Kuih Lopes or lopez......

This is known as kuih lopes or just lopes. Made from glutinous rice wrapped in individual triangles using banana leaves and left to boil for a few hours. The rice pieces are then tossed with grated coconut all over and served with palm sugar syrup. Glutinous rice is also called sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, mochi rice, and pearl rice. It is a type of short-grained Asian rice that is especially sticky when cooked.

Kuih lopes has been my all-time favorite dessert. Well not any kuih lopes ya know. I always love it when mom made her them. Her lopes is soft and the best (my opinion). I would have 2 or 3 pieces or even more and put a lot of the palm sugar syrup..  So this time, I helped her to make kuih lopes and learnt the way she make it. :) She makes a lot of kuih lopes  because she sells them at her food stall and a lot of time, it is always sold out!!! Both my mom and my grandma are so good at what they do when comes to cooking and they do not need to use measuring cups or weighing scale! I wonder how they do it.. For me, its a must.. hehe..

Soooo... when she soak the glutinous rice in water, she add this thing, I am not sure what it is but mom said it is "abuchang", something like soda (i dun even know if the spelling is right). Well, if you are unable to get this, it doesn't matter. You can omit this and soak the rice until it expand. Here is the pic to show you, how "abuchang" looked like:

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 kg glutinous rice

1 - 2 piece "abuchang"

Water

Banana leaves

a few drops of green color (optional)

Coconut

1/2 coconut - grated

pinch of salt

Palm Sugar Syrup

2 cup palm sugar (gula melaka), roughly chopped

1-1/2 cup water

pinch of salt

2 -3 pandan leaves

To make the palm sugar syrup, place the palm sugar and water in a small pot. Add a little bit of salt. Heat over low fire till the sugar completely melts and the mixture is slightly thick and sticky. Tie a knot on the pandan leaves and drop in the syrup. Once all the sugar melts, strain the syrup and set aside. You can make the syrup a few days before. The syrup can be kept for a few weeks in the refrigerator. 

For the coconut, use only the white part and steamed for about 30 minutes with a little salt. You may use the desiccated coconut but it won't taste as good as the fresh coconut. But try this, put the desiccated coconut flakes, coconut milk, salt and sugar in a small saucepan under a low fire. mix well and cook just for a short time.

To make the lopes, wash and soak glutinous rice with "abuchang" for at least 1 or 2 hours or until the glutinous rice has expand. Put through a strainer, wash and rise again.

Soften the banana leaves by dipping in hot water. Tear them into 3 inches strips. Then fold the the banana strips into a cone  by the end.  Fill in 2 tablespoons of the glutinous rice and fold compact like you folding a samosa. stack 3 triangles together and tie them up with raffias or rubber-bands.

In a big pot, fill with 3/4 full of water and let it boil under a medium heat. Place all the lopes and let it boil for 3-4 hours. The banana leaves will be soft and so as the rice. About 2 mins before you remove the triangles, add a few drops of the green color and mix well. - to be very gentle and careful not to break the lopes. The green color will make the lopes changed to green color. Once cooked, drain and cool thoroughly.

Discard the banana leaves and cover lopes with steamed coconut and have it with your palm-sugar syrup.. Yummy... 

Enjoy! :)