Glutinous rice is wrapped in banana leaves and then pressure cooked or boiled to give you soft kue lupis or kuih lopes coated with grated coconut and melted palm sugar. Absolutely delicious.
Kue Lupis Ketan / Sticky Rice Dumplings (Pressure Cooker or Boiling Method)
Kue Lupis is one of my very favorite childhood snacks. This popular triangle-shape sticky rice dumplings is popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. They are usually coated with grated coconut and smothered in the delicious dark palm sugar or known as gula Jawa/gula aren. There aren’t much ingredients involved in the making. You only need glutinous rice and banana leaves or aluminum foil. Wrapping kue lupis can be a little tricky sometimes. I included a step-by-step photo to show how to wrap kue lupis and hopefully that helps.
KUIH LOPES VS KEE CHANG (ALKALINE DUMPLING)
Kue lupis may look similar to alkaline dumpling, but I don’t use any alkaline water/lye water. Kue lupis is not supposed to be chewy and bouncy like alkaline dumpling. Kue lupis has a softer texture.
HOW TO WRAP KUE LUPIS USING BANANA LEAVES OR ALUMINUM FOIL
If you don’t have banana leaves, you can use aluminum foil.
Cut the banana leaves to size
Cut the banana leaves to about 4 x 12 inches
Soften the banana leaves
This step is to make sure the banana leaves won’t tear when you use it for wrapping. You can either boil the banana leaves in boiling water for 10 minutes or turn on the stove over medium heat and place the banana leaf (one at a time) on top of fire to “soften”.
Fold the leaf at the lower third
You just make yourself a cone
Fill with rice
Fill up about 3/4 of rice into the cone. If you fill too much, the lupis will come out tough. If you don’t fill enough rice, the shape won’t be nice
Fold the top of the leaf over it
Then fold the two sides over
Continue to fold following the triangle shapes until you have no more leaf to work with
Secure with two toothpicks
If you use aluminum foil, you don’t need tooth pick to secure it as the foil stays in place after wrapping
PRESSURE COOK OR BOIL THE WRAPPED KUE LUPIS
PRESSURE COOKER METHOD WITH INSTANT POT
Place the wrapped lupis in the inner pot of instant pot and fill up with water until covering the lupis
Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to sealing. Press “pressure cooker” and make sure it’s on “high pressure” and set the timer to 45 minutes. Release pressure immediately after 45 minutes
BOILING METHOD
Place wrapped lupis in a large pot. Fill up with water until covering the lupis. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium. Cover with a lid and let them boil over medium heat for the next 2 hours.
LET THEM COOL DOWN COMPLETELY
The lupis will appear to be soft right after cooking. This is normal. Gently remove and place on a plate or rack to let them cool down completely. I left them overnight before unwrapping them the next day
HOW TO SERVE KUE LUPIS
Kue lupis is usually only dressed with grated coconut and melted palm sugar when you order it.
REMOVE TOOTHPICKS AND UNWRAP THE KUE LUPIS
COAT EACH KUE LUPIS WITH GRATED COCONUT
DRIZZLE WITH SOME MELTED PALM SUGAR
HOW TO STORE AND REHEAT LEFTOVER KUE LUPIS AND GRATED COCONUT
STORING
Store the kue lupis (still wrapped in banana leaves or aluminum foil) and grated coconut in the refrigerator for up to one week. Kue lupis can be kept frozen for up to one month
REHEATING
Kue lupis and the grated coconut can be reheated in the steamer. Simply bring water in the steamer to a boil and steam kue lupis for about 2 minutes. If the kue lupis is frozen, there’s no need to thaw. Steam over high heat for 5-8 minutes and then unwrapped and roll them in grated coconut and serve with palm sugar
Kue Lupis Ketan / Kuih Lopes (Pressure Cooker or Boiling Method)
Ingredients
- 300 gr sweet rice/sticky rice/glutinous rice
- About 10-15 pieces of 4 x 12-inch banana leaves or use aluminum foil
Grated coconut:
- 300 gr finely grated unsweetened coconut
- ¼ tsp salt
Palm sugar syrup:
- 200 gr coconut sugar or use palm sugar
- 100 ml water
- 50 gr sugar
Instructions
Prepare the syrup:
- Put the palm sugar , sugar, and water, in a medium-size saucepan over low heat and let the sugar slowly melt and set aside
Steam the grated coconut:
- Steam the grated coconut for about 10 minutes with the salt and set aside to let it cool down completely
Prepare the glutinous rice:
- For boiling method: Soak the glutinous rice in water for at least 4 hours or best overnight.For pressure cooker method: just rinse the rice in clean water and drain off the water completely. There's no need to soak the rice
Wrapping kue lupis:
- Cut the banana leaves to about 4 x 12 inches
- Soften the banana leaves by either boiling them in water or turn on the stove over medium heat and place the banana leaf (one at a time) on top of fire to “soften”.
