♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Lan makes Julia Lumpiang Shanghai with seasoned vinegar, Jack talks all about apple products, Lisa shares her favorite outdoor drink holders, and Dan makes Bridget crispy cacio e pepe bites.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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♪♪ -There are many different styles of lumpia.

You have sweet and savory.

You have baked, fried.

Sometimes they're even fresh.

But today Lan's gonna make us Lumpiang Shanghai, which is a Filipino version that's filled with a meat stuffing, wrapped in a thin wheat wrapper, and deep-fried.

-It's crispy, porky, and delicious.

-Mmm.

-I grew up eating lumpia.

It's the epitome of Filipino food.

It's just comforting and joyful.

Before we get started, though, I actually want to talk about the dipping sauces.

You see lumpia served with a lot of dipping sauces -- banana ketchup, a sweet chili sauce that's gooey and spicy.

But my favorite features sukang maasim, which is really important in Filipino culture.

So if you want to have a sip.

It's vinegar so you know.

-It's vinegar.

Thanks for the warning.

-What do you think?

-Ooh, that's lovely.

-Isn't it?

-It has an acidic beginning, of course, 'cause it's vinegar and it's sharp.

-Yeah.

-But then it's floral and complex.

-It's a little bit softer than wine vinegars.

It's made from cane syrup.

So sukang maasim is one of the many souring agents you'll see across Filipino cuisine.

And our dipping sauce is gonna be based on that.

-Mmm.

I love the peppery finish.

-Yeah, it kind of wakes you up.

-It sure does.

[ Both laugh ] -I've got 2/3 cup of the vinegar right here, and I'm just gonna season it with a couple of things.

I've got a tablespoon of soy sauce, and one of the other ingredients you see a lot of in Filipino cooking is black pepper.

I have 1 1/2 teaspoons of black pepper here.

One minced garlic clove.

And finally just a pinch of salt.

I know there's soy sauce in there, but I don't want to overwhelm that vinegar flavor with soy, and it just needs a tiny bit of adjusting.

Quick stir.

-Certainly is easy.

-Yeah, yeah, it's so easy.

So this is gonna sit for half an hour.

That just allows the flavors to meld.

And you can make this in advance and keep it in the fridge for a couple days.

So, next up we've got our filling.

When it comes to lumpia, everyone has their own family recipe, and so you'll see a lot of variations.

I spoke to two Filipino chefs to learn about the lumpia they grew up eating and the lumpia they serve now.

So I really want to thank Ellie Tiglao from Tanám -- her restaurant is in Somerville, Massachusetts -- and Tim Flores, his place is Kasama in Chicago.

They were really generous to share their recipes.

Now I've got 1/2 cup of chopped onion right in the food processor.

Next up, 1/3 cup of chopped carrot and 1/3 cup of celery.

We're gonna flavor this for now with four garlic cloves, just 1/2 inch of ginger that's been peeled.

And I'm just gonna pop this on.

And I'm gonna process this until the vegetables are finely chopped.

It's gonna take maybe 20 seconds or so.

And I'll stop occasionally to scrape the sides of the bowl.

So, next up, we need a binder to hold all of the filling ingredients together, and that binder is gonna be egg.

So I'm gonna beat this egg.

I don't want the filling to be too watery and soft.

I want it to hold its shape.

So I'm just gonna add 2 tablespoons.

The rest of this egg I'm actually gonna hold on to.

We'll use this to seal the lumpia after we roll them.

The rest of the ingredients for our filling are pork.

I've got 1 pound of ground pork here.

-Mm-hmm.

-You'll often see people use a combination of meats, but I like the clean sweetness of pork.

I've got a tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

This will take maybe 10 to 15 seconds, again scraping down the sides of the bowl.

And what I'm looking for here is I don't want this to be bouncy and sausagey, which can happen if you overprocess.

Just make sure everything is well-combined.

And that looks perfect.

-All right.

Boy, that was easy.

-Right?

Nice and simple.

Now, one of the other tricks Ellie and Tim taught me was instead of trying to form the filling into logs with your hands, the chefs would pop this filling into a piping bag.

So I'm using a heavy-duty zipper-lock bag.

Okay.

That's it.

-All right.

-You ready to get rolling?

-I'm ready to get rolling.

Oh, you're gonna let me roll?

-I'm gonna make you roll.

-[ Chuckles ] -Julia, these are the wrappers we're gonna use.

They're lumpia wrappers.

You'll often see them labeled spring roll wrappers, but they're for lumpia.

And they're a wheat-based, really thin, crepe-like wrapper.

