Indonesia – Lontong Balap

by Fauzan Anandika

Happy Chinese New Year. For Southeast Asian people, this February they celebrate another New Year Eve, The Chinese New Year. Using a lunar base calendar makes Chinese New Year have a different date from the solar base calendar. During the new year celebration, the Chinese people start the day by praying in the temple to praise their ancestors and hope for a better life this year. There are many beautiful temples around Southeast Asia, and the biggest one is Kwan Sing Bio.

Kwan Sing Bio is located in Tuban, East Java, Indonesia. The temple has four hectares large with a Northern Java’s sea view make Kwan Sing Bio not only large but also has beautiful panoramic. The temple is colored dominantly with red, green, and yellow colors. It also decorates with dragons, lanterns, and candle ornaments. In Kwan Sing Bao, there was a gigantic 30-meter Kwan Sing Tee Koen statue, but unfortunately, it collapsed during a storm in 2020.

For a tourist, visiting East Java means enjoying various delicious local cuisine since they have a unique traditional dish. The East Java people also loved to eat steamed rice cake dish named Lontong, and the most popular meal is Lontong Balap. An authentic Indonesian food comprises compressed rice cake, bean sprout, fried tofu, and length (Indonesian fried cassava cake). All those ingredients pour with a special soup, sauce, and soy sauce.

Lontong Balap has a savory, spicy, and salty taste topped with smooth Lontong make it a complete meal for lunch or dinner. To cook Lontong Balap, you need to prepare various kinds of ingredients, but no need to worry, since most of them can easily be found at the nearest market in town.

Ingredient

Beans sprout soup

• 300 gram of beans sprout
• 5 shallot
• 5 clove of garlic
• 20 grams of scallions
• 20 grams of celery
• 1 liter of beef broth
• 2 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon of chicken broth powder
• ¼ teaspoon pepper powder
• Salt and sugar

Complementary

• Fried tofu
• Lontong (compressed rice cake)
• Fried shallot
• Lento
• Sweet soy sauce

Peanut Lento ingredient

• 150 gram of kidney beans, steamed and grounded
• 50 gram of kidney beans, steamed
• 5 cloves of garlic, ground
• 2 cm of galangal, grounded
• 2 white egg
• 2 sheet of lime leaves, thin sliced
• 3 pieces of bird eyes chili
• Salt and sugar

Fermented shrimp sauce (Petis)

• 3 tablespoon of fermented shrimp paste
• 15 pieces of bird eyes Chili
• 5 clove of garlic
• 5 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 2 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
• Water
• Salt and sugar

Lontong ingredient

• 500 gram of rice
• 1200 ml of water
• 1 piece of lime
• Banana leaves
• Chopstick

How to cook

Lontong preparation

1. Wash clean and drain the rice, keep it for 30 minutes.
2. Squeeze lime over the rice, stir smoothly.
3. Prepare a boiling pot, add water and cook until quite a drain.
4. Keep stir to prevent the rice from sticking.  
5. Turn the fire off and wait until warm.
6. Prepare the banana leaves, cut into 30×30 cm size.
7. Put 3 tablespoons into the middle of banana leaves, roll it up.
8. Seal the Lontong with the chopstick, repeat until all the rice empty.
9. Boil all of the Lontong for 2 hours in 3 liters of water
10. Lontong is ready to be served.

Beans sprout soup preparation

1. Ground garlic and shallot.
2. Stir fry the grounded spice.
3. Add beef broth.
4. Add chicken broth powder, pepper, cook until boiling.
5. Add beans sprout, scallions, celery.
6. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
7. Turn off the heat.

Lento preparation

1. Mix all the ingredients.
2. Pick one tablespoon of dough.
3. Shape the dough into a small ball.
4. Repeat for all the remaining dough.
5. Fry until the Lento turns brownish.

Shrimp sauce preparation

1. Ground bird eyes chili, garlic, and cooking oil.
2. Fry the spice, add fermented shrimp paste, soy sauce.
3. Add some water to prevent the sauce from clotting.
4. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
5. Cook until boiling.

Serving

1. Prepare a serving plate.
2. Cut the Lontong into a bite-size.
3. Add the Lento and fried tofu.
4. Pour the soup into the serving plate.
5. Garnish with fried shallot.
6. Lontong Balap ready to be served.