Course | Main course |
---|---|
Place of origin | Indonesia [1] |
Region or state | Southeast Asia |
Associated cuisine | Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore |
Serving temperature | Room temperature |
Main ingredients | Compressed rice cooked in banana leaf |
Variations | Various |
Similar dishes | Burasa , ketupat , lemang , lepet |
Lontong is an Indonesian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, [1] [2] commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Rice is rolled inside a banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as a staple food replacement for steamed rice. The texture is similar to that of ketupat , with the difference being that the ketupat container is made from woven janur (young coconut leaf) fronds, while lontong uses banana leaf instead.
It is commonly called nasi himpit (lit. "pressed rice") in Malaysia, despite being created using other methods. [3]
Arem-arem is a smaller version of lontong, filled with vegetables and occasionally meat, eaten as a snack.
The dish is usually served hot or at room temperature with peanut sauce-based dishes such as gado-gado , karedok , ketoprak , other traditional salads, and satay. [2] It can be eaten as an accompaniment to coconut milk-based soups, such as lontong sayur, soto , gulai, and curries. [4] It is also used as an alternative to vermicelli noodles.
The origin of lontong is from ketupat . But there was another theory that said chicken and vegetable-stuffed version of lontong (arem-arem) was a local adaptation of the original Chinese bakcang but modified to be halal and long-cylindrical shaped after the arrival of Islam in Java. Both are made from the main ingredient of steamed rice in a banana leaf wrapper or young coconut leaf. Initially, lontong was only considered as ordinary food. However, after the spread of Islam to Java, the tradition of eating lontong and ketupat began. Sunan Kalijaga was the first to introduce lontong to Javanese people, including ketupat. This is part of the da'wah carried out by Sunan Kalijaga at that time. Lontong is often served with Gulai sauce and vegetables, chayote, tempeh, tofu, tauco , boiled egg, sambal , and krupuk crackers. [5] [6]
Lontong is traditionally made by boiling the rice until it is partially cooked and packing it tightly into a rolled-up banana leaf. The leaf is secured with lidi semat, a wooden needle made from the central rib of coconut leaf, and cooked in boiling water for about 90 minutes. Once the compacted rice has cooled, it can be cut up into bite-sized pieces. Outer parts of lontong usually have a greenish color because of the chlorophyll left by the banana leaf rubbing off on the rice cake surface.
Alternative ways of cooking lontong include placing uncooked rice into a muslin bag and then letting the water seep in and cause the rice to form a solid mass. [7] Another popular and easier method is by using commercially available plastic pouches; rice-filled and punctured with a needle to create small holes to allow the water to seep into the package, which are then boiled until the rice becomes cooked and has filled up the pouch. This method was meant to imitate the banana leaf's liquid permeability. Nevertheless, the use of organic banana leaves is highly recommended for better health[ citation needed ] and ecological reasons.[ dubious – discuss ]
On the other hand, Malaysian nasi himpit (lit. 'pressed rice') is traditionally created differently. The method is more a mechanical pressure than applying permeable boiling technique; freshly cooked rice is compressed for a few hours between two heavy stone slabs or two trays with a heavy weight on top to produce nasi himpit. However, nasi himpit is now usually speedily produced in water-permeable plastic sachets filled with rice and boiled in water.
Just like rice, the taste of lontong is bland and neutral, and it depends on other ingredients to give a taste through spices and sauces. Commonly, lontong serves as a compact alternative to steamed rice. It can be served with almost any traditional dish recipe as a staple food, but often is eaten with peanut sauce or coconut milk-based soup.
In Indonesia, especially among Betawi people, lontong usually served as lontong sayur, pieces of lontong served in coconut milk soup with shredded chayote, tempeh, tofu, hard-boiled egg, sambal, and kerupuk . [4] Lontong sayur is related and quite similar to Ketupat sayur and is a favourite breakfast menu next to bubur ayam and nasi uduk .
In Surabaya, lontong balap is made from lontong, taoge (bean sprouts), fried tofu, lentho (fried mashed beans), fried shallots, sambal petis and sweet soy sauce. East Javanese lontong and tofu recipes are known for their distinctive flavour, acquired from a generous amount of petis (a type of shrimp paste). [8]
The more elaborate recipe of lontong is lontong cap go meh , a Peranakan Chinese Indonesian adaptation of traditional Indonesian dishes, lontong served with rich opor ayam , sayur lodeh , sambal goreng ati (beef liver in sambal), acar, telur pindang (hard boiled tea egg), abon (beef floss), and koya powder (mixture of soy and dried shrimp powder). Lontong cap go meh is usually consumed by the Chinese Indonesian community during the Cap go meh celebration.