- Fold the leaf at the lower third
- Now you just made a cone shape
- Fill up with 3/4 of rice. If you fill too much, the lupis will come out tough. If you don’t fill enough rice, the shape won’t be nice
- Fold the top part of the leave over it
- This is how it looks like now
- Then fold the two sides over the opposite sides
- Continue to fold following the triangular shape until you run out of leaf
- Secure with two toothpicks. If you use aluminum foil, you don’t need tooth pick to secure it as the foil stays in place after wrapping
Cooking kue lupis in pressure cooker:
- Place the wrapped lupis in the inner pot of instant pot and fill up with water until covering the lupis
- Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to sealing. Press “pressure cooker” and make sure it’s on “high pressure” and set the timer to 45 minutes. Release pressure immediately after 45 minutes
Cooking kue lupis by boiling on the stove:
- Place wrapped lupis in a large pot. Fill up with water until covering the lupis. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium. Cover with a lid and let them boil over medium heat for the next 2-3 hours.
Cooling down:
- Lupis will still be very soft when they are just finished cooking. Drain off the cooking water and place the lupis in a plate or rack or colander to let extra water drain off and let them cool down completely before unwrapping the leaves. They should be firm and lightly bouncy once they cooled down completely
Serving:
- Once the lupis has cooled down, roll each one in a grated coconut meat to cover all the lupis and serve with the melted palm sugar on the side or drizzle some on top of the lupis
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8 comments
It turned out so fluffy and delicious. I soaked it with pandan n coconut mill for an hour before i put it in pressure cooker.
Hello, soaking it with pandan and coconut milk definitely makes it even more flavorful I bet! I’m glad it turned out great for you 🙂
Hi
Have bought most ingredients for this recipe, just want to check, if i am to steam the glutinous rice for 20-25 mins on its own first than do the wrapping afterward and steam again…will it work too?
Hi Jane, I didn’t do it this way, but I supposed it will work too. Once you steam the rice until cooked and then wrap I don’t think you need to steam again. Just make sure when you wrap, you really pack it in so it’s all compact and tight. I hope that helps. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Oh oh my oh my, u find time to reply me, muak muak, so sorry to disturb you on a busy weekend, but tk u soooo much for replying, one more question, j must cinfessed, my banana turned slightly yellow but i didnt want to waste it so i still go ahead n used ir, hope it doesnt affect the smell.🙈.
And one last question, i didnt used the 300g as in your recipe , i only had like less than 120g so so i still need to steam 2 hrs or i can steam 45-1hr? Thank you so much for your reply.
ha.ha..not a problem at all. It shouldn’t affect the smell I don’t think. It depends on how big you wrap the lupis too, you will probably still need at least 1 1/2 hours or so. After about 1 1/2 hours you can get one out and gently open it and if you no longer see whole rice grain (rice grains should be all mushed up together) and the rice doesn’t stick to the leaves, it is done. Btw, I actually boil the lupis in water for about 2 hours and not steaming. If you use pressure cooker, then you can get it done in about 45 minutes.
Dear Marvellina,
I am trying your recipe now, after steaming for 2 houes, must i really leave it to cool for the whole day, befire i can open it the next day?
I put in pansan leave ard it tk steam n the arima is sooooo aromatic.
Hi Lynda, you don’t have to wait the whole day, but I would wait for at least 3-4 hours to let them firm up a bit. What a great idea to put pandan leaves. I can imagine the aroma 🙂