Lemper facts for kids
Lemper wrapped in banana leaves
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| Type | Snack |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Indonesia |
| Region or state | Nationwide |
| Serving temperature | Warm or room temperature |
| Main ingredients | Glutinous rice; chicken, fish, abon (meat floss) or serundeng |
| Variations | Semar mendem |
Lemper is a delicious snack from Indonesia. It's made from special sticky rice, called glutinous rice, and has a yummy filling inside. This filling can be seasoned shredded chicken, fish abon (which is like dried meat floss), or serundeng (spiced grated coconut).
The most common type is lemper ayam, which means "chicken lemper." The filling is rolled up inside the sticky rice, a bit like a small burrito. Then, this rice roll is wrapped in a banana leaf, oil paper, or plastic. This makes it easy to hold and eat! Sometimes, if banana leaves aren't around, people use corn husks instead. Lemper is usually eaten as a snack, but it can also be served as a starter before a meal. It often has a long, oval shape, similar to another Indonesian food called lontong.
Lemper is quite similar to other snacks like arem-arem and bakcang (which is a Chinese zongzi). It also looks a bit like Japanese onigiri, which are rice balls.
Contents
How is Lemper Made?
Making lemper involves a few steps to get it just right.
The Sticky Rice
First, the glutinous rice is soaked in water. After soaking, it's cooked with coconut milk and a little salt. This gives the rice a creamy texture and a nice flavor.
The Delicious Filling
The filling is what makes lemper so tasty! If it's chicken lemper, the filling is made from shredded chicken breast. This chicken is cooked with many spices like garlic, candlenut, ground coriander, cumin, and brown sugar. Other ingredients include vegetable oil, minced shallots, more coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, salt, and pepper.
Besides chicken, people also use other fillings. These can include shredded fish, abon (which is a type of dried beef floss), or serundeng (spiced grated coconut).
Putting it All Together
Once the cooked sticky rice has cooled down a bit, the filling is placed on top of it. Then, the rice and filling are carefully rolled up. This roll is then wrapped in a banana leaf. Small wooden "needles" or bamboo sticks are used to hold the banana leaf package closed.
Finally, these wrapped lemper packages are either steamed or grilled. Grilling them gives off a wonderful smell from the toasted banana leaf, which adds to the flavor!
A Special Kind of Lemper: Semar Mendem
There's a snack that's very much like lemper, called semar mendem. Both of these snacks are made with sticky rice and have the same shredded, seasoned chicken filling.
The main difference is how they are wrapped. While lemper uses a banana leaf, semar mendem uses a thin omelette made from egg and flour as its wrapper. This means you can eat the whole semar mendem package, wrapper and all!
Images for kids
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Semar mendem is lemper wrapped in a thin omelette.
