This Fried Filipino Delicacy Is Perfect For Hanukkah
There’s no question that the most delicious, comforting recipes are the simplest, especially if they come with a bushel of history and soul. My Jewish husband Miki’s grandmother (Grandma Esta) made the best brisket I’ve ever tasted. I know that these might be fighting words, but hear me out. It was complex, sweet and tender — everything that Grandma Esta embodied. I was honored that she passed down her recipe to me, but also surprised, almost bamboozled, that the world’s best brisket could pretty much be made only with carrots and onions.
My own Filipina mother makes the best lumpia. Hands down. World’s best, even. Lumpia is a Filipino spring roll filled with meat (or vegetables) rolled skillfully and fried to golden perfection. My earliest food memories include platters of lumpia at family parties with relatives raving while inhaling as my mom basked in the compliments. Preparing for parties typically meant that my mom would make the filling ahead of time. Eventually, I would lose many of my weekend mornings to hours of rolling lumpia for her in front of that never-ending bowl of filling. I had no idea what was in the filling. It wasn’t until I was an adult, throwing my own parties, that I was able to pull back the curtain on the mysterious, world’s best lumpia recipe and call my mom to just ask.
After this past Rosh Hashanah, I had leftover brisket in my fridge, spring roll pastry and guests coming, so my first thought was: let’s turn this into lumpia! Lumpia is always a crowd-pleaser and easy to fry ahead and serve at room temperature. My brisket lumpia was merely a quick Filipinx/Jewish experiment, but it tasted so wonderfully familiar. I had forgotten that my mom’s lumpia’s recipe is really mostly carrots and onions just like Grandma Esta’s brisket. As I look forward to creating my own special Jewish home with my husband, I’m comforted by these unexpected connections between his family and my own.
Note: You can find spring roll pastry for this recipe in the freezer aisle at Asian food markets. It is similar to phyllo dough, but not the same as egg roll wrappers.
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