’d share the recipe (and tricks to make it easier) with you!
Thanks Dad for this great picture of your 2012 Summer O-Lumpias!
Lumpias (tips in italics)
1 head Cabbage (chop in a blender or use raw cabbage already chopped for coleslaw)
8 Carrots (two bags of shredded carrots worked well for me, and then I just put them in the blender to chop smaller)
10 lbs. Potatoes (O’Brien hashbrowns work great, the cubed potatoes with peppers and onions? Just don’t cook them all the way through since they’ll cook again in the stir fry and deep fry portion)
2 bunches of Green onions (these are super easy to chop small)
Choice of: ground pork/beef/chicken, 6lbs total meat (I tried shrimp and wasn’t impressed. I used pork and chicken and it was yummy!)
Soy sauce to taste
Garlic Powder to taste
Salt, pepper to taste
Lumpia wrappers – 6 pkgs
Vegetable Oil for frying
Chop the cabbage, carrots, potatoes and green onions to the size of a pencil eraser. After you cook your meats add soy sauce, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Then add cabbage, carrots, and potatoes and stir fry together. Add green onions toward last. Strain out liquid from the stir fry mixture; let it sit until cool enough to wrap. Wrap the stir fry mixture in lumpia wraps. Wet the ends of the lumpia wrappers as you wrap to help them stick together. Deep fry till golden brown.
Makes about 130 lumpias. Freeze the mixtures in small portions and wrap them fresh with new wrappers whenever you want to eat them!
PS- If you’re gluten and dairy free like my mom, substitute rice paper for lumpia rolls and use gluten-free soy sauce like La Choy.
Thanks Mom for this family recipe!
Hope you guys love it!