Filipino

I stand corrected!
Thank you to reader Ezra Antonio for his comments regarding the correct spelling of this dish (see his comments below). I’ve edited this to reflect this spelling with an “R” instead of how our family mispronounces it with an “L” — some of us are still working on the “P” and “F” thing, too! I love it when there’s a dialogue about something you see around here — thanks to everyone who de-lurks! ; )

No doubt many readers are familiar with the Chinese eggroll, the Vietnamese fried springroll, or (if you’re really lucky) the Filipino lumpia. They are all deep-fried packets of vegetables and/or meat beloved the world over as tasty, easy-to-eat parcels of exotica. Fewer readers may also be familiar with the Vietnamese fresh springroll — a noodle, herb and cooked shrimp filling wrapped in translucent rice paper. Definitely saves on calories (no frying) with no sacrifice of flavor. Now raise your hand if you’re also familiar with the Filipino fresh lumpia called Lumpia Sariwa, or Saliwa. Anyone? Anyone??

I think it’s a tragedy that this wonderful Filipino dish is not better known, so let’s change that. Sariwa is full of healthy ingredients, fun to assemble, and oh-so-onolicious. The vegetable and meat filling is spooned into lettuce and a lumpia wrapper, rolled, and eaten with a sweet vinegar sauce and fresh garlic. How can it get better than that? And each diner assembles her own wrap at the table, so everyone can adjust the garlic and sauce to their taste. Have you ever had mu shu pork/vegetables, or fajitas — it’s just like that.

Perhaps the single defining feature of sariwa is the raw garlic garnish. Finely minced raw garlic is added to each mouthful, along with a spoonful of vinegar sauce. It packs a powerful punch, but pulls together the flavorful filling and the bland wrapper and lettuce beautifully. If you prefer to assemble the rolls ahead of time for your family or guests, wrap the assembled rolls in plastic wrap, individually or in 2s and 3s, to keep the delicate flour wrappers from drying out and splitting.

Maybe the trickiest part of making sariwa at home is finding the lumpia wrappers if you don’t have a grocer that stocks Filipino products. While you can substitute other types of eggroll/springroll wrappers when deep-frying, the thicker yellowish square wrappers labelled for Chinese eggrolls won’t work in this recipe because I don’t think you can eat those wrappers raw. The ultra-thin crepe-like wrappers necessary for sariwa are made with flour, water and salt only. There is a locally (Hawaii) made brand, and a couple imported from the P.I. All brands are available frozen (Don Quijote on Oahu carries a couple of types; but the Philippine grocery, Pacific Supermarket in Waipahu, has the most variety). Remove the frozen wrappers from the plastic, and wrap in a barely damp clean kitchen towel to thaw about 30 minutes. Before placing at the table, carefully separate the wrappers (they’re fragile and will stick together a bit) before stacking again in a damp towel to keep them from drying out.

Sariwa is usually part of a larger meal, but we often will have just this and a bowl of rice as a full meal. It’s perfect hot weather food, and a nice change of pace from a main-course salad.
The title of this post is a tribute to my dear husband who always speaks in exclamation points whenever he mentions this dish…

LUMPIA SARIWA (FILIPINO FRESH LUMPIA)
Serves 4 as a main course
For the Sauce:
3/4 cup (180ml) apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup (120ml) water
1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar or 2/3 cup (130g) raw sugar
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 tsp. (10g) cornstarch, dissolved in 3 TBL. water to make a runny paste

Combine vinegar, water, sugar and salt in small saucepan. Stir vigorously to dissolve salt and sugar. Bring to boil over high heat, then immediately reduce to simmer. While stirring constantly or whisking, pour in cornstarch slurry and combine. Cook over low heat, stirring, until starch is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens and loses all opaqueness. Pour into small serving bowls (one for each diner) and allow to cool.

For the Filling:
1/4 lb. (110g) shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 whole chicken breast or 3 chicken thighs, deboned and skinned
1/4 lb. pork shoulder
1 onion, finely diced
4-6 cloves of garlic, finely minced
ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. fish sauce (patis)
oil

Cut shrimp and meats into thin slivers, no more than 1″ long. Heat oil in wok over medium heat, then add onions, cover and allow to cook until onions are translucent, about 8-10 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Increase heat to medium-high and add chicken and pork. Season with pepper and patis, and cook for 5 minutes. Add shrimp, stir through, and lower heat back down to medium, and cook for another minute. Immediately pour out all contents of the pan, including any liquids, into a bowl and keep aside. Do not wash wok and return to stove.

1 small head of cabbage, green or Napa (about 1.5 lb/600g), shredded
1 large or 2 medium carrots, julienned in 2″ pieces or shredded
1/4 lb. green beans, cleaned and julienned or sliced on a sharp diagonal
1 medium potato, peeled and julienned in 2″ pieces
1 small can of water chestnuts, julienned (optional)
1/2 cup of julienned bamboo shoots
3 pieces of Chinese black fungus (mok yee), rehydrated and sliced thin (optional)
ground black pepper
2-3 tsp. patis
1/4 cup chicken broth or water

In same pan that the meats were cooked, heat 2 TBL. oil over medium high heat, and add all the vegetables. Stir through, add pan juices from cooked meats and chicken broth or water. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Add pepper and patis, and stir through again. Continue cooking until all vegetables are just cooked through, then raise heat to medium-high and add back the cooked meats. Stir well to combine all ingredients, and cook uncovered for another 10 minutes to evaporate most of the liquid in the pan. Taste and correct seasoning.
Remove filling from pan, leaving behind as much remaining liquid as possible. Allow to cool completely before serving.

