Are you ready to add this Easy Oven Baked Lemang to your repertoire guys?
Hello Hello, all you lovely people! 5 days to Eid, so here I am sharing a popular traditional food that is widely looked for during Eid. Lemang is made from glutinous rice, coconut milk and salt. It is cooked in a hollowed bamboo tube coated with banana leaves. It is something that we would mostly buy instead of preparing on our own. The reason is, lemang is traditionally cooked in Bambo over an open fire for a couple of hours. In Malaysian and Indonesian villages, families often cook this themselves. Having said that, most of us are living in high rise apartments and I don’t think it would be suitable or sensible for us to cook these using the traditional way.
A few years back, I saw a post on Facebook where some Malaysians were sharing how they made lemang using the oven as a replacement to the traditional way. I knew I had to give that a try as my mom is a huge fan of lemang. My mom obviously loved it and I have been making these on a yearly basis as my family really enjoy it.
Apart from the salt and coconut leaves, Lemang basically uses 2 ingredients.
1. Glutinous rice
Glutinous rice is also known as sticky rice. It can easily be found in any Asian grocery store. There is no other substitute for this.
2. Coconut milk. The amount of coconut milk used really depends on the individual. It is a matter of personal preference. As my mom enjoys her lemang richer so I would use more coconut milk to yield richer lemang. Feel free to use less too if you want.
I used empty cans of drinks as the container to bake the lemang. Banana leaves were placed inside the can; thus the lemang does not directly touch the cans. I highly recommend using banana leaves as they impart great flavor to the lemang. In fact, if you are able to find any other suitable baking containers to bake the lemang, feel free to do so! I figured a tall bakeable cup would work too.
Lemang is delicious on it’s own, however, it is often eaten with dishes such as rendang and serunding (coconut floss). You can also consider serving it with curry or sambal as well. Leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for one week or in the freezer for a month. This recipe yields 9 small lemang which is equivalent to 3 regular-sized ones.
Lemang is undeniably one of the favorites during Eid, so why not give this Easy Oven Baked Lemang a try and impress your family and guests this year? I am quite sure this would be something that you may keep revisiting every year!
- 1kg glutinous rice
- 1000ml coconut cream + 500ml water OR 1500ml coconut milk
- 2-3 tsp salt (gives the coconut milk a taste. It should taste like saltwater)
- Sheets of banana leaves
- Empty cans as molds. (Cut off the top)
- Wash the banana leaves and wipe them dry. Cut into 15x15 cm squares and 5 cm circles.
- Refer to the video above as to how to place the banana leaves in the can.
- Soak glutinous rice in water for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- In a large bowl, combine coconut cream/milk, salt and water.
- Drain the glutinous rice and place it in the coconut milk
- Take the lined cans and fill the glutinous rice ¾ way through and top with coconut milk till slightly above the level of the rice.
- Bake at 160 degrees Celcius for 1.5 hours.
- If it's not dry as yet, continue cooking for another 20-30 minutes.
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