Lontong sayur Betawi
A hearty vegetable dish cooked in coconut milk. Traditionally, it's enjoyed with ketupat or lontong (hard-boiled rice) for the festive season such Eid. It's also one of the traditional breakfast options in some parts of Indonesia, i.e. Jakarta, West Java, etc.
Servings: 6
Equipment
- Pressure cooker.
Ingredients
- 3 small potatoes, or 2 big ones. Cut into small cubes.
- 2 cups raw papaya or Chayote grated.
- 1 cup green beans diagonally sliced.
- 1- inch galangal.
- 1 lemongrass. cut into one-inch pieces.
- 2 salam leaves.
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar/ dark muscovado sugar.
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste.
- 14 fluid ounces coconut milk.
- 15 fluid ounces water.
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil.
Spice paste
- 1 onion finely chopped.
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped.
- 2-3 red bird’s eye chillies or 1 ½ teaspoon of Kashmiri red chilli powder.
- 1 teaspoon of ground coriander.
- 1 teaspoon of dried shrimp paste terasi, optional (see the note), or
- 2 teaspoons of fish sauce or tamari sauce for vegans.
Video
Instructions
- Put all the spice paste ingredients in a blender or a food processor, and process until it becomes a smooth paste. You can also use a pestle and mortar to pound into a paste. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a cooking pot.
- Fry the spice paste until it releases an aroma.
- Add in the galangal, lemongrass, salam leaves, salt and brown sugar.
- After a minute or two, add in the coconut milk and water. And also fish sauce if used.
- Stir it well and put the lid on to cook at medium heat until it’s boiling.
- When the coconut milk is boiling, you can put the potatoes in and leave it to cook further for about 5 minutes.
- Then add the raw papaya or green beans to the curry.
- This time turn the heat down and cook at low heat until all vegetables are cooked.
- Pour the vegetable curry over the lontong.
Notes
- As mentioned above, the original dish uses grated raw papaya, labu siam/ chayote, kacang Panjang/ yardlong beans, and potatoes. But if it’s unavailable, you can substitute them with green beans and potatoes. Just replace the number of green veggies with green beans. If you use yardlong beans/ kacang Panjang, cut them into ½ inch pieces.
- Choose baby potatoes, new potatoes, or Charlotte potatoes. Because they’re waxy, they aren’t mushy when cooked in liquid.
- Shrimp paste has a strong, pungent smell that some people may dislike. And some products have an overpowering smell and flavor. So you may want to go easy on using it. Try to put it little by little rather than follow the recipe straightaway. And see for yourself if you need to add more.
- If you can’t get shrimp paste, you can use fish sauce. I’ve made a lontong sayur with fish sauce. It was equally tasty as the one with shrimp paste, though the smell was subtly different.
- You can use vegan fish sauce or tamari sauce for a vegan option.
- Traditionally, we enjoy the dish with boiled egg, kerupuk/ prawn crackers, and garnished with fried onions.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 240kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 606mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 8g
Disclaimer
Nutritional info in this recipe is only estimate using online calculator. You should refer to it as a guide only. Please verify with your own data if you seek an accurate info.