Filipino Love…

Wrappers…whats in a wrapper? Today our students learned about Filipino food from a fellow student, Aeriell Abellanosa, a senior of Franklin High School! What started out as guest chef touring us through the Philipines through our taste buds, resulted in one of my goals coming to fruition right before my eyes! What you ask?…student lead class covering culture, a dish and information about the ingredients! This came together so fluid like, I knew it was meant to be!

Aeriell is from the Philipines, so today she shared some of the amazing bonding experiences she has with her mom in their own kitchen…flavors floating in the air so vividly that the one inhaling the home air taste the dish as the air floats into their nostrils, history of her elders and their experiences in the Philipines and how her mom makes Lumpia paper from scratch as a french elder would make crepes for their family. It is interesting how intertwined we are, remarked Aeriell as she was explaining to me the process her mom and she go through as they make lumpia together!

Aeriell mentioned that Lumpia is different from state to state in the Philipines, you might find Lumpia paper filled with vegetables, peppers, meat or fruit, as well as it can be fried, baked or served fresh. It all depends upon the region and the available resources. The Lumpia Aeriell shared with her peers and myself was from Bicol, one of the larger regions, known for their agriculture, which created one of the largest components of the economy. Bicol is known for coconuts, banana, abaca, carrots, eggplant, squash, tomatoes and cabbage, these are some of the agricultural celebrities of the region. Of these ingredients in our Lumpia were carrots and cabbage, we added the non traditional garlic, onions and celery, and spiked each Lumpia with Serrano chiles and lemon juice. What can I say we all like it spicy and tangy, such a commanding combination of flavors! Lumpia is normally served with a dark dipping sauce however we decided to create a sweet and spicy coconut dipping sauce, which has become a new favorite for our students!

So hooray for Aeriell, our first student lead educator for our program! Stay tuned for more student chef lead days, student garden lead days and other brilliant youth leadership opportunities while they build their confidence to be the mentors of the future!

Lumpia

 4 garlic cloves                               1 c sliced onions                       1 c matchstick carrots

1 c sliced green onions                  2 c sliced cabbage                     2 tsp Serrano chilli’s

2 tsp sea salt                                  2 tsp vegetarian soy sauce          60 Lumpia Wrappers

oil for frying or baking sheet for baking

In a large bowl add garlic onions and carrots. After slicing green onions cut them in half, width wise, add to bowl. After slicing cabbage, cut in half width wise to ensure cabbage leaves are not too long but just the right size to add to lumpia and still able to fold lumpia so it doesn’t break the wrapper, add cabbage to bowl, add to bowl. add chilli pepper, sea salt and soy sauce. Toss to combine. At this point you can either saute to soften or you can begin to fold the vegetables into the Lumpia and roll them.

Put about 1/2 c water in a bowl. Now you begin rolling Lumpia, add about 2 tbl of ingredients about two inches from the edge of the wrapper. Fold the outer edges in to ensure vegetables will not fall out of the sides, then wrap away from you until completely rolled. Dip your finger into water and run it along the edge you folded, this will ensure that Lumpia roll is secure and does not unroll and cause you frustration. Now place rolled Lumpia onto a plate. Repeat until all Lumpia is rolled. Now, you are ready to fry or bake or eat raw.

If you will fry, add 1 c olive oil or other non-gmo oil to pan, on medium heat, when heated add Lumpia to pan, so they are in comfortably. Then remove when browned on each side.

Coconut Sauce:

1 c coconut meat                 1/2 c coconut water                    1 tbl pinchillo

1 tbl coriander                   1 tsp fresh minced garlic

Add all ingredients to pan and let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour into bowl.

You are now ready to plate your Lumpia and dip with Coconut Sauce!

Thank you Aeriell for sharing with us and thank you class for participating and working together to complete our first student lead chef class!

30 Mar This entry was published on March 30, 2012 at 7:48 pm. It’s filed under Guest Chef's, Meet our students, Recipes and tagged Aerielle Abellanosa, Agricultural, bake, Bicol, Bikol, cabbage, carrots, Chilli, coconut, dipping, Dish, fresh, fry, Garlic, Healthy Eating, Kitchen, lumpia, Lumpia Wrappers, onion, Pan, Peppers, phillipines, Ponchillo, Recipe, sauce, scallions, sea salt, Serrano, Student Lead Chef, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Soy Sauce, Wok, wrappers, youth leadership. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.