Sunday, September 28, 2008

Lupis/ Packed Sweet Glutinous Rice with Palm Sugar Syrup

This sweet sticky rice could well be one of my favorite breakfast items growing up. I don't have much of sweet tooth, less so for breakfast food, I rarely eat pancake or sugary cereal for breakfast. Lupis is an exception. It's no fuss no pretend sort of food. Very peasant dish, if I may. Basically it consists of sticky rice, palm sugar syrup and grated coconut.

99.99% of time, it comes in triangular shapes. Sometimes you will see cylinder/ log shaped lupis, but ....that's just not right!! :) It also has to have a tint of green on it, which primarily from the banana leaves wrappers. I guess it won't have any green tint if it's wrapped in foil or plastic. However, my favorite lupis stall actually tint hers with pandan extract. She sells the regular kind too (no pandan extract ones) but boy, the pandan kind is my favorite! I love love the smell of pandan leaves. Somebody should make it into potpourri!

I prefer lupis being packed in banana leaves, not only for the earthy smell of it, but also the beautiful faint green color it lends to this sticky rice. Unfortunately, my last batch of banana leaves went to Pepes Ikan and I haven't been to Asian grocery store since then. So, foil it is then, which actually make the process much easier. I added pandan extract..mmhh..to recreate the ones I used to eat for breakfast. Also, to get the green color on it. I am a firm believer that we feast through our eyes first.

The combination of coconut and pandan alone can make my day. Add to that, palm sugar syrup. Mmmhhmmhh!! Growing up, whenever I saw my mom/grandma was about to make something with palm sugar, I'd just stand there with eyes fixating to chopping block and pick on cubes or shavings of this sweet block. It's heavenly.

What:
- 1 cup glutinous rice, rinse well and soak in water for about 45 minutes, drained.
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp slaked lime water
- 1 pandan leaf, make into a knot (optional)
- 1 drop of pandan extract (optional)
- 5-6 6" foil square, make into triangular pouch/ cone shape

Syrup:
- 1/2 cup gula Jawa/ palm sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 pandan leaf, make into knot
- 1/2 cup unsweetened grated coconut

How:
- After draining rice, toss in pinch of salt, add slaked lime water to rice. Stir. Add 1 drop of pandan extract. Mix well.
- Take 1 piece of cone foil, fill with 1/3 - 1/2 cup rice. Fold the sides and crimp. Pack it in such way that it resembles equilateral triangle, all equal length three sides.
- Put triangles in pot and cover with hot water. Boil for 2 hours. Check every so often and add hot water if necessary. Drain and let it cool.
- To make syrup, just toss in sugar, water and pandan leaf into saucepan. Stir and let it comes to thick syrup. I like my syrup pretty thick, add more water for thinner syrup.
- Once the triangle bundles cool down, dredge on grated coconut.
- Pour syrup on top of it. Actually, dump the syrup on it!! :) Both posted photos show only some drizzle, simply because I don't think glob of dark syrup would look very appetizing. In real life though, with fork in hand, syrup pouring, folks!

I wanted to say slaked lime water is optional, but at the same time, it is sort of alkali that makes the unique texture of lupis and other similar sweet dishes. I am scratching my head here trying to describe it better. Slaked lime water is sometimes used for fried food/crackers to maintain its crunchiness. In lupis though, it gives identical character of 'crisping' up the stickiness of rice so that it is more solid rather than too chewy and soft. It has certain 'give' when cutting and biting to it, think...al dante in pasta. However, if it comes to it, sudden cravings and all, then I would careless about whether there is slaked lime water or not. :D

That said, I am so submitting this to this month Waiter There's Something In My... Stew is listed in WaiterTheresSomething- Waiter, there's something in my..Indonesian, hosted by Wine.Scribbler.

29 comments:

Indonesia Eats said...

One of my favourite breakfast, beside nasi pecel :D

Anonymous said...

wow, impressed that you can even make this!~ I think we call it oneh oneh in Singapore, not sure if it's the same thing =D

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness I don't even think I can get all those ingredients here and I'm in Asia, I do remember having something similar though- you sure can cook... I love waiting to see what you'll post next.

Dee said...

You're truly amazing Cecil! This reminds me of onde-onde - little glutinuous rice balls stuffed with the syrup. Yummy!

And thank you for the kind words on my blog :)

Dewi said...

Very appetizing, I wish my husband and my son can eat something like this, then I probably would make it at least once every other week.

The Mediocre Cook said...

Okay these look really good but the ingredient list is really... intimidating to me. I will definitely need to look around out here for where I might be able to find this stuff.

Adam said...

