Lontong (Indonesian Rice Cake)

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INDONESIA EATS

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First and foremost, I’d like to say “Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians”. This Monday is a Canadian Thanksgiving.

Let’s back to our topic here, lontong.  Lontong is a cylinder look of rice cake that is traditionally wrapped in banana leaf and boiled until solid. Thou the translation is rice cake, this lontong is not for dessert. It’s a kind of cooked rice substitution.

In Indonesian term, Lontong and Ketupat are loosely translated the same “rice cake”. The difference is the shape and wrapping materials. While lontong has a cylinder shape, ketupat is square. Please see my further explanation on ketupat.

Lontong accompanies many Indonesian dishes such as sate or satay, rendang, veggies or meat soup or stew with curry base. In Probolinggo, a small city where I was born, lontong is eaten with bakso (Indonesian meatball soup).

After several time I made lontong, I came to a conclusion. Don’t use jasmine rice for making lontong, but use long grain rice as it yields more solid lontong.

I was promising Marvellina of What To Cook Today to show my lontong mould here. These 2 moulds were brought from Indonesia. After using them plenty of times, they are getting unpresentable on the picture. There is a tip to make any stainless steel stuff clean again from Lena when she saw my ugly mould’s picture. 

“

Submerge the stainless steel products for 30 minutes in a solution of white vinegar, sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and salt mixture. Be careful when you are mixing them because the mixture can be foamed a lot. After that, scrub your stainless steel stuff with a steel scrubber.” Thanks Lena!

How to make lontong with the lontong mould:
– Roll each leaf (length wise with the green shiny side in, so your lontong will have slightly greenish color) into a cylinder.
– Open up two lids of the mould. Put the leaf cylinder into mould. Plug one lid on, fill rinsed and cleaned rice until half. Plug the other lid on. Ready to boil for approx. 3 – 4 hours.

Note:
– The lontong process with a mould takes longer than the one without. However, you will get more solid lontong and uniform shape.

– Before plugging the lids, you may want to put layer of pandan or banana leaf on.