Thursday 28 April 2011

NASI TUMPENG- AN ANCIENT JAVANESE RICE RECIPE. OR NASI TUMPENG FROM THE ANCIENT SUNDA NUSANTARA

"The blessing of the rice seeds” ceremonies and harvest festival
NUSANTARA FOOD RECIPE AND FOOD CULTURE
RICE WAS THE STAPLE FOOD FOR THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF THE NUSANTARA 
A KINGDOM WAS BORN.....The word NUSANTARA was taken from an oath by Gajah Mada, a powerful military leader and Prime Minister of the Majapahit Empire who was credited with bringing the empire to its  PEAK OF GLORY
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people. In a wider sense, Javanese cuisine might also refer to the cuisine of the whole people of Java Island, Indonesia; which also include Sundanese in West Java, Betawi people in Jakarta and Madurese on Madura Island of East Java. These ethnic groups have their own distinctive cuisines
Javanese cuisine is largely divided into three major groups:
1.Central Javanese cuisine (masakan Jawa Tengah)
2. East Javanese cuisine (masakan Jawa Timur)
3. Common Javanese dishes 
Image from cooking-varieties nusantara gallery- A Kingdom was born
 The word NUSANTARA was taken from an oath by Gajah Mada, as written in an old Javanese manuscript by Negarakertagama. Gajah Mada was a powerful military leader and Prime Minister of the Majapahit Empire who was credited with bringing the empire to its  PEAK OF GLORY.

THE SUNDA KINGDOM
The Sunda Kingdom was a Hindu kingdom located on the western part of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering areas of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java
Knowledge about the kingdom amongst Sundanese people has been kept alive through Sundanese Pantun oral tradition, the chanting of poetic verses mostly tells the story of the golden era of Sunda Pajajaran and the legend of King Siliwangi, the popular king of Sunda.
Sunda kingdom was heavily centered in agricultural activity, especially rice cultivation. The annual Seren Taun rice harvest festival can still be found today in traditional Sundanese communities, who worship the deity of rice during “The blessing of the rice seeds” ceremonies and harvest festival.
Oriental (1513–1515)” Tomé Pires wrote: (excerpts)
The Sunda kingdom was very rich with as much as four thousand horses bought from Priaman (Sumatera) and other islands. It had up to forty elephants; these were for the king’s array. An inferior gold, of six carats, were also found.There was abundant tamarind which served the natives as vinegar. Pepper was also abundant here.
The city where the king was most of the year, is the great city of Dayo. The city had well-built houses from palm leaves and wood. The king’s house had three hundred and thirty wooden pillars. The city is two days journey from the chief port, Kalapa. The people of the sea coast got along well with the merchants from the land. They were accustomed to trade and very often traded with Malacca using junks as a mode of transportation.
Ancient rice cooking called “Tumpeng” - see recipe below
Tumpeng is rice shaped like a mountain with  side dishes added (vegetables and meat). Traditionally featured in the Slamatan ceremony, the cone shape rice was made by using a cone-shaped weaved bamboo container. The rice itself could be plain steam rice, uduk rice (cooked with coconut milk), or yellow rice (uduk rice colored with kunyit (turmeric).
The tumpeng is placed on tampah (rounded woven bamboo container/ tray) covered with banana leaves and surrounded by assorted dishes/ Tumpeng is a very popular ancient Javanese cuisine, as such its also popular amongst the Sundanese, located on the west side of Java.. Excerpts from Wikipedia
JAVANESE NASI TUMPENG, SURROUNDED WITH ANCIENT  DISHES
Recipes on the surrounding dishes will be published in the coming few posts
NASI TUMPENG RECIPEIngredients 6 to 8 servings

2½ cups long-grain rice
2½ teaspoons ground turmeric
1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon salt
Mix the above turmeric and salt with water (turmeric solution)
Wash rice and soak in turmeric solution for 8 hours. Drain water and set aside


1 cup coconut milk
3 pieces kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut)
2 pieces bay leaves (daun salam)

1 stalk lemongrass- crushed
2 1/2 cups water

Garnishes:
1 red chili- thin slices
1 small cucumber- cut into thin slices
6 pieces shallots-  paper thin slices / chiffanade and fry until golden brown

Put the already drained rice inside a rice cooker. Set aside


Use a cooking pot –add in water, coconut milk, bay leaves, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves over medium heat  and bring to a gentle boil. Put off fire and carefully pour contents  into the rice cooker. Mix well and cook. Whilst rice is cooking , stir occasionally like 2 or 3 times using a wooden spatula, to avoid rice from sticking at bottom of cooker.
Once rice is cooked, gently fluff the rice and remove bay leaves, lemongrass and  kaffir lime leaves
To do cones
Use thick paper that will not tear off easily when you put the rice
Shape into a cone according to desired size. Tape along the folded ends to hold the cone in shape. Line the inside with alluminium foil.
Use scissors and cut a few cm off the tip, so that the cone can stand upright. Fill in the rice and pressed it well, else it will crumble if loosely packed. Make it stand upright until ready to serve. Scissor the paper and put rice on a main serving plate or tray.

Preview

3 comments:

  1. interesting...this is a recipe that I've yet to try..sounds delicious...

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice blog nusantara ... hope to drop by soon ... please subscribe to my blog and i ll do the same. ... :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just got here, man alive, this is most interesting. I love history and food so I guess it figures.

    ReplyDelete

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