Lontong Sayur Pepaya Muda Udang - Green Pepaya and Shrimp in Spiced Coconut Milk with Rice Cake

I finally posted a recipe of Lontong Sayur Pepaya Muda Udang or Green Pepaya and Shrimp in Spiced Coconut Milk with Rice Cakes as the last series of Eid ul Fitr dishes 2009.

Traditionally, lontong is made by partly cooking or soaking raw rice, draining and packing tightly into a rolled-up banana leaf. The leaf packaging is fastened with bamboo picks and cooked in boiling water about 2 hours or so. Once, lontong is cooled and solid, you can cut lontong into bite-sized pieces.

Basically, lontong can be eaten with any kinds of soup/stew or sauce base. Whenever I visited my beloved maternal grandmother in Probolinggo, I always had bakso (Indonesian meatballs soup) with lontong. In Surabaya/Sidoarjo, there are ample of dishes that accompany with lontong. Sate ayam, lontong kupang, lontong mie, lontong cap gomeh, rujak cingur, gado-gado, lontong balap, tahu tek (known as tahu gunting), lontong kikil, you name it!

In this posting, you will find two separated recipes for making Sayur Pepaya Muda Udang and Lontong.

Sayur Pepaya Muda Udang
(Green Pepaya and Shrimp in Spiced Coconut Milk)
recipe by me
Ingredients:
500 g green pepaya, peeled and julienned
300 g medium size shrimps
2 lemongrass, bruised
3 cm galangal, bruised
2 Indonesian bay leaves
1 tsp ground dried shrimp (Indonesian: ebi)
2 pkgs cream coconut powder
1.5 L homemade shrimp stock*
oil to stir fry

Spices to grind into a paste
6 shallots
3 cloves garlics
3 red chillies
3 candlenuts (Indonesian: kemiri)
1 tsp dried shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi, Malay: belachan), roasted

Directions:
Preparation
*Homemade shrimp stock can be made ahead from shrimp heads and skins
Combine shrimp stock and 1 package of coconut cream powder; stir occasionally. Bring to a boil and set aside.

Cooking
1. Stir fry spices paste/ground ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, add salam leaves, galangals, and lemongrasses, cook for another 1 minutes until fragrant.

2. Add julienned pepayas another package of coconut cream powder, stir until mixed.

3. Add shrimp stock and shrimp, stir and boil for another 10 minutes or until the shrimps are done.

4. Serve with lontong, sambal and kerupuks (any kind of kerupuks, either tapioca or shrimp ones).



Lontong
(Rice Cake in Banana Leaves Wrapped)
adapted from an Indonesian cookbook "Variasi Menu Sehari-Hari" by Hayatinufus A. L. Tobing

Ingredients:
1.25 kgs rice, rinsed off and drained
about 20 sheets of banana leaves

Directions:
1. Take a sheet or 2 sheets of banana leaves. Roll leaves into 5 cm diameter log-shape. At the edge of the rolled leaves, fasten one side with a bamboo tooth pick. Through another side, fill 3-4tbsp rice into the rolled leaf. Fasten the other edge with a tooth pick. Redo it until all rice are filled into the roll leaves.

2. In a large pot, place all the uncooked lontong. Fill in with water until all lontong sunken.

3. Cook for 2-3 hours or untill all done. Add some more water if the water evaporates and is lessened.