The Malay Rice Cakes of Eid

     My dearest Dutchess had asked the other day what the white wrapped things in my Eid morning photos were.  How remiss of me not to have taken the time to give a brief explanation. So I shall rectify that and do so now. :)

     Rice is the main food staple for Malays but on Eid, especially the first few days of it, rice takes a break while their relatives the rice cakes take their place.  These are eaten with the various dishes that are cooked on the morning which could be beef or chicken rendang (very thick stew); serondeng (fried coconut in brown sugar and spices) and a variety of other food too delicious to mention as I sit here with a growling stomach! And I wasn't even that hungry to begin with!

     Again, I do not own the following pics but am grateful for them being around. Don't you just love the internet?! :D

     First we have the ketupat.  These are made from coconut leaves that are woven into  cubic casings.  They are then filled 1/4 full of raw washed rice and boiled for a few hours, when it will expand to follow the shape of the casing.

 

      Uncooked ketupat casings look like this:

 

      Weaving a ketupat casing. Bless the person who took the time to document it thus!

     After boiling in water for a few hours..

     they will look like this:

     Due to the process, one usually weave the ketupat casings two days in advance and they are boiled on the eve of Eid and allowed to cool and ready to be eaten on Eid morning.  I've done these from scratch before myself.  The novelty of weaving the casings tend to disappear after the twentieth casing or so. I remember having to weave about 50-60 of these. The more visitors you expect, the more you have to do.  I recall my late paternal grandmother having loads since she had a lot of people coming over.

    The sibling of the ketupat is the lontong. This was favoured by my maternal grandmother and are made with banana leaves - I say was since she's gone the instant route now. I have no clue how these are made, having never done it myself nor been witness when it was made at Grandma's place. I've seen cylinders sold though I reckon the older generation have their magical ways too.

     There is also the lepat, this is made with glutinous rice, coconut milk and soya beans.  My late paternal grandmother made the best. I've not had any to rival hers.

     We had some lepat for Eid too but it was store bought, someone had made and sold them ready-made to the store, that is.  My brothers liked them, me not so much.

     Last in the group but certainly not least is the lemang. It's also made of glutinous rice and coconut milk, with salt added for taste. It is cooked over open fire in hollowed bamboo sticks that have been lined with banana leaves to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo. For that reason, it is more popular in Malaysia since they have the open space to cook them.  It is also the stickiest of the four.

 

     With people getting so busy these days, marketers have naturally capitalized on this and managed to create instant versions of lontong and ketupat which are in plastic casings instead of the leaves.  My mum has been using for a few years. - that's what the white things are.  I've even seen instant lepat and lemang in a supermarket in Johor Bahru. The cooking duration is the same, more or less though.