Health, Lumpia

I am still pretty tired so am not up to blogging too much at the moment. Matt, although he denies it, has been asleep for most of the day although we both had a good night's sleep last night.

A friend asked if my transfusion had made any difference. Not as far as I am aware, I felt pretty good before and I don't feel much different except for my Peripheral Arterial Disease which has got nothing to do with anaemia.

I have an appointment at the hospital Internal Medicine Dept. on Tuesday so they can start figuring out why I am anaemic.  So will write when I can but it may be somewhat intermittent in the next few days.

Many years ago we had a mobile home on a park in North Carolina, before we bought our own property. Made many friends and had lots of fun. One girl, renting a mobile home there, was Filipino - I regret I don't remember her name, I know she had a Marine Corps boyfriend which was how she came to be in the country. That aside, she would cook Lumpia at the drop of a hat and I would devour them with little or no encouragement. I just came across this recipe so had to share it with you. Although there are similarities, they are not the same as Chinese Egg Rolls.

Lumpia (Filipino Spring Rolls)

Lumpia are Filipino fried spring rolls filled with ground pork and mixed vegetables. This lumpia

recipe is authentic and yields the crispiest lumpia ever.

1 package Lumpia wrappers (Chinese or Vietnamese spring roll wrappers meant for frying can be used) (25 sheets)
2 lbs ground pork
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 inch ginger, peeled and minced
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 dashes ground black pepper
6 oz cabbage, thinly sliced

1. Using a serrated knife, cut the square lumpia wrappers in half so that you have two stacks of rectangular wrappers. Place a damp paper towel over the wrappers to keep them from drying out as you work.

2. Combine the pork, cabbage, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, eggs, and black pepper in a large bowl. Using your hands, or a rubber spatula, mix the filling well so that the seasonings are evenly distributed.

3. Place one of the rectangular wrappers vertically on your work surface with the short edge facing you. Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling on the wrapper about half an inch from the edge closest to you. Grasp the bottom edge of the wrapper and roll it up and over the filling, continuing to roll until 2 inches of wrapper remain.

4. Dip two fingers into a bowl of water, then moisten the last 2 inches of wrapper with your fingers. Finish rolling the lumpia, then rest it on its seam. Continue rolling with the rest of the filling and lumpia wrappers.

5. At this point, you can freeze your rolled lumpia if you wish by placing them in freezer bags and then into your freezer.

6. To cook the lumpia, fill a large frying pan with about 1/2-inch of vegetable oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Gently place the lumpia into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides, 3 to 5 minutes total (if frying frozen lumpia, it will take 1 to 2 minutes longer).

7. Place the fried lumpia on paper towels and serve immediately with sweet and sour sauce (bottled from the store is fine).

Yield: 50 spring rolls

Tips
You can also add finely minced raw shrimp to the pork mixture if you’d like. Also, instead of ground pork, you can use ground beef or ground turkey.

For the vegetables, you can also use Napa Cabbage and add some chopped scallions to the pork mixture.

You can use Chinese or Vietnamese spring roll wrappers (for deep-frying) if you can’t find lumpia wrappers.

Source: Rasa Malaysia

Have a great day