nasi tumpeng

Nasi Tumpeng, Yellow Rice Mount

Nasi means rice, and tumpeng is come from Javanese (one of the traditional languages in Indonesia) word for mount like shaped. The yellow means the prosperity and the holy things for the Javanese. That is why nasi tumpeng only made in special occasion.

The ingredients of the rice mountain itself are: rice, water, shallot, garlic, coconut milk, ginger, bay leaves, fresh lemon grass, fresh galangal, kefir lime leaves, salt, turmeric, chicken broth, chicken breast, and banana leaves stalk.

And for the side dish as you see are: fried mashed potatoes, cucumber, beef stew, traditional fried chicken, sweet fried tempeh (soy bean cake), and beef in chili, scrambled egg, fried egg in chili, and traditional chili sauce.

First of all, put the chicken in the boiling water with salt, pepper, ginger, and a little of lemon juice. Keep doing it until the chicken is half cooked and the oil of the chicken is out. We need the natural chicken broth besides the canned broth. In the other stove, rice is boiled with the chopped shallot, chopped garlic, galangal, turmeric, lemon grass, kefir lime leaves, and bay leaves. When the rice is half cooked and the water is less, pour the coconut milk and the chicken broth, both the natural one and the canned one. Stir them up until they mix thoroughly. Cook it well in small flame until the water is gone. The rice is already yellow from this section.

The next step is steam up the rice. Make it as a layer. Put a little portion of rice on the bottom of the steamer (in order to cover the steamer surface), then put the chicken breast, and then cover it up with the rice left. Then steam it about one hour. It based on how big the steamer is and how much rice you put inside. The chicken will be well done on steaming, and it can give some additional taste for the yellow rice.

When they’re all done, put the lid out and let the hot air flow. It should be out before we take them on the pattern, if there is hot air inside it will make the rice is wet later on. After all of the hot air is out, you can check it by stirring your rice with plastic spatula, you can put them in a pattern. This pattern is cone-shaped pattern. You put them inside the cone, the chicken is included. The chicken should be the core of the core. All of the inside things are pressed until it fix into the cone. When it fix, you can put the cone down to tray, and take the pattern away. It will be like a mount.

The rice will be greasy, yellow, and tasteful rice because there’re a lot of spices used when the rice cooked. The yellow comes from the turmeric, and the greasy comes from the coconut milk. To keep it warm as it’s freshly made, we use banana leaves to cover it. So it will be still warm enough and has and greasy surface.

For the side dish, I will write it down separately. I will write just a few of them.

1. Fried mashed potatoes
The ingredients are: potatoes, vegetable oil, salt, garlic, white pepper, scallion, and egg.

• Cut the potatoes into 6 pieces. Drown it down in water and salt, and then wait about 15 minutes. Heat up the vegetable oil on flame, and then fry the potatoes until they are golden brown. Drain them on the paper towel.
• Grind the fried potatoes with salt and pepper. After they are done, mix them with chopped scallion.
• Break an egg and stir it. Until the egg yolk is mixed with the whites. Take the potatoes dough to ball-shape. Then batter them with the egg.
• Heat up the vegetable oil. Then fry the potato dough up until golden brown. Drain them in the paper towel.

2. Sweet fried tempeh
The ingredients are: ripened tempeh, brown sugar, shallot, garlic, pepper, salt, vegetable oil.

• Cut the tempeh into small rectangular shape, just like the matches. Then fry them until golden brown.
• Fry shallot, garlic, and pepper. Then add the tempeh. Mix them. Add much brown sugar into them, and stir it thoroughly. It’s said as well done when all of the tempeh covered up with the brown sugar.
  

3. Traditional grilled chicken

4. Beef in chili

5. Scrambled egg

6. Fried egg in chili

7. Traditional chili sauce
The ingredients are: chili, pepper, paprika, sugar, salt, shrimp paste, vegetable oil, kefir lime leaves, galangal, lemon grass, bay leaves.

• Fry all of the ingredients, except: galangal, lemon grass, bay leaves, kefir lime leaves. For the shrimp paste, it depends on what type of shrimp paste you have. If it’s a solid one you can grill it or fry it on little oil. For the liquid one, just use it, no preparation needed.
• Grind all of the fried ingredients. Mix them with sugar n salt.
• Chopped the un-fried ingredients and mix with the others.
• Heat up a wok, with a little oil. Then fry all of the sauces together.
• Ready to serve