''Lemper'' is an Indonesian savoury

snack A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snacks are ...

made of

glutinous rice Glutinous rice ('' Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amyl ...

filled with seasoned shredded

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

, fish ''abon'' (

meat floss ''Rousong'' or ''yuk sung or bak hu'' ( ; ), also known as meat floss, is a dried meat product with a light and fluffy texture similar to coarse cotton, originating from China. ''Rousong'' is used as a topping for many foods, such as congee, t ...

) or

serundeng Serundeng refers to a side dish or condiment to accompany rice in Indonesian and Malay languages. Serundeng may taste sweet, or hot and spicy according to recipe variants. Its best known variant is an Indonesian preparation of sautéed grated ...

. The specific ''lemper'' filled with seasoned shredded chicken is called ''lemper ayam'' (lit: chicken ''lemper''). The meat filling is rolled inside the rice, in a fashion similar to an

egg roll Egg rolls are a variety of deep-fried appetizers served in American Chinese restaurants. An egg roll is a cylindrical, savory roll with shredded cabbage, chopped meat, or other fillings inside a thickly-wrapped wheat flour skin, which is frie ...

; this is in turn rolled and wrapped inside a

banana leaf The banana leaf is the leaf of the banana plant, which may produce up to 40 leaves in a growing cycle. The leaves have a wide range of applications because they are large, flexible, waterproof and decorative. They are used for cooking, wrappin ...

, oil paper, plastic sheet or tinfoil to make a packet ready for serving. If banana leaf is not available, corn husk can be used. ''Lemper'' are most often seen as

s, but may sometimes be served as

appetizer An hors d'oeuvre ( ; french: hors-d'œuvre ), appetiser or starter is a small dish served before a meal in European cuisine. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the m ...

s as well. ''Lemper'' usually have an elongated shape, similar to ''

lontong Lontong is an Indonesian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Rice is rolled inside a banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as ...

''. ''Lemper'' is very similar to '' arem-arem'' and ''bakcang'' (Chinese

zongzi ''Zongzi'' (; ), ''rouzong'' () or simply ''zong'' (Cantonese Jyutping: ''zung2'') is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves (generally of the species ''Indocalamus t ...

), and also resembles Japanese

onigiri , also known as , , or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in ''nori''. Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (''umeboshi''), salted salmon, katsuob ...

Ingredients and cooking method

The glutinous rice is soaked and cooked with

coconut milk Coconut milk is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of coconut milk are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ...

and salt. The filling is made of shredded chicken breast, chicken stock, garlic, candle nut, ground coriander, cumin, brown sugar, vegetable oil, minced shallot, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, salt and pepper. Other than chicken, shredded fish, ''abon'' (beef

) or

might be used as filling. When the cooked glutinous rice is cool enough to handle, the chicken filling is placed on the glutinous rice and rolled in a banana leaf, wrapped and secured with ''biting'' or ''lidi semat'', a small wooden "needle" made of coconut leaf mid rib or bamboo. Then these banana leaf packages are

steamed Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American southwest, steam pits used for cooking hav ...

or grilled. This releases a distinct pleasant aroma of toasted banana leaf.

Semar mendem

A variant snack almost identical to ''lemper'' is called ''semar mendem''. Both are glutinous rice filled with shredded seasoned chicken. Instead of banana leaf wrapping, ''semar mendem'' uses a thin

omelette In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives ...

made from egg and flour as wrapper, hence rendering the whole package edible.

References

External links

Lemper recipeLemper ayam recipe
{{Rice cakes Indonesian rice dishes Glutinous rice dishes Kue Steamed foods Stuffed dishes

Ingredients and cooking method

Semar mendem

See also

References

External links