When my husband and I made it our (unrealistic) mission to watch every Disney animated film in order of release, there were obviously some that I already knew practically every single frame of.

Lilo & Stitch is not one of those movies.

I kind of knew the broad strokes of it, meaning I knew there was a girl named Lilo and an alien named Stitch, who is a very popular character with Disney fans. This left me very open to recipe ideas, but it also left me slightly uninspired.

Lumpia are a type of spring roll that is very popular in Filipino cuisine and is very popular in Hawaii, where Lilo & Stich takes place. Like spring rolls, Lumpia is generally filled with savory vegetables and meats, but another popular iteration is a banana.

Since Stitch has an adoration for the music of Elvis Presley, and the soundtrack is filled with his songs, I added homemade peanut butter and spicy and sweet bacon to the lumpia.

These rolls were dynamite. They were light and crispy and loaded with flavor. Obviously, peanut butter, bacon, and banana are a great combination, so the King did a lot of the heavy lifting for me on this one. I ordered rice paper wrappers off of Amazon here. They only came in two packs, so I have plenty left to make these lumpia again, and I will.

To keep the with the generally tropical feel, I made a fish caramel sauce. What is a fish caramel sauce, you ask? It’s caramel sauce with fish sauce added in at the end in place of vanilla. It gives the sauce a salty kick. I also added some coconut and bacon fat to the sauce in place of the usual heavy whipping cream and butter used in a regular recipe. The result was pretty delicious. I also added whipped coconut whipped cream and candied macadamia nuts to give the dish more texture variants.

And now- a little less conversation, a little more action!

Peanut Butter And Banana Lumpia With Fish Caramel Sauce

Prep Time: 60 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

To Make The Sweet And Spicy Bacon:

1 lb thick-cut bacon

1/2 cup honey

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Place the bacon strips on parchment paper- line pan and bake it in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. While the bacon is cooking, combine the honey and cayenne in a small bowl. Pull the pan out and brush the bacon with the honey and cayenne pepper. Reduce the heat on the oven to 300 degrees and then return the bacon to the oven to cook for another 5-7 minutes or until the bacon is crispy but not burned. Move the bacon to a plate and drain the bacon fat from the pan to use in the caramel sauce. When the bacon is cooled, chop it up into bite-sized pieces.



To Make The Savory Tropical Caramel Sauce:

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 c coconut water

2 tablespoons warm rendered bacon fat

1/2 cup heavy cream or coconut cream

2 teaspoons fish sauce

Combine the sugar and coconut water in the bottom of a saucepan, swirling or stirring to wet all of the sugar. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and then heat the sugar to 220 degrees . making sure not to stir or whisk the mixture. You can shake or swirl the pan slightly, however. The sugar will turn an amber color, but be careful not to burn it. Whisk in the cream. The mixture will bubble up a lot, but just keep whisking until it incorporates. Stir in the bacon fat and the fish sauce. These last two ingredients will add a lot of interesting flavors to the caramel. Set the sauce aside and keep warm until you are ready to serve.

To Make The Homemade Peanut Butter:

2 cups honey roasted peanuts

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

Place all the ingredients in a blender and puree, scraping down the sides of the blender every couple minutes. Blend until the peanut butter is as smooth as you would like it. Remove from the blender and set aside for assembly. Keep any leftovers in an airtight container.

To Make The Candied Macadamia Nuts:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

3 cups macadamia nuts

Coarse sea salt to taste

Combine the sugar and water in a saute pan and cook without stirring until the sugar caramelizes. Do not walk away from the pan, because it will burn very quickly (I had to start the sugar again twice). When the sugar browns, add the nuts and stir to coat them. Spread the nuts onto a piece of parchment or a silicone mat and salt them. Allow them to cool and harden. Break them apart into small pieces and place into an airtight container.

To Make The Coconut Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup coconut cream

1/4 c powdered sugar

Zest of one fresh lime

Place cold whipping cream in a clean mixer bowl. Using the whisk attachment, whip on high until you start to get stiffer peaks. Add in remaining ingredients and mix on low to combine. The addition of the coconut cream with slacken the whipped cream back out slightly and make it softer. Place the whipped cream in a covered container or bowl and keep it chilled until you are ready to serve.

To Make The Peanut Butter And Banana Lumpia:

Rice Paper Wrappers

Homemade Peanut Butter

Chopped Sweet And Spicy Bacon

6 fresh bananas, peeled and sliced

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl or on a plate and set aside. Working carefully, moisten a sheet of rice paper. I used two wet rags rather than running the rice paper under water. Without this, the rice paper is very stiff and brittle. Once the rice paper is damp enough that it is pliable, place the paper on a cutting board or clean countertop with the square at a 45 degree angle so the point is at the bottom. Place several slices of banana along the center of the rice paper. Spread a generous amount of peanut butter on top of the bananas and then top with chopped bacon. Roll up the same way you would a burrito, folding in the sides as you go. You may need to wet the edges more in case they have dried in order to get the rolls to seal. I made these rolls large because 1) I didn’t know they weren’t supposed to be, and 2) I was pretty scared of the rice paper.

Fry the lumpia in either a deep fryer or a pan of oil on the stove top until they are crispy and browned. Remove the rolls from the oil and drain them on a paper towel before tossing them in the cinnamon sugar. Cut the lumpia in half or into pieces and serve with the caramel sauce, coconut cream, and candied nuts.

These lumpia were awesome, if a little sweet. But when dragged through the salty caramel sauce and coconut whipped cream, perfectly balanced and maybe too easy to eat too many.

I hope you try them out, preferably while listening to some Elvis- the way we did!