How to Make Fish Lumpiang Shanghai (菲魚上海春捲)

Today is a tribute to the great party finger food, lumpia - specifically, Lumpia Shanghai. To my non-Filipino readers, I believe you may be more familiar with the term, "spring rolls" which if one really looks at the Chinese characters, 春卷 which in Mandarin is chun jian and essentially is translated from the Chinese as "spring" and "roll". From what I gather, the reason why this is so is that the delicacy is usually eaten during the Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese New Year) in China. In other countries, even those with predominantly Chinese as language of communication such as Taiwan, these are called by different names such as 潤餅 "run bing" which is roughly translated as "smooth cake" or 薄餅 "boping" which is "thin cake" referring to the thin smooth crepe that makes the skin of the spring roll. Now, note that the rough Hokkien equivalent of the word 餅 ("ping" in Mandarin) is "piah" which means cake or pie. Thus, mooncakes that are eaten during the Moon Festival are called 中秋月餅 or "tsun chiew ye ping" in Mandarin or "tiong khiew ge pia" in Hokkien which translates as Middle Autumn Moon Cake. This 餅 "ping" or "pia" is the second word that "Lumpia" refers to. Whatever "lum" in Lumpia means in the original Chinese - that, I do not know. But I am speculating that it may refer to spring which is 春 or "chun" which has been bastardized to "lun" which is the usual way of the Philippine Hokkien way of saying the word. From this "lun" it was then Filipinized to "lum" making the word "lumpia". I think this is a reasonable theory as the combination of Hokkien characters would mean "Spring Cake" something which is related to the boping above (Mandarin) or Popiyah (Hokkien).

Lumpiang Shanghai. It is not actually from Shanghai but
somewhat looks like it.

 

This is the "Original" Chinese Spring Roll: Bo-Ping
(Mandarin) which is also called Po-Piyah in Hokkien.
The vegetables are cooked but the skin is not fried
and therefore "fresh".

Now, this one is "Lumpiang Sariwa" or "Fresh Lumpia"
which if one notices, is like the Popiyah.

In the Philippines, the original lumpia is actually eaten with the skin fresh loaded with a filling of vegetables starting with a bed of romaine lettuce and some stalks of cilantro for contrast. Adding some ground peanuts mixed with salt and sugar and add to that a thick brown sauce based on brown sugar with soy sauce, some chopped garlic and a dash of Chinese hot sauce, sautéed thinly sliced mixed vegetables with shrimp, pork and shredded tofu are added then rolled for a flavorful yet fresh and healthy snack. The description in itself is enough to make my mouth water. This version is called "Lumpiang Sariwa" in Filipino, translated as "Fresh Lumpia". If one looks at the Mandarin 薄餅 "boping" which in Hokkien is "Popiah", the ingredients and the resemblance are similar. The ultimate prototype of Lumpia Sariwa is served by the famous Ha Yuan Restaurant in Manila.

 

When the filling is limited to the shredded vegetables, shrimp, pork and tofu mix leaving out the rest of the vegetables and the sauces, and then rolled, sealed then fried, this is known as "Lumpiang Frito" or "Fried Lumpia". This is what's familiar to the Western palate as all of the spring rolls found here in Chinese restaurants are all fried. Usually, the size of a lumpiang frito in the Philippines could be the size of a typical Mexican burrito; however, in the States while this may be so, some have been made into smaller fingerling sizes about half of the diameter of the typical burrito. This results is a more delicate and crunchier spring roll.

Get the Lumpiang Sariwa, remove the romaine lettuce,
clialtro and peanut/brown sauce, then fry it. This
is called "Lumpiang Frito"

 

Now the Lumpiang Frito somewhat resembles the
typical Egg Spring Roll here in the States.
The skin is thicker - this is because of the
use of the thicker egg roll skin.

Anyway - another observation is the type of skin used in making spring rolls. In the Philippines, there are two types of skins. One is the batter based on the recipe for making French crepes which is made of egg, flour and water. Mixed together into a thin batter, this is ladled on a hot oiled skillet and allowed to gel and cook into a thin pancake which is then the basis of the skin. When rolled, it is a soft crepe that wraps the vegetables within. Note that this is too soft to handle and therefore, the whole lumpia is served on a plate like the French crepe is served on a plate likewise. If one notices, egg is an ingredient in making this type of lumpia skin - hence, the other name for the spring roll is egg roll or 蛋卷 ("tan jian"). The other type of skin is based on a soft dough of flour, rolled and rubbed on a hot iron surface, leaves traces of the flour dough to bake quickly much like an Indian tandoori oven leaving a very delicate thin skin made of flour which is peeled. This is the basis of the skin for Lumpia Sariwa and Lumpia Frito and incidentally is the thinner, delicate skin which when fried gives the crunchy texture of the spring roll.