They've got a nice stretch to them.

So they come in the freezer section, and there's -- they're often kind of stuck together.

And it can be a little frustrating to separate the wrappers.

What I like to do is to just give them a quick bend in all directions, but it sort of separates the edges from each other.

You can kind of see those edges... -Oh, yeah.

-...separating already.

And it just makes peeling them apart that much easier.

So I'm gonna start peeling.

You'll notice I've got a damp paper towel here.

I'm actually gonna stack these, and I'm gonna keep them covered with that damp towel.

That will keep them from drying out and cracking.

-So, as Lan mentioned, those square lumpia wrappers can be found in the freezer section, and they're often labeled spring roll wrappers, which can get confusing because you can also find these at the market.

These are Vietnamese spring roll wrappers, but they're very different.

They're made from rice.

And you can see they have a much different texture.

They require to be rehydrated before you use them.

Now, there's also these egg roll wrappers which are usually found in the produce section.

And they are made from wheat, so they're similar.

But you can see they're much thicker, and they're just not right for this recipe.

-All right, Julia, I've got 20 of these suckers peeled.

-[ Chuckles ] -I'm just gonna keep them covered with a damp paper towel, that will keep them from drying out and becoming brittle.

-Okeydoke.

-So let's start rolling.

I have that egg from earlier, and I've got our filling.

Now I'm gonna clip one inch from the corner of this bag.

The reason I'm clipping one inch from that corner is I want to have strips of filling that are 3/4 inch wide.

That gives us a nice proportion to our lumpia.

Let's each grab a wrapper.

-Okay.

I'll put one for you.

-Thank you.

-One for me.

-You want to arrange this so that you've got a corner facing you.

-Okay.

-What we're gonna do is lay down a 5-inch strip of filling just below the midline.

The reason I'm going to all of this trouble is I think that lumpia are best when they have the right proportion.

All right, Julia.

-All right.

-You gonna freestyle it?

-Might as well bring me the ruler.

[ Both laugh ] All right, so... -So we're looking for 5 inches.

-5 inches.

Mine look a little flatter than yours.

Is that all right?

-Don't stress it.

-Okay.

-So next up, we're gonna egg-wash the upper 1 1/2 inches.

You don't need a ton of egg wash for this.

They almost self-seal.

So right up there.

-Okay.

That really wasn't very much at all.

-Yeah, you don't -- you don't need much.

And then we roll.

And this is really simple.

The only thing you need to keep in mind is we want to minimize air pockets.

Air in there will kind of cause blowouts when we fry because it expands in the heat.

And so I want to fold the bottom over and make sure it's nice and tight.

And this kind of lets you rearrange it a little bit.

So that's why you don't have to be worried... -Gotcha.

-...if it's not perfect.

-It's a little flat.

-Yeah.

There you go.

-All right.

-It's like you've done this before.

The sides come in.

-Sides come in, and there's no egg wash in that.

And that's just gonna seal itself.

-It's gonna seal itself.

-Okay.

-And then I'm gonna roll.

You'll notice that there are a couple layers of wrapper around that filling.

And I think that's really important to the final texture.

When we go to fry this, the outer layer is gonna get super crispy.

The inner layers are gonna keep the juices from sogging out the exterior.

-Interesting.

-And so that's why you need that thin, narrow band of filling.

-Let's do some more.

-Yeah.

And these can be made and stored in the fridge overnight or they can be frozen.

And then you can transfer them to an airtight container and keep them in the freezer for a month.

-Ooh, that sounds handy.

-Yeah.

-Kind of lumpia at the ready.

-Exactly.

Julia, I've got 1 1/2 quarts of vegetable oil in this Dutch oven, and I'm heating it over medium heat.

Looking for 350 here before we start frying.

And we're real close.

-Ooh!

349.

-Yeah.

I'm gonna use these tongs and drop six of these into the pot.

I don't want to crowd the pot.

What I do want to do is keep the oil temperature between 340 and 360 degrees.

That ensures that by the time the exteriors are crisp, the interior is cooked.

-Gotcha.

And if you loaded the pot with more, the temperature of the oil would drop much farther than that.

-Exactly.

These are gonna fry for 5 to 8 minutes.

I'm looking for them to become golden brown.

Julia, it has been about 6 minutes.

They're golden brown and ready to come out.

You'll also notice that the oil is bubbling less vigorously and they are crunchy.

-Ooh.

-I am landing them on a wire rack that's been lined with three layers of paper towels.

I want to wick away as much of the oil as I can, and the wire rack kind of allows steam to escape through the paper towels, keeping them crisp.

