2019-11-16
This recipe is a combination of Asian and Tex-Mex: the large tortilla from chimichanga with the filler ingredients of the Asian bean sprout spring roll or lumpia. This greatly increases—and imo balances—the amount of filling relative to the amount of dough when compared to flauta-sized lumpias.
I served this with the sweet & hot sauces that are usually served with lumpias. I wasn't quite ready yet to try green or red chile sauce with bean sprouts.
Lumpia is a spring roll originating from China and commonly found in Indonesia and the Philippines. It is a savory snack made of thin crepe pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping a mixture of savory fillings, consists of chopped vegetables and/or minced meat. It is often served as an appetizer or snack, and might be served deep fried or fresh (unfried).
Lumpia is quite similar to fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia.
In Indonesia lumpia has become a favorite snack, and is known as a street hawker food in the country. In the Philippines lumpia is one of the most common dishes found in any kind of gathering celebration.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, it is spelled loempia, which is the old Indonesian spelling for lumpia, and has also become the generic name for "spring roll" in Dutch. A variant is the Vietnamese lumpia, wrapped in a thinner pastry, though still close in size to a spring roll, in which the wrapping closes the ends off completely, which is typical for lumpia.
Lumpiang togue, aka "bean sprouts lumpia" or "bean sprouts egg roll".
A version of lumpiang gulay that is filled primarily with bean sprouts (togue) and various other vegetables such as string beans and carrots. Small morsels of meat, seafood or tofu may be added. Though it is the least expensive of the variants, the preparation the cutting of vegetables and meats into small pieces and pre-cooking these may prove taxing and labor-intensive. It is prepared roughly the same as lumpiang gulay with mostly the same ingredients. The main difference is that lumpiang togue uses more togue (mung bean sprouts) as the main ingredients, replacing the main filler of lumpiang gulay (usually cabbage)
Chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito that is common in Tex-Mex and other Southwestern U.S. cuisine. The dish is typically prepared by filling a flour tortilla with various ingredients, most commonly rice, cheese, beans, machaca (dried meat), carne adobada (marinated meat), carne seca (dried beef), or shredded chicken, and folding it into a rectangular package. It is then deep-fried, and can be accompanied by salsa, guacamole, sour cream, or cheese.
MY COMMENTS:
Bean sprouts were always the main ingredient of the loempia that I was familiar with from Belgium. Loempia was popularized in Belgium after the independence of the Dutch Indonesian colonies, when many Indonesians—who also had Dutch nationality—came to live in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Lumpia wrappers are like paper-thin tortillas, but made with an unleavened dough that is slightly different from tortilla dough. I tried to make lumpia wrappers this morning and failed dismally, proving once again I'm not a born baker. My first attempts rarely turn out very well.
I used instead the thinnest tortillas I could get. That made the wraps the size of chimichangas, about 4-6 times bigger than regular egg rolls, but still with the egg rolls ingredients inside. I really liked it that they had more filling than dough. That took care of my major gripe against store-bought lumpias: they're all wrapper dough, with very little filling.
For the filling I used things I had at hand: bean sprouts, pork, carrots, one very ripe cucumber and craisins. I used the pork rillettes that I made earlier this week, but ground or chopped pork meat will do just as well.
This is what you need for 4 servings:
the filling:
optional:
Pic1: chimichanga lumpia
Pic2: ingredients
Pic5: stir-frying bean sprouts
Pic8: thin tortilla
Pic11-13: wrapping the lumpia
Pic14-16: deep-frying the lumpias
Pic17: lumpia sauces