Lontong or loosely translated as Rice Cake is very popular in South East Asia especially Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It is made of rice wrapped and cooked in banana leaves. It is slightly greenish in color (color transferred from the banana leaves) and it goes with many dishes such as Satay, Satay Padang, Ketoprak, Gado Gado, Lontong Sayur, etc.

Thanks mama for the tips and recipe

LONTONG (7-8 pieces)

2 C of uncooked jasmine rice (washed and drained)
Banana leaves (I got mine frozen from asian store, so thawed them overnight)
Box of toothpicks

WRAPPING AND COOKING METHOD:

1. Clean the banana leaves with clean damp cloth before using. Cut 7-8 pieces of 10″ (25 cm) in width. Warm them up a little bit on an open fire briefly. This is very important step as it helps the banana leaves to stay soft and avoid cracking. Just be careful not to burn your hands.

2. Roll each leaf (length wise with the green shiny side in, so your lontong will have slightly greenish color) into a cylinder with a diameter of about 6″ (15 cm). If you want a bigger piece of lontong with bigger diameter, you can use a round bottle ( I suggest not too big either to make your life easier) to help you with a job, otherwise, small rolls won’t require this trick. I prefer to keep them small for easier management

3. Secure one of the end with toothpicks. If you use bottle to help your roll, be sure to secure one end before pushing the bottle out. Once you did, you can push the bottle out

4. Fill out each roll with rice. The amount of rice depends on the length of your rolls. If you have a 20-cm roll in length, you want to fill up the rice below half of 20 cm, which is less than 10 cm. This will make sure you won’t have tough lontong

5. You will be able to make about 7-8 rolls. I got about 7.

6. Prepare a big pot, tall enough to cover the lontong all the way to the top. This is also another important step: Lontong must be cooked “standing” inside the pot. This can be challenging if your pot is too big and as soon as you put the lontong in, they will tend to float at first, but slowly submerge them and arrange them in a standing position. I used some glass jars (2-3 or more), submerged them inside the pot and place them side-by-side with the lontong to help keep the lontong in standing positions. DO NOT USE PLASTIC, as it will melt!

7. Check on them every now and then to make sure they are still in standing position. Cook for minimum of 3 hours with the lid on. If you make bigger rolls, you may need 4-5 hours

8. They may appear very soft when you just pull them out from the pot and think you have a failed product, but they will be that way. I let them cool for about one hour before opening and slicing them