Kue Lopis

Kue Lopis is a traditional Indonesian sweet snack.  It is made of sweet glutinous rice wrapped with banana leaves and boiled until it becomes one solid mass.  Then it is eaten with palm sugar syrup flavored with pandanus and kaffir lime leaves along with steamed shredded coconut.  It sounds complicated huh?  But once one learns how to do it, it's not so complicated to make.  A lot of steps, yes, undoubtedly.

Traditionally the shape of kue lopis is triangular, but cylinder shape  is acceptable.  It's easier too in that when it's being boiled, there's less chance that the sweet rice will escape from the package.  For a long time this has been my favorite traditional sweet snack, but I haven't learned how to make it until my mother- and father-in-law visited us earlier this month.  My mother-in-law has a lot of wealth in creating Indonesian dishes and snacks.  So I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to learn how to make kue lopis from her.  Everytime I see her there's always not enough time to be just the two of us in the kitchen.  Just a few precious hours after we went out to Costco was enough for making kue lopis.  She showed me the easy way to wrap the package, and we could hardly wait until it was done.  When it's done, my husband also arrived home from work, so we all got to taste it and it's absolutely fabulous.  Remember, I haven't eaten this for a long, long time, so I was partially biased :)

Forgive me if I don't include the recipe here, it's her recipe after all and she didn't want to share it with everyone else.  Maybe in the future, when I could get a copyright release from her then I'll write it down here ;)