Lontong dekem is originated from Pemalang Regency, Central Java. The process involves soaking the lontong in soup until it is submerged hence the name dekem meaning "immersion" in Pemalang Javanese dialect.
Lontong kari is lontong served in soupy chicken curry and vegetables. It is become specialty breakfast of Parahyangan region. [9] Kari was first brought to Indonesia by Buddhist monks from India. [10]
Lontong bengkalis from Bengkalis Regency, Riau, consists of lontong, jackfruit soup, and peanut sauce. It is also sprinkled with anchovies and slices of green bird's eye chili. [11]
In West Sumatra, a Minang dish from Padang Pariaman is called lontong gulai pakis, lontong served with young fern leaves gulai . Usually served with hard-boiled eggs and kerupuk jangek or krupuk kulit (cow skin crackers).
Lontong kikil is lontong serve in spicy cow's trotters soup and vegetables. [4]
Another lontong recipes are lontong kupang and lontong balap from Surabaya and Sidoarjo area in East Java. Lontong kupang is made of lontong served with small white clams.
Lontong krubyuk is a traditional Karimunjawa dish. The term lontong krubyuk itself comes from the Javanese language krubyuk or ngrubyuk means walking in water or puddles. This name corresponds to the appearance of a dish that contains a lot of gravy. A serving of lontong krubyuk comes with lontong, half-cooked bean sprouts, sliced celery leaves, and shredded chicken stew, and then poured with broth. [12]
Lontong mie is one of the popular dishes in Surabaya. It consists of slices of lontong, yellow noodles, fried tofu, petis (shrimp paste sauce), bean sprouts, lento (black-eyed pea fritter), and fried shallots. [13]
Lontong pical is a Minang food. It is rice cake with noodles and vegetables smothered in thin peanut sauce also sprinkled with krupuk. [14]
A lontong dish from Blora, Central Java. It is made of slices of lontong, fried tofu, and peanut sauce and served on a teak leaf plate. [15]
Lontong tuyuhan is slices of rice cake with chicken and coconut milk soup. It is a delicacy of Rembang Regency. [16]
Arem-arem is the smaller size lontong filled with diced vegetables such as carrot, common bean, and potato seasoned with salt and red chili, or tofu, oncom, and tempeh; sometimes also filled with minced meat or abon (beef floss), are eaten as a snack. The rice is flavored with coconut milk. This kind of snack is called arem-arem in Javanese, but commonly called simply lontong or lontong isi in other parts of Indonesia. It is a common snack in Java, and quite similar to lemper , but use common rice instead of sticky rice lemper. It usually uses a thin young banana leaf as a wrapper, a thin light yellow-green colored banana leaf. Lontong on the other hand, usually uses thicker mature banana leaves. The texture of arem-arem snacks is softer compared to those of common lontong, due to the thinner banana leaf, addition of coconut milk, and prolonged boiling and steaming period.
It is commonly called nasi himpit (lit. "pressed rice") in Malaysia, and unlike lontong, nasi himpit is created by pressing rice overnight. [3] The lontong rice cake is cut into smaller pieces, these rice cake pieces are known as nasi himpit (compressed rice). The term lontong in Malaysia and Singapore usually refers to a dish that 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.
Nasi himpit is also an accompaniment to satay and is eaten with peanut sauce. In the east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia, nasi himpit is eaten with peanut sauce (kuah kacang) for breakfast. Nasi himpit is also one of the ingredients in the Malaysian version of chicken soto.
Nasi lemak is a dish originating in Malay cuisine that consists of fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf. It is commonly found in Malaysia, where it is considered the national dish. It is also a native dish in neighbouring areas with significant ethnic Malay populations such as Singapore and Southern Thailand. In Indonesia, it can be found in several parts of Sumatra, especially the Malay regions of Riau, Riau Islands and Medan. It is considered an essential dish for a typical Malay-style breakfast. Nasi lemak is featured as a national dish in Malaysian tourism brochures and promotional materials.
Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions that formed in the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 17,508 in the world's largest archipelago, with more than 1,300 ethnic groups.
Malay cuisine is the traditional food of the ethnic Malays of Southeast Asia, residing in modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Southern Thailand and the Philippines as well as Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Rijsttafel, a Dutch word that literally translates to "rice table", is an Indonesian elaborate meal adapted by the Dutch following the hidang presentation of nasi padang from the Padang region of West Sumatra. It consists of many side dishes served in small portions, accompanied by rice prepared in several different ways. Popular side dishes include egg rolls, sambals, satay, fish, fruit, vegetables, pickles, and nuts. In most areas where it is served, such as the Netherlands, and other areas of strong Dutch influence, it is known under its Dutch name.
