Timpla, A Beginner's Guide to Great Cooking (1) - Elijah Arenas

My Cooking Journey

Filipino cuisine has always been a part of my life, but even so, I never actually learned to cook any Filipino dishes. I chose Timpla because it doesn't only teach me how to cook, it also helps me connect back to my roots, the Philippines.

"Cooking is a journey. The process takes us through a multi-sensory experience of mixed flavors from the moment we find the perfect ingredients to the moment we plate our masterpiece" (Ozaeta 6). 

These words said by the editor-in-chief of Timpla, encouraged me to try and learn cooking, as I want to embark on a cooking journey to experience all those different kinds of flavors. For my first dish, I decided to do Fresh Lumpia because it embodies the Filipino style of using various ingredients that incorporates different flavors into one. It also reflects the Filipino value of patience, from the preparation of the ingredients to the actual cooking itself.

Let's now start cooking!

Filling:

• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic, chopped
• 1/2 piece onion, chopped
• 1 piece carrot, peeled and cut into strips 
• 250 grams bean sprouts
• 1 head small cabbage, shredded
• 250 grams tofu, cooked and cut into cubes
• 200 grams shrimps, boiled and peeled
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Lumpia Wrapper:

• 1 1/2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 tablespoon cooking oil

Procedure:

1. To make the lumpia filling, heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in pan and saute garlic and onions.

2. Add carrots, bean sprouts, cabbage, and tofu. Cook for 3 minutes.

3. Season with soy sauce. Set aside.

4.To make the batter for the wrapper, combine eggs, water, all-purpose flour, salt, and cooking oil.

5. Heat a small non-stick pan and ladle out 1/3 cup measure of the lumpia wrapper batter.

6. Cook one side and then slide out the pan. Set aside and continue with rest of the batter.

(Ozaeta 56-57)

The entire process of cooking Fresh Lumpia is hard. It truly does require patience to do it. In the end, I did not achieve the perfect Fresh Lumpia, but I'm quite proud to say that I managed to make one that is good enough, as it was my first time cooking it. As I ate it, it brought me back to the time when my mom would arrive from work during the summer with Fresh Lumpias from Goldilocks. Every thing inside it complements each other, the wrapper is soft and moist while the filling is full of different kinds of flavors that blends into one.

Cooking is truly a journey, a journey composed of different flavors to achieve that perfect "timpla" - a Tagalog word that directly translates to "blend" in English. As I continue on my cooking journey with Timpla, I look forward to making other dishes that would not only satisfy my palate, but also polish my cooking skills.

How about you? Do you agree with Ozaeta that cooking is a journey?

Works Cited:

Fontanilla, Marilen, and Anne Marie Ozaeta, eds. Timpla. First Edition ed. Makati City: Hinge Inquirer Publications, 2010. Print.