Monday, January 31, 2011

Rice cake

I was really happy to see a post on Ellie`s Almost Bourdain about rice cake. She calls this rice cake as nasi impit. Indonesian usually refer this rice cake as lontong or ketupat. Lontong is a log-shaped rice cake wrapped in banana leaves while ketupat is rice cake wrapped with coconut or palm leaves shaped into a rectangular pouch. Since I came here, I only made rice cake once. Just once, because the only method I knew back then was quite complicated. I know, I know, I`m just a lazy person.
So, when Ellie showed an incredibly easy method to make this rice cake, I was like, WOW! Now this, is what I call FUN!

I slightly changed the method simply because I was hurrying when I made this and didn`t have time to look up her post. So I just did what I could remember from what I`ve read. I hope she forgives me for this.

What you need is simply a container (I used a casserole dish like she did), saran wrap (cling wrap), hot steamed rice, and a rice spatula. Seriously, no fuss whatsoever involved. Not even your stove!


Cover the dish with saran wrap. Not a neat person here.


Place some amount of hot steamed rice in the dish, and start pressing the rice with the spatula. I did this layer by layer because I thought that would be less tiring for me to press it down and it would make the rice tighter.


After done with the pressing (I was quite tired, though), cover the top with saran wrap and let it sit until the rice is cold.


Look! This is how it looks when it`s cold. If you`re Indonesian, please tell me that you`re seeing an unwrapped ketupat!


Cut it up to mouth-bite sizes and serve with curry, rendang, or anything you love to have with rice.
Thanks, Ellie!


 p.s. Placing white on white is definitely not a good trick, which reminds me how desperately I need multicolor tableware collection :D

8 comments:

  1. This is something I have never made. Great idea!

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  2. I am so glad you like this method. We call it lontong (with banana leaves) and ketumpat (with weaved palm leaves) too when it's made the same way but they are difficult as you said. We call it nasi impit when it's done with leaves. Yours look good and thanks for the shout-out!

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  3. Katerina: Enjoy your rice cake, then! :)

    Ellie: I`d be more than happy to have ketupat, lontong, or nasi impit with leaves wrapping them around. But if I have to make them by myself, this will be the only method. Quick and easy! Thanks again, Ellie!

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  4. Aduhhh, Jeng! Arigatou !!!

    Aku lagi pingin lontong nih, soalnyaaaaa ^^

    .ritha.

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  5. Iie, sama-sama. Ini juga hasil belajar dari yang lain. Met nyoba ya mbak :)

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  6. I am loving your website! All the food looks delicious and you inpsired me the other day to cook a spicy, salmon stew over rice. Can you freeze the rice cake pieces to use for later if you don't want to use them right away?

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  7. Hi Danielle, thanks for visiting :) To be honest, I`ve never tried freezing any kind of rice in my life. Especially for rice cake, I usually keep the leftover in fridge for 3 days and they`re just fine. But I often heard that people here used to freeze the cooked rice in aliquots (each is prepared for single serving) separately wrapped with cling wrap. So, I think that would work too for the rice cake, although you might better cut the cake into pieces after you defrost and heat it again. It seems to me that freezing the pieces might cause them to clump later and thus break the pieces (not in a good way) when reheated.
    Hope you enjoy the rice cake! And the spicy salmon stew really sounds wonderful!

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  8. Thanks for the recipe, I tried this method for our last ketupat party and it was a hit!.. Awesome job!

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