Packed with flavor and a richness only lard can provide, these lumpiang ubod or spring rolls with sauteed hearts of palm were totally scrumptious. Start off by buying a kilo or so of the freshest and prime-est ubod you can find. Not the tough, pithy outer pieces, but rather the most central and nearly milky parts that command a premium. Pay extra for the quality stuff, buying cheap will practically ruin the dish in my opinion…
Into a large saute pan or frying pan, add about 8-10 tablespoons of pure pork lard. I used the tampalen lard we made a week ago and it was an incredibly creamy white color, and melted as soon as it touched the hot pan. I added some chopped onions, minced garlic and sauteed for a 2 minutes or so until softened. Next, I added the julienned ubod or hearts of palm (I used a mandoline to make quick qork of slicing the ubod) and sauteed that for another few minutes, the ubod now releasing quite a bit of liquid. To this, I added some 6-8 cups of freshly made shrimp stock, made from the heads and shells of prawns/shrimp that had been boiled in water, mashed and strained. Let this simmer for several minutes until the liquid is reduced and the ubod is tender but not overly soft. Season with some good patis or fish sauce and some sea salt if necessary. Also add some freshly cracked black pepper to taste. While I added fried bits of tampalen to the mixture earlier in the process, I would now recommend you add them later, so they remain with a bit of crunch rather than getting too soggy. If I had some shrimp in the house, I would have added shrimp pieces to the mixture.
Once cooked and seasoned properly, remove the cooked ubod and let it cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, take several cloves of garlic and mash it in a mortar and pestle and add some of the liquid remaining in the pan after you have removed the cooked ubod. You should have a viscous and pungent garlic paste. This last trick I learned from Manang Laida on a trip to Bacolod, her recipe for lumpia, here.
Into the thinnest and freshest lumpia wrappers you can get (these were a day old, so slightly parched, but a quick fine spray of water could easily cure that), shmear a bit of the garlic paste then pile on some of the cooled ubod mixture. Roll this up to a typical spring roll shape, leaving one end open. You can do as others and add a lettuce leaf and or sprig of green onion for color and crunch, or leave this unadulterated as many Ilonggos (or is it Negrenses?) are wont to do. You could add crisped up tampalen at this point and/or some chopped meaty chicharon for crunch and another layer of pork goodness.
Do not fret if your wrapper gets a bit oily, the fat is FLAVOR… Meanwhile, make a simple sauce of panocha or palm sugar, water, soy sauce and a touch of cornstarch to thicken it up. I used the finest muscovado I have ever found on the market instead of panocha so that’s why the sauce seems uncharacteristically dark brown. Drizzle the sauce over your freshly wrapped lumpia ubod and sprinkle with some chopped roasted peanuts.
This dish was totally off limits on my current diet. But I ate a whole lumpiang ubod! :) Yup, and it was delicious! The ubod was tender but not overly mushy, redolent with lard and the unique essence of shrimp broth. The sauce was sweet and salty at the same time and the muscovado gave it a flavor punch atypical of most restaurant versions of the dish. Excellent way to violate my diet rules. I have noticed that many folks eat this chilled or at cool room temperatures. The fat probably solidifies a bit in cooler temperatures, giving each lumpia a really rich and unctuous mouthfeel. Yum. :)
21 Responses
Kanamit! As a Negrense, and having had tasted a lot of lumpia ubod from Silay to Bacolod and other places here, this looks amazing. The best lumpia ubod should have the pleasant sting of pungent garlic enough to scare away the aswangs, bampiras and make you think twice about speaking or exhaling in close proximity to others.
lumpiang ubod is one of my favorite snacks.
“Excellent way to violate my diet rules.” – yes, exactly! i always say if you’re going to violate a rule, it had better be worth it!
yum!! i don’t eat pork though.. i love eating lumpiang ubod for merienda.. and if u replace the chicharon with shrimp, it makes a great lent dish..
oh, I miss this..MM, I think there’s lettuce in both Negros and Iloilo lumpia…i think it’s just to make it look pretty..i remember, some add a scallion or two..and yes, it would be bland without the garlic!
We make the sauce that way too except that we add tons of garlic in the sauce instead of in the lumpia.
Looks beautiful. Sadly I’m not going to find the ingredients my local market – no hearts of palm in this neck of the woods. The only way to make these more decadent, since you’re going with the lard anyway, is to make your own wrappers. Our beloved dear departed cook/housekeeper who looked after our family from “Peacetime” i.e. before WWII to her death in the 90’s used to make them with duck eggs.
Agree with Natie about the leaf lettuce which I think does a good job of adding more crisp and temporarily isolating the juicy filling from dissolving the wrapper. And I favor this type of wrapper too over the crêpey ones.
My earliest memory of lumpiang ubod were the ones you buy from a Chinese vendor in Divisoria who assembled them for you while you wait. A smear of mustard was applied to the wrapper and ground roasted peanuts was sprinkled before the whole thing was rolled up. Truly delicious, well worth the isolation you are subjected to when people try to imperceptibly back away from you afterwards.
MM, please pass the sauce…………uy recipe. Thanks
Yummmy! That garlic paste really makes all the difference!
I also like my lumpiang ubod with lettuce :)
MM, forgive my ignorance, but are those wrappers the ones used for fried lumpia? I didn’t realize they’re ready to eat and can be used for lumpiang ubod/fresh lumpia. This will make my life easier..i’ve always wanted to try doing my own fresh lumpia. Thanks for the recipe!
Will it make a big difference in taste if I use Canola oil instead of pork lard? Don’t have problems with cholesterol so I don’t want to start now. Thanks. :)
This is so cool cuz I just made that for lunch too! I bought the best cut of ubod from Mahogany Market in Tagaytay yesterday, only available on weekends. I love munching on them raw and I was warned that nakakalasing daw to since they make tuba from these :) Had no effect on me whatsoever. My mom prefers them cooked this way so I made the rest into lumpia.
I made my wrapper from scratch, the soft pancake-like one, but very thin, almost like a crepe. It was good! Though I made so many shortcuts having no shrimp or pork on hand :)
IT USED TO BE PORK, SHRIMPS, AND CRAB MEAT (ALIMASAG) WITH THE UBOD … BUTTER, BROWN SUGAR, WATER AND CORNSTARCH FOR THE SAUCE WITH FRESH/ROASTED GARLIC AND PEANUTS (ROASTED AS WELL) … AND WRAPPERS MADE FROM FLOUR, WATER AND EGGS …
. . w0w ang sarap nmn. . ^^
here in negros, the lumpia has a stalk of green onion, no lettuce.
Ahhh, this is so delightful. This is the kind of lumpia that I really love, the fresh ones, and these ubods, gosh. And with the garlic. I always put garlic in almost all my recipes, even with Pritong Bangus. But with this lumpia, with the ingredients you mix here, what yummier lumpia than this one?
Marketmanila is simply awesome! :-)
Help, please. Did you really mean 6 to 8 cups of shrimp stock for a kilo of ubod – or was that a typo error?
**Groan**
I’ve been craving this for the last 2 weeks. MM, why do you torture me so?
EJ, yes, 6+ cups of stock, I wanted a nice shrimp flavor when the stock is reduced. But note, FRESHLY made shrimp stock, not cubes. :)
This is making me hungry!I’ll do this when I get back from my holiday.MM, you really know how to tease our palate!
Ohhh that looks great.