This is another version of the Lumpiang Sariwa or
Fresh Lumpia using a different kind of skin
based on the egg crepe.

 

The reason why the fried spring roll in the US has a
pockmarked surface is the skin. If one notices,
this resembles the siomai wrapper.

What accounts for the more the more delicate
crunchier spring roll is the thinner version.
This is what I use.

Incidentally, when one buys lumpia wrappers in
the wet market in the Philippines, this is what
you get.

How you make the traditional lumpia wrapper is this.
Using a wet dough based on flour and water,
rub the dough against a medium hot metal surface.
The resulting thin crepe is the wrapper.



Incidentally, there is another type of spring roll skin available in the States. The egg roll skin in the States is not the same as the one based on the French crepe like in the Philippines. Rather, it’s a thicker machine pressed rolled skin that is as thick as the siomai wrapper. It's labelled as egg roll wrapper although I do not think it contains any egg but probably the original recipe of this should contain egg much like the egg noodle.

 

But going back to the sizes of the different lumpias, the smaller version of the Lumpiang Frito is what's common in the dimsum restaurants in the States. Incidentally, and a bit of a coincidence this is called 上海春捲, "Shang Hai Tsun Jian" literally translated as "Shanghai Spring Roll", known for the use of the thin version of the skin, it is fingerling size and fried to a crisp. Inside are similar to the julienned cabbage, carrots, tofu with some chicken filling found in the Lumpia Sariwa or Lumpia Frito. Now take this version, modify the filling to be seasoned ground meat, preferably pork and in some instances fish meat like that of the milkfish and serve it with a savory sweet sour sauce. This version is what in the Philippines is called "Lumpiang Shanghai". So, there you have it. You have Shanghai Spring Rolls and Lumpiang Shanghai but the latter is not the same as the former.

Lumpiang Shanghai has become the favorite party food. For one thing it’s finger food and therefore convenient for cocktails and conversations while the music is playing in the background - no need for silverware! Next, its savory and meaty. As with any Filipino culinary sensibility would reveal - anything that has meat has got to be savory and hopefully, spicy and therefore goes well with the ultimate party beverage - beer. 

Now, this is the thin skin based shanghai spring roll
served in dimsum restaurants in the US.

And now we go 360. This is the Lumpiang Shanghai which
resembles the Shanghai Spring Roll above but the
filling is meaty. Fish can also be used.

Usually, lumpiang shanghai has a pork filling which is typical of most Asian dishes although for a healthier yet equally tasty snack, fish meat could be substituted and which I used because Mikey has turned pescetarian for the past six months. (As a side note, he did lose some weight initially as he turned into a dish eater, but I think he has already plateaued. I reserved that for another discussion.) In the Philippines, this is usually Milkfish. But any other white meat fish will do - flounder, tilapia, dalagang bukid etc.

Fish Lumpiang Shanghai.

 

Ingredients.

• 1 kilo fish filets (milkfish "bangus", flounder, whitefish etc.)
• 1/2 head medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 head garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 package (25 pcs.) spring roll wrappers (thin style)

Procedure.

1. Slice the filets very thinly to facilitate mixing of the filling. Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl. Using a hand mixer and at a medium speed, incorporate all the ingredients for about a minute then increase the speed to further knead and incorporate the ingredients while disintegrating the fish meat making the mixture sticky to touch. One can stop the mixing process once this stage is reached.
2. Separate the spring roll wrappers and set aside.
3. Make an egg wash mixture of 1 beaten egg with 1/8 cup water.
4. With the egg roll wrappers set in a diamond fashion and in front of you, place about a tablespoon of the fish filling in the middle, shaped like a small cigar horizontally. Taking the two left and right corners, make sure they meet in the middle. Brush some egg wash in the southern region.
5. Fold the southern part and its corner to point northward. Brush some more egg wash on the remaining north fold. Taking the linear fish mixture now covered with the wrapper, roll northward finally sealing the spring roll.
6. Line them on a plate ready to be fried.
7. To fry, use a frying pan that could retain heat very well such as a southern skillet. The oil should be shallow covering about half of the spring roll when fried. Medium heat is desired - meaning that the raw spring roll should bubble when being fried but not instantly turn the skin brown. The browning should occur about 1 1/2 minutes later.
8. After about two minutes or so, one would notice that the upper side would become wet as the filling is cooked. The side underneath has turned about light brown. Turn the pieces and fry the other side for about another minute or so.
9. Once fried to the desired brownness, remove from oil and drain/rest on towels. Serve hot with sweet sour sauce of Thai chili sauce.