The Indian subcontinent · Volume 25, The Roasted Spice, the Palmyrah Coast and the Coral Atoll
Lamprais
Dutch Burgher
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 1 hour 30
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Dutch Burgher, invented from an adapted Indonesian technique rather than imported from the Netherlands. Rice, curries, a pickle and two frikkadels, sealed inside a banana leaf and baked together.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. Meat stock the night before; assembly and baking about 1.5 hours.
Ingredients
An outline, not yet a recipe: the tradition's method with its ingredients named but not weighed. Quantities are being added from sources inside the tradition, lead dishes first.
- 400 g rice, boiled
- As needed meat stock, from the previous night's boil
- A sprig each curry leaves and pandan leaf
- 1 a muslin-wrapped spice bundle: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, lemongrass, peppercorns
- A portion each a portion each of chicken curry, pork curry, beef curry and mutton curry (recipes as elsewhere in this chapter, made mild)
- 8 frikkadels (see below), 2 per portion
- As needed blachan (fermented shrimp paste), seeni sambol and brinjal pahi (a sweet-sour aubergine pickle), to serve
- 4 banana leaves, warmed over a flame until pliable
Frikkadels
- 400 g minced beef
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
- dill, chopped
- As needed beaten egg and breadcrumbs, for coating
Method
- The night before, boil the meat for the curries for around 2 hours, and set the resulting stock aside; clean the banana leaves at the same time.
- Brown the curry leaves and pandan leaf in butter, add the boiled rice, then enough of the meat stock to flavour it, along with the spice bundle; cook the rice through in this stock rather than plain water.
- For each portion, lay a palm-sized quantity of the flavoured rice on a warmed banana leaf, add dessert-spoon quantities of each of the four meat curries, exactly two frikkadels, and small spoonfuls of blachan, seeni sambol and brinjal pahi.
- Fold the banana leaf into a tight parcel and tie or fold securely.
- Bake at 180°C for at least 10 minutes, until the banana aroma has clearly penetrated the rice inside.
- For the frikkadels: combine the mince, garlic, chilli and dill, and shape into small balls.
- Dip each in beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry in oil at 180°C until lightly golden.
Notes
Traditional, authentic lamprais does not contain egg in its rice or curries, according to Stephanie Herft, founder of Lansi, a real, specific point on which commercialised restaurant versions commonly diverge from the tradition.
What a modern chef changes
The leaf trusted to do what an oven cannot, and nothing substituted for it.
Rung 5
Method
- Warm the banana leaf directly over an open flame or a hot dry pan for a few seconds on each side before folding, exactly as tradition does, since a cold leaf splits rather than folds cleanly.
- Cook each of the four meat curries reduced further than usual before assembly, so they do not release excess liquid into the parcel during baking and dilute the rice.
- Do not vacuum-seal or otherwise substitute for the banana leaf itself: its own aroma is doing real, irreplaceable work in this dish, and this is a rung on which tradition should simply be followed rather than modernised away.