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''Lemper'' is an Indonesian savoury
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 made from egg and flour as wrapper, hence rendering the whole package edible.
Lemper recipeLemper ayam recipe
{{Rice cakes Indonesian rice dishes Glutinous rice dishes Kue Steamed foods Stuffed dishes
snack
A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...
made of glutinous rice
Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals.
Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...
filled with seasoned shredded chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
, fish ''abon'' ( meat floss) or serundeng. 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
The egg roll is a variety of deep-fried appetizer served in American Chinese restaurants. It is a cylindrical, savory roll with shredded cabbage, chopped meat, or other fillings inside a thickly wrapped wheat flour skin, which is fried in ...
; this is in turn rolled and wrapped inside a banana leaf, oil paper, plastic sheet, or tinfoil
Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil (metal), foil made of tin. Tin foil was superseded after World War II by cheaper and more durable aluminium foil, which is still referred to as "tin foil" in many regions (an example of a misnomer). ...
to make a packet ready for serving. If banana leaf is not available, corn husk can be used. ''Lemper'' are most often seen as snack
A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...
s, but may sometimes be served as appetizers as well. ''Lemper'' usually has an elongated shape, similar to ''lontong
''Lontong'' () is an Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a Cylinder (geometry), cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Rice is rolled inside a bana ...
''.
''Lemper'' is very similar to ''arem-arem
Arem-arem is an Indonesian- Javanese compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, filled with diced vegetables, '' tempeh,'' or '' oncom'', and eaten as a snack. It is sometimes also filled with minced meat or ...
'' and ''bakcang'' (Chinese zongzi
''Zongzi'' () or simply ''zong'' () is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with a range of fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Fillings can be either sweet, such as red bean paste, or savory, such as pork belly or ...
), and also resembles Japanese onigiri
, also known as or , is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese rice ball made from white rice. It is usually formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes, and wrapped in ''nori'' (seaweed). Onigiri traditionally have sour or salty fillings such as ''um ...
.
Ingredients and cooking method
The glutinous rice is soaked and cooked withcoconut milk
Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingred ...
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 meat floss), or serundeng 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 midrib or bamboo. Then these banana leaf packages are steamed 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 made from egg and flour as wrapper, hence rendering the whole package edible.
See also
*Lamprais
Lamprais, also spelled "lumprice", "lampraise" or "lumprais", is a Sri Lankan dish that was introduced by the country's Dutch Burgher population. Lamprais is an Anglicised derivative of the Dutch word , which loosely translated means a packet ...
* List of steamed foods
* Nasi bakar
* Onigiri
, also known as or , is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese rice ball made from white rice. It is usually formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes, and wrapped in ''nori'' (seaweed). Onigiri traditionally have sour or salty fillings such as ''um ...
* Pastil
* Rempah udang
* Tamale
A tamale, in Spanish language, Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalization, nixtamalized maize, corn, which is steaming, steamed in a corn husk or Banana leaf, banana leaves. The wrapping ...
s
References
External links
Lemper recipe
{{Rice cakes Indonesian rice dishes Glutinous rice dishes Kue Steamed foods Stuffed dishes