Tahu goreng or Tauhu goreng is a generic name for any type of fried tofu dish in the cuisines of Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore.
Chinese Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Chinese with local Indonesian style. Chinese Indonesians, mostly descendant of Han ethnic Hokkien and Hakka speakers, brought their legacy of Chinese cuisine, and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients, such as kecap manis, palm sugar, peanut sauce, chili, santan and local spices to form a hybrid Chinese-Indonesian cuisine. Some of the dishes and cakes share the same style as in Malaysia and Singapore, known as Nyonya cuisine by the Peranakan.
Pecel is a traditional Javanese salad with peanut sauce, usually eaten with steamed rice, lontong or ketupat.
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major ethnic group in Indonesia, more precisely the province of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Padang dish or Minangkabau dish is the cuisine of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is among the most popular cuisines in Maritime Southeast Asia. It is known across Indonesia as Masakan Padang after Padang, the capital city of Western Sumatra province. It is served in restaurants mostly owned by perantauan (migrating) Minangkabau people in Indonesian cities. Padang food is ubiquitous in Indonesian cities and is popular in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
Sundanese cuisine is the cuisine of the Sundanese people of 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 sambal and also karedok demonstrate the Sundanese fondness for fresh raw vegetables. Unlike the rich and spicy taste, infused with coconut milk and curry of Minangkabau cuisine, the Sundanese cuisine displays the simple and clear taste; ranged from savoury salty, fresh sourness, mild sweetness, to hot and spicy.
Sayur lodeh is a popular Indonesian vegetable soup prepared from vegetables cooked in coconut milk, and is most often associated with Javanese cuisine.
Lontong cap go meh is a Chinese Indonesian take on traditional Indonesian dishes, more precisely Javanese cuisine. It is lontong served with richly-flavoured dishes which include opor ayam chicken in coconut milk, sayur lodeh vegetable soup, hot and spicy liver, hard-boiled pindang egg, koya powder made of soy and dried shrimp or beef floss, pickles, chili paste and prawn cracker. Lontong cap go meh is usually consumed by the Chinese Indonesian community during the Cap go meh celebration.
Betawi cuisine is rich, diverse and eclectic, in part because the Betawi people that create them were composed from numbers of regional immigrants that came from various places in the Indonesian archipelago, as well as Chinese, Indian, Arab, and European traders, visitors and immigrants that were attracted to the port city of Batavia since centuries ago.
Ketupat, or kupat, or tipat is a Javanese rice cake packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch. Originating in Indonesia, it is also found in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. It is commonly described as "packed rice", although there are other types of similar packed rice such as lontong and bakchang.
Soto is a traditional Indonesian soup mainly composed of broth, meat, and vegetables. Many traditional soups are called soto, whereas foreign and Western influenced soups are called sop.
Gado-gado is an Indonesian salad of raw, slightly boiled, blanched or steamed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, boiled potato, fried tofu and tempeh, and sliced lontong, served with a peanut sauce dressing.
Lontong sayur is an Indonesian traditional rice dish made of pieces of lontong served in coconut milk soup with shredded chayote, green bean, unripe jackfruit, tempeh, tofu, hard-boiled egg, sambal and krupuk.
Madurese cuisine is the culinary tradition of the Madurese people from Madura Island in Indonesia. This cuisine is particularly well-known in the neighboring areas of East Java, as well as on the south coast of Kalimantan. As a leading salt production center in the Indonesian archipelago, Madurese dishes are often saltier compared to Eastern Javanese cuisine, although with significant Javanese influences.
Lontong balap is an Indonesian traditional rice dish, well known in Javanese cuisine, made of lontong, tauge, fried tofu, lentho, fried shallots, sambal petis and sweet soy sauce. East Javanese lontong and tofu recipes are known of their distinctive flavour, acquired from generous amount of petis. The origin of the dish is from Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia.
Indo cuisine is a fusion cooking and cuisine tradition, mainly existing in Indonesia and the Netherlands, as well as Belgium, South Africa and Suriname. This cuisine characterized of fusion cuisine that consists of original Indonesian cuisine with Eurasian-influences—mainly Dutch, also Portuguese, Spanish, French and British—and vice versa. Nowaday, not only Indo people consume Indo cuisine, but also Indonesians and Dutch people.