So we'll add the next six.

Again, I want to keep our oil between 340 and 360 degrees, and we'll fry these in batches.

-Okay.

Mmm.

-Doesn't it smell great in here?

-It smells delicious.

-Something about fried food, right?

So, this is our last batch.

I just want to get these out.

Now, these should cool -- the fillings are piping hot -- for about 5 minutes, but they're actually really good at room temperature.

They will stay crispy for hours.

-Wow.

That makes them perfect for parties.

-Really does.

But we don't have to wait.

We can dive into the first batch we fried.

They're elegant.

There's kind of this nice, slender, cigar-like vibe to them all.

-All right.

How many should we take?

Oh, good.

[ Laughs ] -I can't resist.

They're so tasty.

-And this is that potent dipping sauce.

-Yes.

That garlic flavor has kind of softened a little bit.

The pepper's still there.

It's great.

-Mmm.

Mmm!

That pork filling has a lot of flavor but it's not overpowering.

The sauce!

-Yeah.

-I can see putting the sauce on a lot of things.

It's pungent, but it's fragrant.

It's got that kick of black pepper at the end.

-You can also imagine this with something a little sweeter.

-Mm-hmm.

-A little spicier.

-Thai chili sauce is great with this.

-Ooh, and the wrapper.

Like you said, it's a little soft on the inside.

It's absorbed all the moisture from the filling.

It's super crisp on the outside.

Lan, these are terrific.

Thank you.

-They are fantastic.

-They are.

To make these delicious Lumpiang Shanghai, make a pork filling in the food processor, pipe the filling onto the wrappers, and roll into tidy packages and fry until golden and serve with a potent dipping sauce.

From "America's Test Kitchen," with special thanks to Ellie Tiglao and Tim Flores, Lumpiang Shanghai with seasoned vinegar.

I'm definitely making these and putting them in the freezer.

♪♪ -Americans eat 16 pounds of these little beauties every year.

We sure love our apples, and we use a lot of apples in different forms here in the test kitchen.

Let me start out with applesauce.

Probably apples in its simplest form -- cooked till they're soft and remove the skins and the seeds.

We use this in a lot of baking.

You may think when you're shopping, "Oh, I want to get the unsweetened kind."

Actually, you would never make applesauce at home without sugar and you don't want to buy it without sugar.

In fact, we even like brands made with Splenda because it added a little bit of brightness to it.

I'm not gonna suggest you buy it with artificial sweeteners, but don't get the unsweetened kind.

Next up is apple butter.

Now, if you take applesauce and cook it to remove most liquid, you're left with intense apple butter, which is wonderful in glazes, to thicken a sauce, lovely inside an apple turnover to add more oomph to it without a lot of liquid, which of course would make that pastry soggy.

Next up, cider.

It's probably the thing we use most here in the test kitchen of all the things on the table.

It's basically pressed apples that's pasteurized, and we use it in sauces, glazes, and obviously lots of desserts.

If you'd said to Colonial America, "Would you like some cider?"

you'd be getting something alcoholic.

You would have gotten hard cider.

But with the advent of beer, which really came over with immigrants in the 19th century from Europe and then prohibition, hard cider pretty much disappeared until the last couple of years.

But it's undergoing a tremendous resurgence, up 50% sales last year.

Our favorite was from Angry Orchard.

We liked it because it had a little bit of sweetness.

Some brands were really very dry, and so we liked a little bit of apple to go with the alcohol in that hard cider.

Next up, apple cider vinegar.

Now this is something that could happen naturally if you let cider sit.

Commercial vinegars, they add a mother, some bacteria to speed along the process.

Our favorite is Heinz, also because it has a little bit of sweetness to go with obviously a lot of acidity.

And finally, the one thing on the table I don't really love is apple juice.

It's fine for drinking, not great for cooking because it's too sweet.

Now you're thinking, "Isn't it the same as cider?"

And it is.

The process is exactly the same, except for juice, they filter it, and in those little bits are complexity and tartness.

And so when you cook with the juice, which is no longer complex and no longer tart, it's just too sweet, especially if you cook it down in a pan sauce or even in a baked good.

So, there you have it.

Five apple products I like and one I don't like so much.

♪♪ -Whatever your cold beverage of choice, we've tested great options for enjoying it outside.

First, let's talk about reusable plastic cups.

These are perfect for outdoor dining and around kids and pets where you don't want to risk breaking glass.

They should also be functional, durable, and stylish.

We chose two favorites -- the Amazing Abby 16-ounce Ice Cube plastic tumblers with eight cups in the set.

