timphan — Aceh, Indonesia

Timphan, also called jeumphan, is a steamed dumpling made from a banana-and-rice-flour dough wrapped around a sweet coconut filling and cooked inside a folded banana leaf rather than a wrapper of its own. The dish is reported from Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra in Indonesia, where it is served especially around Eid and other celebrations, counted among the wider family of local kue eaten on such occasions. To prepare it, glutinous rice flour is worked with mashed ripe banana and coconut milk into a soft, pliable dough. Separately, grated coconut is cooked down with palm sugar and a pandan leaf until sticky and fragrant, then left to cool as the filling. Small portions of dough are flattened, filled with a spoonful of the sweetened coconut, folded closed, and wrapped in a square of banana leaf before the parcels are steamed together for about an hour, until firm. What distinguishes timphan from the closely related kue known as nagasari is the placement of the banana itself: in timphan the mashed banana is worked into the dough, and sweetened grated coconut forms the filling, while nagasari instead uses plain rice-flour dough wrapped around slices of banana as its filling. The banana leaf wrapping, in both cases, is left on until the dumpling is opened at the table.