Lontong ketan

by Pauline Chavannes de Senerpont Domis · July 3, 2021

There are many ways of preparing rice, such as this lontong with ketan (sticky rice). Beb has 14 recipes for rice in her book; from cooking, steaming to stir-frying. Beb makes this lontong with ketan in a dish in which she presses the rice and then cuts it into strips. Not as you may know lontong that often comes in small bags or in banana leaf.

This recipe is enough lontong for 6 to 8 people and is ready in 1 hour. For best results, refrigerate overnight and allow to reach room temperature before eating.

Lontong II #13 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 52.

1/2 liter of rice
2 tablespoons ketan (glutinous rice)
1 1/2 liters of water
salt

Wash the rice mixed with the ketan rice and bring it to a boil with salt.
As soon as the rice cooks, turn the heat to low and use an asbestos plate for gas. The rice is allowed to cook until broken and must be very done.
Rinse a dish with cold water.
Spread the rice on top, let it cool down and cut it into rectangular pieces.

Side dishes can be: dry sambelans, chicken opor, satay, gado-gado or pecel.

You can get ketan rice or sticky rice (stickyrice) in black or white grains. The black version is nice and firm and has a lot of flavor. The rest of the rice will also turn light purple due to the natural coloring in the rice. Fun!

The ratio of half a liter of rice (yes, Beb always writes rice in liters) and two tablespoons of sticky rice doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on the end result of this lontong, but that’s not true. The lontong becomes a bit sticky and is in total a bit more tender than regular lontong in bags. I wash the rice twice and add half a teaspoon of salt. Then I add 1,5 liters of water too.

I have some lemongrass leftover and I’m adding this one too. Lemongrass goes great with rice. I know this from making lempers, for example.

Beb says clearly in her recipe: “As soon as the rice boils, turn the heat to low and use an asbestos plate for gas.” Asbestos plates are no longer used, of course, but I do have a metal heat spreader (bought at a thrift store) and it works great for simmering dishes.

My rice cooks so I can place it on low heat on the plate. I let it simmer gently for another 20 minutes with the lid on the pan.

The rice has sucked up all the water.The grains still look whole, but as soon as I scoop it through, they break into pieces; exactly what is needed.

I have washed my banana leaf well and poured it over with hot water so that the oil comes out of the leaf and it starts to shine beautifully. The leaf goes into a dish (about 5 centimeters deep) and I scoop the firm and heavy rice into it. You can also use plastic wrap, but banana leaves smell good and look beautiful.

Now the lontong ketan is allowed to cool, first on the counter and then in the refrigerator. If the lontong is cold, cutting is easy. I can see that I should have pressed the corners better, but I can still cut nice strips (pink!) of lontong.

The bars can be put in diamonds again and so I serve it with a dish where the lontong can be nicely dipped, such as a sayur lodeh or a daging setan.

Lontong is also delicious with peanut sauce and goes well with a pecel sauce, as Beb says. Beb also mentions: “dry sambelans, chicken opor, satay and gado-gado. Dry sambelans are, for example, serundeng or sambal kelapa.

Selamat Makan!