So THATS how they make that! I see these all the time with my Asian room mate at restaurants. These are so good :)

CECIL said...

indonesia-eats: Nasi pecel!! that's my brother's favorite :)

noobcook: Oneh-oneh/Onde2 is similar to this, it's just that onde2 has palm sugar as filling. They are equally good though.

girljapan: Thank you for such compliment! :) Maybe the hardest one to find is the slaked lime. Which you can omit, really.

dee: Oh Dee! How you doing? :) I love onde2 too, bite into it and all the sweet syrup ooozing out. Mmh.

elra: You should make it for yourself. :) I think it freezes well too. Hm..I believe.

mediocrecook: I have sooo much faith in you - you found tamarind and got over the icky smell of dried shrimp. You'll find this sooo easy it's not even funny. I am sure you can find everything in the Asian store where you get tamarind from. Fairly basic ingredients (sticky rice, pandan, palm sugar) for Asian cooking.

adam: No way!! Restaurants over there serve this?! I have never seen it in any menu in Asian restaurants here. :(

Alexa said...

You always present such interesting dishes. I would love to try Lupis. Pure inspiration...

daphne said...

ooo...That looks terrific-what a good breakfast to wake up too!!!!!

And I realized that AR is pujari decent... hahaa.. so i'm like u! More excuse to indulge in indian cuisine!

Maria said...

You always have the most amazing dishes on your blog! You are a cooking genius!

Esi said...

How cute! I love the colors in this dish.

Unknown said...

i love this!!! i'll definitely give this a try... been looking at the other recipes here and they all look great... glad to have dropped by... :)

Salt N Turmeric said...

This was like a must when ever i see them sold by the roadside vendors. Drenched with lotsa gula kabung. oh my! lol.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I've never seen anything like this...ever. How creative you are!

Prudy said...

I love the exotic and spicy feeling I get the minute I get to your blog. I wish the web was a menu and I could order dinner and dessert right from your blog!

abigail @ Paper and Cake said...

you really know what you are doing cecil! i am all thumbs at cooking, so i'll stick to what i know best - eating.

tigerfish said...

Have not had this kueh for such a long long time.

Christina Kim said...

Wow...is this the onde onde we see in Malaysia? :)

Hopie said...

I don't know where I'd get most of those ingredients here, but your recipe looks delicious! I can see why that would be a favorite breakfast food.

Dharm said...

Cecil,
I'm really curious.. are you Malaysian too? From Penang? Do tell!! This looks just like onde-onde....

CECIL said...

Alexa: Thank you! Same way I feel about your posts, so inspiring.

Daphne: That's just so neat! Any excuses to indulge on any food is good thing, yeah? :)

Maria: Thanks much!

Esi: The wonder of pandan extract ;)

Mikky: Thank you for stopping by!

SaltnTurmeric: Sometimes, we wish there are such things as roadside vendors here, don't we? The convenience of grabbing them, instead of having to cook them yourself.

Noblepig: Oh, if only you see how it sells on street vendors in Asia. :) Rows an rows of them. Thank you for stopping by!

Prudy: Awh..that's such a nice comment of you! Now I am too scared to post about mashed potatoes! :D

Abigail: My skill of eating may well exceed my skill of cooking/baking! :)

Tigerfish: I know..it has been a while for me too, until I decide enough is enough. Make it my own or has to wait til next year when I visit home again.

Christy: Similar to onde2, the only difference is that onde onde is filled with palm sugar. This one, dumping the sugar on top of it. Equally delicious though.

Hopie: If there is any Asian store, chance is they'll have most of the ingredients. :)

Dharm: I am from neighboring country, Indonesia. Though I spent a lot of my childhood time in Penang. It can be thought as my second home, I guess. Come to think of it, maybe I know Penang's streets and where about much better than I know of Toronto's! :)

cindy* said...

this looks so tasty. yum!

CECIL said...

Cindy: Thank you!! :)

Andrew said...

How interesting! A learning experience indeed.

Many thanks for entering Waiter; round-up on its way!

Lidia Sianturi said...

waaaaaa..lupis..mau dong...tukeran deh ama pempek-ku..hehehe
eh Cil..tukeran link yuk...aku pasang skrg ya..

serdadoedapoer said...

wow Indonesian jajanan yeah...
we can find it in traditional market in Bali too but with different shape, triangle, fresh grated coconut and melted palm sugar

Yummy....

foodizm said...

kalo bikin lupisnya pake glutinous rice flour bisa gak yah? caranya gimana ? soalnya gak tau dapetin dimana glutinous rice.

foodizm said...

aku tinggalnya di Quebec. Di Sherbrooke sih tepatnya. ada sih toko2 vietnam gitu disini. Thanks yah!! :)
i like your blog btw!