Tinapang Bangus & Sotanghon Lumpia

I was flipping through The Philippine Cookbook compiled by Virginia Roces de Guzman and Nina Daza Puyat and saw a recipe for “Lumpiang Bangus” which is attributed to Carol Andrews Ferrer. I immediately headed to the kitchen to try it out but instead of using bangus, I decided to make it with tinapang bangus instead. I also adjusted the dipping sauce to make it less sweet. It tasted fantastic. A bit like Vietnamese spring rolls, but with the distinct smokey flavor of tinapa. I think many of you would enjoy this dish…

Take a whole tinapang bangus (I used a Sarangani Bay Frozen Tinapang Bangus), defrost it and fry it up and flake the meat. You will have just under two cups or so of loosely packed bangus meat. In a pan, add some vegetable oil, sauté about half a cup of chopped onions, chopped tomatoes and a couple of cloves of garlic, minced. Add the flaked bangus, some soaked sotanghon noodles, then season with patis or fish sauce, freshly ground black pepper and add some chopped chives or green onion. Cool the filling, wrap up the filling in lumpia wrapper (you will make 10-12 pieces, depending on size) and fry at 350F until light golden brown.

Serve with a garlic vinegar dipping sauce, or if you follow the original recipe, a dipping sauce with sugar, water, vinegar, garlic, chilies and grated carrots. The crisp lumpia wrapper yields to the flavorful smoked bangus with flavorful sotanghon noodles and it all results in a tasty, delicious mouthful. I think a bit of fresh coriander leaves in the stuffing or the dipping sauce would be a nice addition as well. I am thinking of trying this with flaked crab meat as well someday soon. Yum.