To Assemble:
1 packet of lumpia wrappers, thawed and separated, and kept under a damp kitchen towel
2 heads of Romaine lettuce, or 3-4 heads of leaf lettuce, washed, dried and separated into leaves
1-2 heads of garlic, peeled and finely minced in a serving bowl

Lay one wrapper on a plate and a Romaine or other leaf lettuce on top of the wrapper, with one end of the leaf just over the left or right edge of the wrapper (so it will peek out the top when it’s rolled). Put 2 tablespoons of filling down the center of the leaf, fold the leaf around filling. Holding the leaf in place, fold the long end of the wrapper (nearest you) around the leaf & filling. Now bring the bottom of the wrapper over the leaf to close up tha end. Start rolling away from you until you reach the end of the plate. Use plain water to wet the edge of the wrapper to seal.

To eat, just pick it up burrito-style, garnish with garlic and sauce, and enjoy! (“Pass the mints, please”)

When you’re really not feeling well, there’s few things better than chicken soup to make it all better. So what is it about chicken soup that makes it so popular as a cold remedy? Is it just the warm liquid soothing the chest? Hot vapors loosening nasal congestion? Or is it something more? At least two different scientific studies have taken a crack at what mothers and folklore the world over tout as the best cold remedy. The earlier study showed that warm chicken soup “increased nasal mucus velocity” (what a lovely term!) and so would alleviate the “acute rhinitis” (stuffy nose) that accompanies the common cold. (A) The later study, in 2000, demonstrated that the synergistic combination of chicken and vegetables in a homemade chicken soup inhibited the movement of white blood cells (called neutrophils) that caused inflammation in the upper respiratory tract. (B) By limiting the number of neutrophils at the infection site, the inflammation was reduced, and so was the duration of the cold. Interestingly, the second study also tested several commercial brands of chicken soup and found some of them had a better or equal anti-inflammatory effect as the homemade soup. (See the list of the commercial soups in the survey)

But what’s the one key ingredient all the commercial brands of soup will be missing? TLC, of course — love. Chicken soup is not hard. Here’s an easy, foolproof method you can start in a crockpot. The only catch is, I recommend starting the day before you serve so you can chill the broth and remove most of the fat. I usually start this in the morning and let it do it’s thing until evening. (Meanwhile I can do my thing and not fret too much over an open flame)

In a 5-7 quart crockpot, place:
3-4 lbs chicken backs, or a 1-2 whole stewing chicken
2 well-scrubbed unpeeled carrots, cut in half
1 large well-scrubbed unpeeled onion, quartered
green tops of one bunch of scallions
1/2 hand of ginger, sliced

Cover with water and set crockpot on High setting for 3 hours, skim as impurities form “scum” in broth.
Turn setting to Low and simmer for another 6 hours. (The long simmer is necessary to extract maximum goodness from the bones)
Remove broth to a large shallow pan to cool, then in a container to refrigerate overnight.
When cold, remove all or most (I leave about 10-15 % in for flavor) of the layer of yellow fat at the top of the broth.
Chicken backs and vegetables start the soup base
Now you can do anything you want with it — add all the vegetables you like; add chicken, seafood; add macaroni, orzo, rice noodles, rice or potatoes; add herbs or more spices; add . . . your imagination!

Here is one of our favorite chicken soups. It’s a Filipino soup with green papaya — called Tinola. The papaya is supposed to be a stark white color. The one in these pictures had started to ripen on the inside, although the outer skin was still green. But it was very firm, not sweet, and stood up well in this soup. The watercress is not traditional in the original Philippine version, but I love watercress and think it adds a great flavor, not to mention all the extra nutrition from the greens. I”ve also seen this made with togan (also called winter melon) or upo (also called loofa gourd), instead of green papaya.

(Look here for a more traditional Chicken & Vegetable Soup)

CHICKEN TINOLA

(Chicken and green papaya soup with watercress)

1 large knob of ginger, julienned
1 onion, sliced
3-5 cloves garlic, chopped
8-9 cups prepared chicken broth
1 whole chicken breast, cut in half
1 whole green papaya, peeled and cut into 4-inch cubes
1 large bunch watercress, cleaned and chopped into 2-inch pieces
2 TBL fish sauce (patis)
1-2 tsp ground black pepper
sea salt, if necessary

The most important step in developing the right flavor for this soup is to saute the ginger, onions and garlic together until the onions become translucent, then slightly brown. Add chicken broth, and breast halves and bring to boil. Remove any scum that surfaces. When chicken is fully cooked, remove from broth.

Add papaya pieces, watercress, patis and pepper. When cool enough to handle, remove meat from bone, tear into large chunks and return to soup. Cook over medium heat until papaya is just tender (pierces with a fork). Taste and adjust seasoning.
Raw green papaya Chicken and green papaya soup
Although this is a soup, you’ve probably guessed from the large chunks that this is not eaten directly from the bowl. I was taught to eat this with fork, spoon, plate of rice and a side dish of patis. We’ve given up on the tableside patis for health reasons (like all fish sauces, it’s very salty with a high sodium content), but still eat this the traditional way: put some meat and vegetable on your plate and eat it with rice. You can use the broth to moisten your rice and/or drink the broth separately.

(A) Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach study (1978)
(B) University of Nebraska Medical Center report: “Chicken Soup Inhibits Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro*” (2000)

Sariwa! (Filipino Fresh Lumpia)

The Way of Cooking: Chicken soup