Ketupat Sayur (Rice cake and vegetable in coconut milk)

Ketupat Sayur is consider as a breakfast dish in Indonesia. It's quite easy to find the vendor of Ketupat Sayur on the streets in the mornings. Most of the time, we will see the Ketupat Sayur vendors carry their wares in baskets suspended from a shoulder pole.
There are several ways to cook Ketupat Sayur. In this post, I'm sharing the cooking's way of the Ketupat sayur from the vendors on the streets.


Ketupat is similiar to rice cake. It's made from white rice which is boiled for about 4 to 5 hours in young coconut leaves that have been weaved like a case.

How to make the sweet soy sauce Egg and Tofu:
- Prepare boiled eggs and fresh tofu
- Boil water, soak the boiled eggs and tofu
- Add sweet soy sauce and a pinch of salt
- Let it overnight until the boiled eggs and tofu absorb the sweet soy sauce

How to make Ketupat Sayur (vegetable gravy):

Ingredients:
500 gram chayote squash or young green papaya (cut into thin long square slices)
1,5 liter coconut milk
2 lemongrass (bash them)
3 cm galangal (bash it)
2 Indonesian bay leaves
1 tbsp chicken broth powder
1 tbsp dried shrimp
2 tbsp oil for cooking

Grind the below spices into a paste:
7 shallots
3 garlics
5 red hot chilis
2 candlenuts
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 tsp salt

Direction:
- Heat the oil, fry the paste until fragrant
- Add lemongrass, galangal, Indonesian bay leaves, dried shrimp and coconut milk
- As soon as it's boiled, add chayote squash or young green papaya
- Add chicken broth powder
- Serve while it's warm with the rice cake (ketupat), sweet soy sauce tofu and boiled egg.
- And don't forget to put tapioca chips (kerupuk aci) and fried shallots on the top :)