Nagasari, A Nostalgia for My Childhood - Nancy Duma

Going to a traditional market was one of my favorite childhood activities. I was glad when my mom woke me up early in saturday morning, asking me to come along.

Certainly it was not the size of the building nor the comfort that caused me enjoying the visit. Most of traditional markets at that time were muddy, crowded and stinky. I got to wash right after we came home.

It were the trade and the fair of goods that I found fascinating. Piles of colourful vegetables and fruits, the eggs, tofus in watered plastics, stacks of tempe. And the best of all was the stall of traditional snacks.

Pastel (deep fried curry puff), bolu kukus (steamed tart), kue lapis (layered rice flour pudding), wajik ( cooked-in-palm-sugar, steamed glutinous rice) and nagasari (steamed banana cake made of rice flour) went definitely into our shopping bag.

Selfmade Nagasari
I love traditional snacks and have made some of them at home.

Last Sunday my family and I went shopping to a supermarkt. There I found banana leaves.

"Let's make nagasari!" I said to my daughter out of sudden.

What else do we need?

"Rice flour," answered a woman to my question. Yes, I really did ask her.

I knew that we need banana. But I didn't know which kind. Thanks to the internet, I could find my reliable and awasome resouce at once: the Diah Didi's kitchen blog. According to the lovely blog's tip, we then bought kepok banana.

Kepok banana /Photo: Nancy's

The adventure began. It was a collaborative one indeed. My daughter mixed up the ingredients. I stirred the dough while it was cooked with small fire. My husband heated the banana leaves.

The outcome was perfect. Everybody was happy. Selfmade nagasari were ready to serve.

The color of the banana leaves become dark / Photo: Nancy's

Wanna make nagasari, too? You can see the recipe here.

In case you don't understand Bahasa, below is its translation.

The Ingredients
100 gram rice flour
1 spoon tapioca starch
40-75 gram sugar
400-500 litre coconut milk (the more you get, the softer the nagasari will be)
1/2 tea spoon salt
schrewpine leaves (I didn't have it. I substituted it with a bit of vanilli)

raja banana/kepok banana
banana leaves

The Making
1. Mix all the ingredients, but kepok banana and the banana leaves.
2. Stir while it cooked with small fire until it's creamy.
3. Put a spoon of the dough on a sheet of banana leaf, then add 1-2 slice of banana, and cover them with another spoon of the dough.
4. Fold the leaf and put it in the steamer for 20-30 minutes.