By Manny Arenas
Manny Arenas shares a great recipe for lumpia using his homegrown peppers.
Lumpia is a Filipino crispy treat that is served as street food a snack, appetizer or simply when you are just hungry for lumpia.
These were made with a pepper called Golden Treasure. It is a type pf cubanelle and is not a hot pepper and very much like bell pepper. Any large, long pepper such as poblano, Anaheim, hatch can be used.
The Recipe
Ingredients
5 cloves garlic minced
1/2 an onion diced
1/2 tablespoon salt
Pepper to taste
6 long stuffable peppers
1/2 lb ground meat filling
6 eggroll wrapper and cheese rolls.
⅓ cup of water
flour
Method
Sauté the onions until they start to get golden.
Then the meat, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper. Cook until starting to carmelize. Add in pepper flakes if a spicer version is preferred
Set aside to cool.
In the meantime cut a slit down the length of each pepper, keeping the peppers intact, with the stem.
Remove the seeds from the peppers.
Stuff each pepper with some of the cooked meat and some cheese. Do not overfill.
Mix some flour into the water to form a sticky paste. This will be used to seal the eggroll wrapper.
To wrap, lay a sheet of the eggroll wrapper on a clean surface. Place a filled pepper diagonally on the wrapper. Roll it the rest of the way and seal the end with the flour paste. The ends of the pepper will be exposed.
Heat oil on medium-high to deep fry. Use an oil that has a high smoke point such as peanut, sunflower, or canola.
Fry until golden, oil temperature may need to be reduced to medium.
To serve, dip in spicy vinegar or sweet and sour dipping sauce.
Vegetarian and Vegan Options
Instead of meat use grated sweet potato, carrot, and finely shredded cabbage. Mushrooms, spinach, and corn would also be tasty additions. For a vegan option omit or use vegan cheese.
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