They have thin rims that are nice to drink from and textured outsides for a secure grip.

Their bases are wide, so they're stable on various surfaces, and they can be stacked for storage.

These didn't crack or break when we dropped them on concrete.

We also loved the TarHong 6-piece Ripple set.

They were equally tough and stable, but a bit thicker at the rim.

Either is nice-looking, especially for a plastic cup, and they're sturdy and dishwasher safe.

Next, and this was a fun testing -- wine tumblers.

We tested eight models.

Our winner is the Swig Stemless Wine Cup.

It holds 12 ounces, and it did an impressive job keeping white wine cool for 5 hours.

The lid doesn't leak, and the insulated, rounded shape is really easy to hold with no condensation.

It won't tip over easily, and the cover keeps out any pesky insects or beach sand right out of your drink.

What more could you ask for?

Here's to the great outdoors.

♪♪ -Crispy, crunchy, bite-sized croquettes are one of my favorite things to snack on.

I like to order them as an app, too, and I thought I had tried them all until today, because Dan's here.

You have a very peculiar, but I'm really interested, type of croquette to make.

-This is such a fun recipe, and it's a little bit different in the croquette world for sure.

-Okay.

-So this recipe actually comes from Sasha Marx, who's a colleague that we used to work with here, and he worked at restaurant in Chicago called Parachute, which is really great, Korean-American, but just really inventive.

And these are tapioca-based croquettes.

So, we're gonna start off with some milk in our saucepan over here.

We're gonna heat it up, and before we do that, I'm gonna spray it with a little bit of vegetable oil spray.

-Okay.

-If you've ever worked with milk and you're scorching it -- bread or for making hot chocolate, you know how hard it is to scrub off the bottom of the pan, right?

-Yes, I do.

-So all these little micro scratches and stuff in the pan, the milk settles in there, and as you bring it up, the protein sets and it's very, very tricky.

So just a quick and very light spray of veg oil spray will take care of that problem.

-Great.

-Now I have a quart of whole milk.

And I'm gonna bring this up to a boil over medium-high heat.

All right, so we're up to a boil.

We're gonna add our tapioca.

So we're adding 2 cups of tapioca pearls.

And this is the same stuff you'd use for pudding.

You don't want to use minute tapioca here.

You want the long-cook stuff.

So I'm gonna stir this in and bring it up back to a boil which usually takes about 30 to 60 seconds.

Now, tapioca is fascinating.

I don't know how much tapioca pudding you ate when you were younger.

-I still do.

-You still do?

-I love tapioca pudding.

-It's so good, right?

The starch that you get from tapioca has really unique attributes to it, and it makes a gel that's really stretchy and chewy, and we're gonna take full advantage of that in this recipe.

-Okay.

-Okay.

Great.

So we're up to a boil here.

We're gonna simmer this for 6 to 8 minutes.

And it's gonna get thicker and thicker.

We're gonna stir constantly 'cause it can really stick to the bottom.

And we're looking for it to really absorb all this milk and have that texture get nice and thick.

Beautiful.

So this has thickened up considerably.

This is looking like the pudding that you were wanting.

-Absolutely.

-So, 6 to 8 minutes is not long enough to fully hydrate and cook through tapioca pearls.

It takes a lot longer than that, but we're actually -- This is perfect at this point, so I'm gonna turn off the heat.

We're looking for them to be tender on the outside, but a little bit of bite inside.

You can think of it as maybe al dente.

-Mm, okay.

-And that leads into the flavor profile that we're working with here, which is cacio e pepe.

-Okay.

-So it's really nice.

You know, this kind of has like an arancini sort of texture to it.

So we're kind of playing into that, and this Roman combination is just incredible.

So off heat here, I'm gonna add 1 3/4 cup of Pecorino Romano.

We're not going shy on any of the seasonings.

These are really gonna -- Every single bite is gonna really pop.

5 teaspoons of black pepper, which is a good amount of black pepper.

-Uh, yeah.

-Yeah.

You know, if you're -- if you're really sensitive to it, you can cut back on it, but if you like that cacio e pepe balance, this is the perfect amount.

I also have 2 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt.

So we're gonna stir this in, make sure it's nice and incorporated.

So we're gonna work quickly here and transfer it to an 8-inch baking pan that we've sprayed really heavily with a vegetable oil spray.

So, we're gonna let this cool on the counter for about 20 minutes, then it won't be steaming.

We'll wrap it in plastic and pop it in the fridge.

You need at least two hours in there for it to really set up.

But you can do it up to 24 hours.

We've got our tapioca fully set over here.

-Yes.

Absolutely.

