An all time savory breakfast favorite of mine in SG, I wanted to try and make my own here. It is actually really easy and takes about 30 minutes to prepare. Thanks to all the other blogs I checked out before trying my hand at it, I had a wonderful breakfast of kuih lopez with the bittersweet gula melaka syrup. Ah! Sooo satisfying, even if I say so myself.

However, while it is my favorite, mom has always cautioned me to eat one or two but not more than that.  “It’ll make you sleepy”, she said. When I was still in school, she will adamantly refuse to let me have this for breakfast and during the exam period, I don’t even get to smell it! As much as I would like to say that it was superstitious nonsense, it turns out to be a scientific fact. Eating too much glutinous rice can make you sleepy because its starch component is lacking something called amylose. To read about this click this link. One other thing. If you’re on a diet, you might want to give this a pass. It’s fat content is way higher than the normal rice. Unless you are looking to put on weight and find a probable cure for insomnia, it’ll be wise to practice self restraint when eating this.

So why do people still eat it? I have no idea. But I for one love its mild sweetness and its starchy sticky texture and maybe because it’s something I associate with traditional food - wrapped in banana leaves - a surviving traditional food of the Malays.

Kuih Lopes

Ingredients:

1 cup glutinous rice - washed and soaked for 4 hours or more

1 cup of coconut milk

1/2 tsp salt

1 piece banana leaf - soaked in boiling hot water for 2 minutes to soften

2 drops of pandan essence

4- 5 tbsp of shredded coconut (white) + pinch of salt

Syrup

Ingredients:

gula melaka - amount as required

a few tablespoons of water - depending on how dilute or thick you prefer the syrup to be

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix rice, coconut milk, salt and pandan essence.
2. In a heat resistant bowl, line the bowl with the banana leaf. The  pour the mixture onto the banana leaf and spread it evenly.



3. Put the steamer on the stove. When it is ready, place the bowl into the steamer.
4. Steam for about 10 minutes. Open the lid and pull the banana leaf out. Stir the rice a little.  Continue steaming for another 10 minutes or until the rice is cooked and there is no more liquid.
5. While the rice is steaming, put the ingredients for the syrup into a small saucepan. Under low heat, melt the sugar.
6. Prepare the mould for the rice - a round bottle cover and a clean plastic sheet.
7. Place sheet over the cover then scoop some rice into the cover. Fold one side of the plastic sheet over the rice and compress the rice into the mould.



8. Remove the rice cakes from the cover and roll it in the coconut.



9. Serve with the syrup.