Lemper (Rice Rolls with Spicy Filling)

Ingredients :

• 500g (1lb) glutinous rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup thick coconut milk
• 250g (8oz) finely chopped chicken
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 curry leaves
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste (trasi)
• squeeze of lemon juice
• squares of banana leaf or aluminium foil

How To:

• Wash rice and drain. Put into saucepan with water and bring to the boil. then turn heat very low, cover pan tightly and steam for 15 minutes.
• Mix ¾ cup of the coconut milk with ½ cup of water in a small saucepan and heat without boiling. Add to rice, stir gently with a fork, cover and steam for 5-10 minutes until coconut milk is absorbed. Leave to cool.
• Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a wok or medium sized saucepan, and fry the garlic and curry leaves for 1 minute.
• Add ground spices and trasi and fry, stirring, for a minute longer, crushing the trasi with a spoon. Add the chicken and fry until the colour changes and it no longer looks raw.
• Add reserved ¼ cup coconut milk and simmer uncovered on a low heat until well cooked and quite dry.
• Add lemon juice to taste, check seasoning and add more slat and pepper if required. Cool.
• Take a large tablespoon of rice and flatten on a piece of banana leaf till 12mm (½ inch) thick.
• Put a good teaspoonful of rice of the filling in the middle and mould the rice around it into a cylindrical shape.
• Roll up in the banana leaf and secure with wooden toothpicks, or roll in the foil to make a neat parcel.
• These parcels can be heated over a barbeque or steamed for 15 minutes, then allowed to cool again.
• They are served at room temperature as a snack.