Lepet ( Javanese), Leupeut ( Sundanese), or Lepat ( Indonesian) is a type of

sticky rice Sticky may refer to: Adhesion *Adhesion, the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another *Sticky mat, an adhesive mat used in cleanrooms to lessen contamination from footwear *Sticky note, a generic term for a Post-it Note ...

dumpling Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...

mixed with

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s cooked with

coconut 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 packed inside a '' janur'' (young coconut leaf) or palm leaf. It is a delicacy commonly found in Javanese and

Sundanese cuisine Sundanese cuisine (; ) is the cuisine of the Sundanese people of West Java, Western Java, and Banten, Indonesia. It is one of the most popular foods in Indonesia. Sundanese food is characterised by its freshness; the famous lalab eaten with sa ...

(of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

), and often consumed as a snack. It is 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 ...

, but with a stickier texture and richer flavor due to the use of coconut milk and peanuts. Lepet is made by

steaming 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 ha ...

the ''ketan'' (sticky rice) until half cooked in

then mixing it with pandan leaf and

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

until all of the coconut milk is absorbed into the sticky rice. Then the half-cooked coconut milk sticky rice is mixed further with grated

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

flesh and peanuts then wrapped inside ''janur'' (young yellowish coconut leaf) in a cylindrical shape and secured with strings made from coconut leaf fibers (or any kind of strings). The rice packages inside the coconut leaf are then steamed further until completely cooked. The most common filling is

s; however, other kinds of beans such as

kidney bean The kidney bean is a variety of the common bean (''Phaseolus vulgaris'') named for its resemblance to a human kidney. Classification There are different classifications of kidney beans, such as: *Red kidney bean (also known as common kidney ...

cowpea The cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus '' Vigna''. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inpu ...

s, jack beans, or

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

might also be used. Other than sticky rice, lepet can be made from corn as well, which is similar to

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 ...

. In the Sundanese area of

West Java West Java (, ) is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country's capital region of Jakarta to t ...

, it is known as ''leupeut'' and is usually made in a smaller size with peanut filling and consumed with

tahu sumedang Tahu sumedang or Tahu bunkeng (Sumedangite tofu, bunkeng tofu) is a Sundanese cuisine, Sundanese deep-fried tofu from Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia. Characteristic Tahu sumedang characteristics are its content half empty or completely empty. It ...

(fried

tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...

). It is a popular snack in the Kuningan and Sumedang Regency. In Sumatra, Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula, there is a similarly named food known as lepat. However, the recipe and method are slightly different as lepat uses

palm sugar Palm sugar is a sweetener derived from any variety of palm tree. Palm sugar may be qualified by the type of palm, as in coconut palm sugar. While sugars from different palms may have slightly different compositions, all are processed simila ...

and grated coconut flesh fillings, which are 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 ...

instead of a young coconut leaf.

References

External links

Sundanese ''Leupeut'' recipe (in Indonesian)
{{Indonesian cuisine Indonesian rice dishes Steamed foods

See also

References

External links