Talk about an impressive-looking dish. Out of all the Filipino dishes, lumpia is probably the one that most Filipinos always have a ready stock of in their refrigerator that’s ready to be fried whenever anyone has the fancy.
It’s a Filipino recipe that’s relatively easy to make although a bit time-consuming but are really delicious with a combination of satisfying textures along with the delicious sweet and sour sauce. The crunchiness of the wrapper and the tender mixture of meat and vegetables inside always brings a spark of joy whenever I bit into it. Plus, paired with fluffy white rice and the crunch sandwiched by the soft textures doubles the satisfaction.
Now think outside the box and combine lumpia with shrimp another Filipino favorite that’s consistently available in the market and you’ve got the delicious shrimp lumpia dish. Who knew that wrapping shrimp in lumpia wrappers and frying it would make for a super fun and delicious Filipino dish.
Combining these simple ingredients together is a stroke of genius, in my opinion. It’s very easy to prepare and cook. It’s perfect as finger food for guests during a party or a gathering while also eaten as a meal with rice as many lumpia recipes are. It’s a great alternative for people who don’t like to eat meat or are following a pescetarian diet.
I first came upon shrimp lumpia through another cooking who also happened to be owned by a Filipino and then they suddenly popped all over my social media. I noticed that there are various recipes of shrimp lumpia that either use the whole shrimp minus the head or do it the more traditional way where they ground up the shrimp first along with some choice of vegetables, spread it on a lumpia wrapper and roll it.
Others also went for a combination of both recipes where they ground up a little bit of a mixture of meat and vegetables and rolled it in lumpia wrap along with the whole shrimp and fry it.
I tried all three methods of cooking shrimp lumpia but I really liked using a whole shrimp alone in the lumpia wrapper the best. It’s an easy recipe to follow and is very distinct from the more traditional lumpia recipes out there.
I also liked the taste the best because it wholely tastes shrimp and not just shrimp flavored lumpia and I really love shrimp. The combination of the crunchiness of the lumpia wrapper and biting into it and experiencing the tender meat of the shrimp in the middle is amazing.
So for this recipe, I scoured the online and found a great and simple recipe from a website called Mama’s Recipe and A Few of My Own which I’ll link below for those interested. Their shrimp lumpia recipe is very simple to follow with minimal steps while also resulting in great flavors with the shrimp being the star of the dish.
Be sure to use jumbo shrimps for this recipe so it can fully fill up inside the lumpia wrapper. I bought to pounds of these delicious creatures for the recipe. For the lumpia wrappers, 16 ounces of package spring roll wrappers are will do just the trick. I’ll also be using vegetable oil to fry the shrimp lumpia in.
But first, we need to prepare the jumbo shrimps. Shell it and devein it before coating it with lemon pepper and salt for seasoning in a bowl.
Next is to lay out the spring roll wrapper in a hard even surface and place the shrimp in the middle. Oh, you’ll also need a beaten egg white. Roll the shrimp tightly in the wrapper and seal the edges with the egg white just like in traditional lumpia recipes.
Do this with every shrimp until the bowl is empty. Easy preparation right? Next up is the cooking process.
Heat a deep fryer or heavy pan to 375 degrees or until its hot enough to fry the shrimp lumpia. Place the shrimp lumpia in the pan or deep fryer and fry it for three minutes until they turned golden brown or floated up to the top. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan.
The last thing to do is to place the cooked lumpia in a rack or pan with a paper towel beneath to drain out excess oil. After a few minutes, shrimp lumpia is ready to serve! It’s best eaten with sweet chili sauce and rice.
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds large to jumbo shrimp
- lemon pepper salt to taste
- 1 16 ounce package spring roll wrappers
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
- sweet chili sauce for dipping
Cooking Instructions:
- Prepare the shrimp by shelling all but the tail and deveining each one.
- Mix the shrimp with enough lemon pepper salt in a bowl until well coated with seasoning.
- Pull a wrapper off the stack and place the wrapper on a work surface.
- Place one piece of shrimp in the middle of the wrapper. Roll the wrapper tightly around the shrimp and seal the edges with egg white.
- Repeat making rolls with the remaining wrappers and filling.
- Heat the oil in a heavy pan or deep fryer to 375 degrees.
- Deep-fry lumpias, careful not to overcrowd the pan, until the rolls float and turn golden brown, about 3 minutes.
- Remove and place on a rack or pan with paper towel to help drain some of the oil. Serve hot with sweet chili sauce.
Recipe Source here
