Lemper ayam looks similar to sushi, especially if wrapped with banana leaves instead of plastic foil. I bought all ingredients yesterday to make lemper ayam, but I forgot to buy banana leaves for wrapping. Wrapping these rice rolls with banana leaves will make these rolls more exotic and give the rice rolls colour since it is entirely white.

I made the glutinous rice a bit too sticky than usual because I ran out of coconut cream that I bought at an Asian grocery store. I had to buy coconut milk at the nearest Dutch supermarket that wasn't creamy like it should be, so the rice rolls are a bit too sticky. Nevertheless, I think the taste is amazing and really authentic like it should be. Eating one Lemper makes you full already! It is really filling. Some people like to use minced beef, but I prefer chicken somehow. If you decide to make this Lemper, make sure you take a day off because it can take around 4 till 5 hours!

Ingredients for the filling

Ingredients for the rice

Instructions

Boil the chicken till it's cooked and shred the chicken using a knife and a fork.

Peel the onions and the cloves of garlic. Grind the onions, garlic and kemiri nuts.

Boil water and add the around 100 ml boiled water in to a bowl with the tamarind. I know, it looks weird and I know what you are thinking :-D. Press the tamarind with a fork and take 2 tablespoon of the tamarind water.

Take a non-stick wok and heat the sunflower oil. Then fry the onion, garlic, kemiri, coriander seed, turmeric, cumin, salt and sugar. Fry till it's soft on medium heat. It will take around 15 minutes.

Later on, add the lemon leaves, salam leaves, tamarind water, water and 200 ml coconut cream in to the wok.

After 10 minutes stirring, add the shredded chicken and cook till the chicken is absorbed by the coconut cream. This may take around 30 minutes. The chicken needs to look almost dry.

Cook the glutinous rice with 1200 ml water in a rice cooker. While waiting, take a large pan and cook the 750 ml coconut cream, 3 lemon grass in pieces and salt for about 10 minutes. Once the rice is cooked, add the rice in to the pan with the coconut mix. Stir till the coconut cream is absorbed by the rice.

Take a steamer and steam the rice around 20 minutes. This is optional.

Cut squares out of plastic foil and make your hands wet before you start. Take about 100 gram of the rice and make it a flat square and add around 40 gram of chicken mix in the centre.

Roll the rice using the plastic foil and make sure the sides are closed. Wrap the entire roll and do this for the other rice rolls. On the image you see only the half of what I made. It is just so time-consuming!

This lemper tastes really amazing. It is authentic and full of spices. You think you can eat many of them, but after one you feel full. It doesn't mean you just stay with 1 roll, you will feel addicted and take another one the next hour. For even a better taste, you can eat this lemper with a fresh red chilli.