Lontong is a compressed rice cake popular in Malaysia and Indonesia made with rice, vegetables, and meat. It is traditionally wrapped in banana leaves and boiled, and can be eaten with soups, stews, curries, and salads. It can also be made using steel molds or aluminum foil.
Lontong is a compressed rice cake popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. Its ingredients consist of compressed rice, carrots, beans, potatoes and meat, and it is usually eaten with soups, stews, curries and salads. These type of rice dishes are eaten as a snack typically and can be purchased at many Asian grocery stores and food carts that sell Asian dishes.
Traditionally, lontong is made by rolling partially boiled rice and vegetables in a banana leaf. Any type of rice can be used to prepare this dish, but many cooks prefer to use long-grain basmati rice. This type of rice is more easily compressed and creates a firmer rice cake.
The rice is first washed and then boiled over a moderate heat, with a pinch of salt added to the water. The heat is then turned down and the rice is cooked for about 10 minutes. The pot is removed from the heat and set aside for a while to allow the rice to absorb the water and cool. The cooked rice is collected and placed on a well-washed banana leaf. The sash is tightly rolled into a cylinder and both ends are closed and secured with a wedge or toothpick.
The banana leaf cylinder is boiled for about two hours. This process causes the banana leaf to shrink and compress the rice. The cylinders are then removed from the hot water and allowed to cool. The banana leaf is unfolded and unwrapped, and the compressed rice roll is cut into small ready-to-eat pieces.
If banana leaves aren’t available, the long one can be made using steel molds or aluminum foil; steel molds are available in many Asian grocery stores. If cooking with aluminum foil, you will need to punch a few holes in the foil after rolling the rice. The holes will allow hot water to seep inside and cook the rice.
Lontong can be eaten with bakso, which is an Indonesian meatball-based soup. Another favorite Indonesian dish is satay or sate, which is grilled, skewered meat in peanut sauce. Typical Malaysian dishes that are eaten long distance are sayur lodeh which is a stew made with vegetables and coconut and rendang which is a spicy curry made with meat and coconut.
A rather similar compressed rice dish is ketupat, but here the rice is packed in palm leaves. The shape of the rice cake is square rather than cylindrical. Ketupat is served and eaten in much the same way as far.
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