Nasi Tumpeng - Yellow Rice Mountain Recipe

Last week, one of my friends posted a picture from her daughter's birthday with a "Nasi Tumpeng" in it. Traditionally, in Java and some other places in Indonesia, this mountain-shaped rice dish is served for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations. Below are some pictures of full blown Nasi Tumpeng platters.

From satelitnews.co

From bundatwinskitchen.files.wordpress.com

From indochili.com

Impressed yet?

Well, the fore-mentioned friend offered me to come over to her place and learn how to make it so of course I gladly went! I am well aware of my cooking capability (and patience) so we made a much simpler (and smaller) version of it. 

For the rice you need:

• 2 cups uncooked rice
• 1 cup coconut milk (you can put more or less depending on your preference)
• 1 stem lemongrass
• 2 bay leaves (dried or fresh)
• 2 lime leaves (dried or fresh)
• some turmeric (powder or fresh)
• water

Here's the how to:

• Wash the rice and put it in a medium/large pot. Remember, when cooked, the rice with more than double in volume.
• Put the lemongrass, bay leaves, and lime leaves in the pot.
• If using fresh turmeric, grate it, mix with 1/4 cup of water, strain the water into the pot. 
• If using powder, put 1 tsp of turmeric powder. 
• Note: we use turmeric for the colour. So add more if you want more colour.
• Pour coconut milk into the pot.
• Top up with water until the liquid surface is about 1" (2.5 cm) above the rice surface.
• At this point, you can toss the whole thing into a rice cooker and wait, but what's the fun in that?!
• Cook on the stove over medium heat, bring to a boil while stirring occasionally.
• Prepare a steamer.
• Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat and stir continuously until all the water is gone. You will notice that the yellow colour became darker.
• Turn the heat off, start the steamer. Continue stirring to let the steam out.
• When the steamer is ready, transfer the rice into the steamer and steam for about 30 minutes or until cooked.
• Leave rice in steamer while you prepare the side dishes

Fried Chilli Tempe

What you need

• 3 cloves shallot or 1/4 onion thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 1 red chilli pepper, seed taken out, sliced thin.
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tempe, french cut
• salt, brown sugar to taste
• sweet soya sauce
• Frying oil

And the How To:

• Heat up frying oil in wok or pan.
• Fry the tempe until golden brown. Strain and set aside.
• In a different pan, brown the shallots or onions in 1 tablespoon of oil
• Mix in the garlic, bay leaf, and chilli
• Stir in salt and brown sugar to taste, add about 1/8 cup of water to dissolve sugar
• Stir in fried tempe
• Drizzle with sweet soya sauce to taste
• Cook until the liquid thickens

For the chicken, we took a shortcut and used pre-mixed seasoning. Just follow the instruction on the package. 

Then you shape the rice, assemble chicken and tempe, garnish with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, chilli pepper, and basil leaves. Don't forget the sliced omelet.