-Very different texture.

So we're gonna get it onto our board.

First I'm gonna sprinkle a little bit more of our tapioca starch down here just so we don't have any sticking.

-There we go.

-So we're gonna cut this into 49 squares.

And so I'm just gonna measure in.

Start here with an inch.

Okay, so now I have that one, I'm gonna split this section in half and then each of these into thirds.

Okay, so now I'm just gonna slice down my marking there.

Cut a nice row.

Okay.

And then I'm gonna do the same thing here.

So we'll have 49 squares total.

Okay.

Beautiful.

-Absolutely amazing.

I do want to point out something, though.

-Yeah.

-I'm gonna have to break apart your square here just for a second, because look, the inside -- look at these little dots of tapioca still in there.

-Yeah.

-Hasn't completely dissolved.

That's what you meant by al dente.

-Exactly.

So now we're gonna dust them in a little bit of tapioca a few at a time.

-It's the strangest rice crispy treats I've ever seen.

-[ Chuckles ] Okay, great.

So after they get dusted in it, I like to shake them a little bit and we just get any excess off.

As a party food, you want to be able to kind of make them ahead and have everything ready.

And these can be refrigerated at this point for up to three days.

So I'll continue with the rest of these until they're all nice and coated.

And then we'll do a little cleanup, then it's time to fry, which I know is your favorite time.

-It is my favorite time.

It's always Fry-day.

-I brought a quart of oil to 375 degrees, and so it is time to fry.

-Like motor oil or some other kind?

-This is vegetable oil.

This is vegetable oil.

So I'm gonna add a third of our beautiful little squares.

Okay, great.

Now we're gonna cook, stirring relatively frequently here until they're nice and brown all over, which takes 2 to 4 minutes.

-Okay.

-So a quart of oil.

It's not a lot for deep frying.

-Sure.

-But it's just enough, as you can see, that covers them, so that's all you need.

So as you can see, they brown really quickly.

They've got the milk proteins.

That's really the thing that browns the fastest.

The starch is a little bit slower.

So you just want to keep an eye on them.

Keep stirring them pretty frequently here.

And then if any of them look like they're ready, pull them out.

-Okay.

-Okay.

Those are beautiful.

Now, before I get the next batch in, I'm just gonna quickly hit them with a little bit of salt.

Now, we've got a lot of cheese in there, so you don't need a ton on here.

-Right.

-But it's nice to season fried food with a little bit of salt, and doing it quickly really matters.

There's still a little bit of moisture on the surface from the steam, and that's what makes the salt really stick.

So before the next batch, we want to return the oil to 375 degrees.

And I'm gonna finish this up in two more batches.

Okay, so we finished frying our batches.

I transferred them right to a platter.

You want these nice and hot.

And then I'm gonna sprinkle them finally with a little bit more of the Pecorino Romano.

-Such great party food.

-It really is.

It's so fun to serve up.

And people are, you know, a little confused, like, "What is this?"

at first.

But then they're the first thing gone at the party every time.

-Yeah.

I believe it.

-All right.

I'm gonna let you dig in.

-Okay.

Finger food, right?

-I think it's finger food.

-Mmm.

Mmm!

-It's good, right?

-Hang on.

-[ Chuckles ] -Nice and warm as cacio e pepe should be.

But that cheese is gorgeous, too.

It's nice and toasty.

The texture, though -- you're right about that al dente.

-The pepper acts as the kind of counterpoint to all the richness, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-You've got the milk and the cheese, and that spice helps kind of clear things out.

And Pecorino is just so funky and salty.

It's a really nice combination.

-It's gorgeous.

-I love tapioca for the stretch and the pull that we talked about there.

It has really nice resiliency and chew to it.

So if you like that, this is -- you're not gonna want to make any other croquette.

-Mnh-mnh.

I like that.

-Mmm.

-And I love these.

-Well, that's good 'cause we have -- we have a party's worth.

-We've got some work to do.

-We do.

-But before we get down to that -- Thank you, Dan... -Welcome.

-...we're gonna tell these people how to make cacio e pepe bites.

Simmer tapioca pearls until they are just translucent.

Fold in lots of Pecorino and pepper and coat the cubes with a little tapioca starch before frying.

From "America's Test Kitchen," there's a new croquette in town, and it's crispy cacio e pepe bites.

You can get this great recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes, and those are all on our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.

Now, what other kind of Roman dish can we turn into croquettes?

-Visit our website where you can sign up for our free e-mail newsletter for even more of the recipes and stories you love from all of our cast and cooks -- americastestkitchen.com/tv.

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