Lemang

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 kgglutinous rice, soaked overnight
• 800 mlthick coconut milk
• 2 tspsalt

Lining

• banana leaves, softened over a flame

Equipment

• 6green bamboo tubes, one node closed
• a long open wood fire
• a rack or frame to lean the tubes against

To serve

• rendang
• serunding
• kuah kacang

Directions

1. Use fresh green bamboo, one node left closed as the base. Dry bamboo burns through and splits over a four-hour fire, and the moisture in fresh cane is what protects the rice.
2. Soak the glutinous rice overnight and drain it well. Mix the coconut milk with the salt. Fill each lined tube about two thirds with rice.
3. Pour in the salted coconut milk until it just covers the rice, and let it settle. Set over the flames they char through before the rice at the centre is cooked.
4. Cook for 3 to 5 hours, turning each tube a quarter turn every 20 minutes. Turn them regularly and patiently.
5. Top up with a little more coconut milk in the first hour if the rice drinks it all. It is done when the bamboo is blackened and dry, the rice is firm and compressed, and a skewer comes out clean.
6. Let the tubes cool, then split them by tapping along the length with the back of a knife. Peel the bamboo away and slide out the leaf-wrapped cylinder of rice. Unwrap it and cut it across into thick discs.
7. Serve with rendang, serunding or kuah kacang at Hari Raya, when it is made in quantity in village compounds.

Technique

• Lemang is savoury and eaten with curry; khao lam and kralan are sweetened and eaten as a snack.
• The communal cooking on the eve of Hari Raya is a large part of what the dish means.
• It keeps a day or two and is reheated by steaming.

Substitutions

• A bamboo steamer with leaf-lined tubes, which cooks the rice and loses the smoke.
• Foil-lined tubes in an oven, as a last resort.

Variations

• Made with black glutinous rice.
• With red beans through the rice.
• Kelupis and ketupat, the related wrapped rice cakes.

History

Cooked over open fires for Hari Raya, when whole rows of bamboo tubes are leaned against a long fire and turned for hours.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lemang?

Lemang is a snack from Malaysia: glutinous rice and coconut milk roasted in bamboo lined with banana leaf. Cooked over open fires for Hari Raya, when whole rows of bamboo tubes are leaned against a long fire and turned for hours.

How long does Lemang take to make?

Lemang takes 30 min plus overnight soaking of preparation and 4 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 6 tubes. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Lemang?

Yes, within limits. A bamboo steamer with leaf-lined tubes, which cooks the rice and loses the smoke. Foil-lined tubes in an oven, as a last resort.