Bamboo shoot spring rolls

Good evening read.cash community.

Tonight I decided to write about our unusual viand. It's unusual because we only prepare this whenever available, whether bought from the market or harvested from our backyard.

When I was a kid, I would always follow wherever my father is going. We were not born rich so I was so amazed how my father would strategize our viand from his vegetable garden or sometimes his fishing skills in a natural river near our old house.

One day, as I was tailing papa(my father). His friend came to us again and ask if he could still have some bamboo shoots. It's from papa's grown bamboo trees that almost looked like our fence.

Out of curiousity, papa asked what will he be doing to those bamboo shoots and then the guy replied that they'll be making it as their viand. He also taught papa how to prepare it. Good thing papa asked because as a kid, I was so curious too, considering how durable and hard bamboos are, how can they be edible?

After that papa tried it the next morning, he also passed the knowledge to my big brother. And so after papa died, I can still taste that unique taste of vegetable through my brother.

Tonight however, kuya was not here and I remember it clearly how papa was cooking this. I always spy papa while cooking because he's just an amazing chef for me. So I had to do it on my own now, let's recreate papa's one bamboo shoot recipe which is bamboo shoot spring rolls.

Of course we'll be needing:

Bamboo shoots(Labong)

Chopped Onion and garlic

Salt

pepper

Vegetable oil or any cooking oil available

Protein(Shreded Chicken/pork strips/corned beef or ground beef)

Lumpia wrapper

Preparation of bamboo shoots.

If you bought it from the market, it may look like the image below which is already peeled and clean.

You will just have to slice it and make it into small strips.

However, if you have the freshly harvested shoots like this:

You have to peel the outer rind especially the hard surfaces. Slice them into small strips and wash them.

Once the bamboo shoots are clean.

Put them into a wok, add some water( just enough for every piece to be submerged with water). Also sprinkle pinch of salt.

Boil them for minimun of 15 minutes for them to soften. Once boiled, wash them again with tap water to cool down and stop the cooking.

I prefer to squeeze them once they are in room temperature already. Boiling and squeezing both eliminates the juice from the bamboo shoots which I think has the bitter taste and unique scent. Making it as dry as possible.

After squeezing, it's time that I prepare other ingredients for sauteing.

Sautéing

Sauté onion and garlic into a pan over high heat. Add some ground black pepper to wake the taste of black pepper. Allow browning before adding your available proteins, in my case I added 2 two canned corned beef because we haven't restock goods yet. Mix them well for about 3 minutes to cook well. Then it's time to add the bamboo shoots. Cook them for atleast 5mins or until almost all water evaporates. Enough time for flavors to incorporate well with the bamboo shoots.

You can taste it to add a bit of salt and ground black pepper according to your preferred taste or saltiness. Some also put some flavor enhancing in sautéing as 'msg' but I prefer just salt and pepper.

Once cooked, allow them to cool down.

While waiting, I separate the lumpia wrapper individually.

Wrapping

Lumpia wrapper or spring roll wrappers are usually round but they are also available in other shapes.

Wrapping with round wrapper, once the sautéd vegetables have cooled down.

Put 1tbsp into the center then push it down firmly while rolling, fold the edges inward then roll again.

To make the wrapper sealed, I put some water at the edge before closing completely. It may look like these:

Not as pretty as commercially bought spring rolls but this is still a must-try and a budget friendly recipe.

Frying

Just fry them, nothing fancy. Just deep fry them until they turned brown or until crispy.

You can pair them with spicy vinegarette or ketchup. Enjoy eating the fruit of your labor. Haha Itadakimasu!

First three images are not mine, credits to owners because I forgot to take a shot while preparing it.

Bamboo shoots are edible and I believe this is a Chinese influenced cuisine. We Filipinos just love to adapt, explore and be resourceful as much as possible.

Happy cooking beautiful pipz!