Ketupat

Ketupat is one of the traditional ways of making rice - the main grain crop of the region - in most of the Malay Archipelago , Malacca Peninsula and the Philippines. For Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, the name " ketupat " is common - with small phonetic variations. At the same time, in Indonesia, along with the main name in some regions, special, local ones are used: for example, in West Java the name “ kupat ” ( Sund . Kupat ) is used, in South Sulawesi - “ bokong ” ( bug. Bokong ). In the Philippines, among various nationalities, this dish is distributed under various names: “boogey” ( Tagalog. Bugnóy ), “patupat” ( capam . Patupat ), “tamu” ( sulu ta'mu ), “puso” ( seb . Pusô ), etc. ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

Ketupat owes its origin to the need for harvesting rice for future use - a dense wrapper made of palm leaves provides a fairly long shelf life of the product. In addition, the compact and practical shape of the package facilitates its transportation - due to this, ketupat has historically been the most important edible supply for land and sea travelers ^[2] .

From a culinary point of view, ketupat is a fairly simple dish. Pre-soaked rice is stuffed into small - about 80-120 ml in volume - baskets woven from palm leaves cut into strips. The basket has, as a rule, a rectangular or polygonal shape. Such casings for ketupat are made before cooking or purchased ready-made - they are a very common commodity in traditional markets ^{[4] [5]} .

Filled with rice about half the baskets are closed, weaving together the ends of the palm leaf strips remaining free and combined into bundles. Bundles of ketupates are immersed in salted water and simmer for a very long time - for 4-5 hours. As it cooks, the rice swells, filling the entire basket, its mass gradually thickens. At the end of cooking, the baskets cool in cold water and hang up for drying. To use ketupate in food, the basket is cut. The contents of the dried basket is a dense uniform rice briquette - a kind of pudding ^{[3] [6]} .

Different types of ketupat differ from each other solely due to the shape of baskets, palm varieties, the leaves of which are used to weave them, and rice varieties. These differences, in turn, are determined mainly by regional specifics. The most common material for baskets is coconut palm leaves, which grows almost everywhere in the region. Leaves of a fan palm are used less often - taking into account the features of their texture, baskets from them usually have a triangular shape. Triangular ketupates made from glutinous rice are traditional in several regions of Malaysia. Sometimes, banana leaves are used for wrapping ketupates, but banana leaves - a similar practice exists, in particular, in Singapore ^{[3] [5]} . Sometimes baskets for ketupat are given an unusual complex shape - for example, in the form of animal figures. Such ketupats are usually made for the holidays or as a children's treat ^[6] . At the end of the 20th century , semi-finished products of industrial production appeared on sale — portions of rice, ready to cook, already packed in baskets ^[7] .

Ketupat should be distinguished from the one similar in cooking technology - Lontong , which is also widespread in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Lontong, unlike ketupat, is not a rectangular briquette, but a long rice "sausage", wrapped during cooking not with a braid from stripes of palm leaves, but with whole banana leaves. In addition, in the case of lontong, rice is packed into the shell of leaves, not soaked, but already cooked almost to the point of completion ^[6] . To a greater extent, ketupat differs from lemang - a dish popular on the Malacca Peninsula, Sumatra and Kalimantan , in which rice is wrapped in whole banana leaves and cooked over an open fire in hollow bamboo trunks, inside which coconut milk is poured ^[8] .

In many regions, ketupat is an everyday everyday meal, which, as a rule, is served with many traditional dishes, especially miniature sate kebabs and gado-gado vegetable salad. Thus, the ketupat taken out of the basket plays practically the same role that bread or dumplings play in European cuisine: they seize the main course or soak sauces and gravy . In addition, whole or chopped ketupata are often put in soups and cereals - in this case they turn into a kind of dumpling ^{[2] [9]} .

At the same time, almost everywhere, ketupat is an integral attribute of the festive table - especially during the Muslim festival of Uraza Bairam - in the region called Idul Fitri , Idilfitri ( indon. Idul Fitri , Malaysian. Aidilfitri ) - when it is served at a meal that marks conversation after Ramadan , as well as weddings and other family celebrations. In many places, for example, on the southern coast of Java , it is perceived solely as a treat served during a conversation after fasting and during the next few holidays - there it is not practiced and manufactured on ordinary days ^{[2] [10]} .

Because of its traditional role as a treat on the day of the conversation after Ramadan in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as among the Muslim population of Singapore and the Philippines, ketupat has become one of the symbols of this religious holiday. Residential and public premises on the occasion of Uraza Bairam are often decorated with ketupats or their plastic dummies. Ketupat is often depicted on greeting cards sent to mark the end of the post ^[2] .

Ketupats made in the Sumatran city ​​of Bengkulu , which are extremely hard, are particularly famous in Indonesia. In the modern Indonesian language, the phrase "Bengkul ketupat" ( indon. Ketupat Bengkulu ) has received allegorical meaning - fist, fist punch. Accordingly, “to treat with the Bengkul ketupat” means to beat, give cuffs ^{[11] [12]} .

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  Ketupata on a market tray among vegetables. Indonesia

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  Ketupata are triangular in shape. Malaysia

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  Traditional serving of beef giblets soup in Makassar style - with ketupata. Indonesia

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  Ketupat in the shape of a bird. Kalimantan , Malaysia

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• Wahyuni ​​Mulyawati, Ilse Harahap. Lontong & Ketupat. - Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2008 .-- 117 p. - ISBN 978-979-22-3865-5 .
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