Lumpia

Growing up in a community with a large Filipino presence, I have always been a fan of lumpia.  They aren't the typical eggrolls you see at a Chinese restaurant -- those are fat and are usually filled with cabbage. Lumpia are thin and filled with a combination of half meat and half vegetable.  I chose to use ground pork in mine, but ground beef is seen just as often.  I picked up a package of wrappers the other day at the grocery store and tossed it in my cart -- then when I got home, I saw that I had picked up wonton wrappers!!  They were only about 3" square so I made teeny little lumpias...and after a few minutes I just decided to fold them over wonton - style since they were so small.  I'm including the directions for lumpia as well as wontons.

Lumpia

Ingredients
1 lb. ground pork or beef
1 bag coleslaw mix
1 package spring roll wrappers (NOT egg roll or wonton wrappers)
water, for sealing wrappers
oil, for frying

Directions
1.  Brown the meat in a large skillet or wok, breaking the meat up completely.

2.  Put the coleslaw mix in a food processor and chop the mix finely.  Sometimes the carrot and cabbage pieces can be pretty large.

3.  Add to the wok and saute for a few minutes.

Lumpia filling 

 4. Keeping the rest of the wrappers covered with a paper towel, place one wrapper on the working surface and place a couple of tablespoons of filling on one end of the wrapper.  Note, this was the wonton wrapper so I only put about a teaspoon on each.

 5.  Wrap each lumpia:  position the wrapper so that one corner of the square is close to you.  Fold one corner over the filling and begin to roll the lumpia away from you.  Fold each side corner to the middle, then keep rolling to the opposite corner. Seal with a wet finger dipped in a small bowl of water. Place seam side down on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and keep covered with a damp paper towel.  If you forget this step, the lumpia wrappers will break open.

6.  To wrap as a wonton:  moisten all four edges of the wrapper about the width of your fingertip.  Fold the wrapper in half, lining up the edges and pressing closed.  Now you have a triangle -- fold each corner of the long side towards the middle of the wonton.  Using wet fingers, press the two corners into place.  Place seam side down on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and keep covered with a damp paper towel.

Lumpia and wonton folding styles

7.  To cook, either deep fry in a pot of canola oil until golden brown OR spray lumpia/wontons with nonstick cooking spray and bake on a cookie sheet at 350F for about 15 minutes until golden brown, turning over after about 10 minutes.

8.  Serve with your favorite sweet and sour sauce, soy sauce, and hot mustard.