Name: Lontong (Rice Cubes with Assorted Vegetables in Spicy Coconut Gravy)
Yield: Makes 8 to 10 Servings
Ingredients: Sugar; 2 cups grated coconut; 1 cup coconut milk, reserve coconut cream; Salt; 2 tablespoons oil; 2.5 cm or 1 inch ginger, skinned and julienned; 2.5 cm or 1 inch galangal (lengkuas), skinned and julienned; 2 teaspoons fennel (jintan manis); 3 tablespoons coriander (ketumbar); 900 g or 2 pounds rice, cooked to make compressed rice cakes (lontong) *; 2.5 cm or 1 inch turmeric (kunyit), skinned and finely sliced; Sugar to taste; Salt to taste; 30 g or 1 ounce belachan; 10 dried chillies, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes; 5 cm or 2 inches galangal (lengkuas), skinned and julienned; 4 pieces fermented bean curd cakes (tempeh), blanched in salted water and shallow-fried to light brown; 300 g or 11 ounces prawns (shrimps), peeled and deveined; 2 stalks lemon grass (seray), upper stalks and outer layers removed, sliced thinly; 2 tablespoons ground coriander (ketumbar); 1 teaspoon cumin (jintan puteh); Oil for frying serunding; 10 shallots, peeled and quartered; 3 cloves garlic, peeled; 15 dried chillies, soaked in hot water for at least 20 minutes; 4 cups water; 15 shallots, peeled and quartered; 10 dried chillies, soaked in hot water for at least 20 minutes; 200 g or 7 ounces long beans, trimmed and cut into 4 cm or 11/2 inch lengths; 200 g or 7 ounces jicama (bangkuang), peeled and julienned, then blanched

Preparation info

Makes
8 to 10
Servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Growing Up In A Nonya Kitchen

By Sharon Wee

Published 2012

About

As a child, I used to tag along with my mother on Hari Raya day and have at least three lontong lunches at the various homes of her Muslim friends. Because they all lived close to one another in Telok Kurau, we travelled from one house to another on a bek chia (trishaw).

From my interpretation, lontong actually refers to a meal in which the staple is the compressed rice, also called lontong. The major sidekick is sayur lodeh which is made up of vegetables simmered in a spicy coconut