A dish of tummy warming Lontong

It's been a long while since I had Lontong, then I remembered a recipe that given in a cookbook. I tried other dishes recipe from the cookbook and they turned out well so I thought I'd give this recipe a try - well, more of my house helper to try.

"Lontong is a dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, commonly found in Indonesia and Malaysia. The rice rolled inside banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as staple food replacement of steamed rice. It is commonly called nasi himpit ("pressed rice") in Malaysia.

The term lontong in Malaysia usually refers a dish which consists of rice cakes in a coconut based soup such as sayur lodeh containing shrimp and vegetables like chopped cabbage, turnip and carrots. Additional condiments are added either during cooking or in individual servings. These include things such as fried tempeh, fried tofu, boiled eggs, dried cuttlefish sambal, fried spicy shredded coconut (serunding kelapa), fried chicken etc." (Source: Wikipedia)

My helper did tweak the recipe a bit especially on the condiments part, and it tastes really yummy! Here's the recipe :)

Lontong Recipe

Ingredients A:

1/3 cup coking oil
2 1/2 cups water
2 cup santan (coconut milk),
1 tsp salt or to taste
10 pieces satay ketupat / nasi himpit

Ingredients B:

1 carrot (wedged)
50g long beans (cut into 4 cm lengths)
100g brinjal (sliced)
1 packet Tempe (fermented soya bean cake, sliced)
100g cabbage (cut into squares or long strips)

Ingredients C:

8 shallots
6 cloves garlic
1 heaped tbsp dried prawns
25g fresh tumeric (sliced)
5 stalks dried chilli

Method:

1. Using an electric blender, grind ingredients C until fine
2. Heat wok and add oil & grinded ingredients. Saute for 5-10 mins until fragrant, stirring continuously to prevent burning.
3. Add water and bring gravy too a quick boil, simmer for 2 mins
4. Add in Ingredients B, santan & bring to a quick boil again.
5. Simmer over medium heat for 5 mins or till vegetables are cooked, stirring occasionally.
6. Lastly, add in salt to taste.
7. Serve over cooked ketupat pieces or nasi himpit.