Name: Shredded Chicken and Glutinous Rice Dumplings (Lemper Ayam)
Yield: Makes 16 dumplings
Cuisine: Indonesian
Ingredients: Toothpicks or stapler (optional); 2 pandan leaves, knotted, or 4 makrut lime leaves; 1 teaspoon salt; 2½ cups (600 ml) unsweetened coconut milk; 1 tablespoon coriander seeds or ground coriander; 1 salam leaf or 2 makrut lime leaves; 3 tablespoons sugar; ¾ lb (340 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or ground cumin; 16 (8 × 6-inch/20 × 15-cm) banana leaf rectangles (optional); 4 candlenuts or unsalted macadamia nuts; 1 stalk lemongrass, trimmed and bruised; 1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper; 1¼ cups (300 ml) unsweetened coconut milk; 1½ teaspoons salt, divided; 8 Asian shallots or 4 European shallots, chopped; 2½ cups (490 g) white glutinous rice; 1 tablespoon Air Asam (optional); 4 tablespoons (60 ml) vegetable oil, divided; 4 cloves garlic, smashed

Preparation info

Makes
16
dumplings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mortar and Pestle

By Patricia Tanumihardja

Published 2024

About

Lemper is a snack you can eat on the go. Usually wrapped in banana leaves, it is finger food. Julia would pack them on road trips, and we’d have them for a light lunch or a snack along the way. While it is traditional to steam the lemper in banana leaves, Julia sometimes wraps them in plastic wrap, and I like to wrap them in parchment. Once the layers are put together, wrapping and steaming the lemper isn’t necessary, but the steaming does help keep them to