National Dish Brunei: Jelurut (Recipe)
In this article
Jelurut is a kuih made in a cone: banana leaf rolled into a funnel, filled with a batter of rice flour and melted palm sugar, and steamed until it sets into a soft, sticky, deeply caramel-flavoured little cake. You unwrap it and eat it from the point. The banana leaf is not decoration — it is where most of the aroma comes from.
About Jelurut
Jelurut is the sweet rice-flour kuih of Brunei. Piped into small cones of banana leaf and steamed, this traditional cake combines a tender rice-flour batter with the caramel sweetness of palm sugar. Served as a small snack or as the sweet close to a meal, jelurut brings the flavours of Bruneian cooking directly to the table, and it is a fixture of Ramadan markets across the country.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 150 g rice flour
- 80 g palm sugar (gula melaka), finely chopped, or dark brown sugar
- 200 ml water
- A pinch of salt
- Banana leaves for shaping, or greaseproof paper cones
- A little oil, for brushing
Shopping for the ingredients
Gula melaka is the ingredient that makes this dish — dark, smoky palm sugar sold in discs or cylinders in Asian grocers. Dark brown sugar substitutes but loses the smoke. Banana leaves are sold frozen in the same shops and thaw in minutes.
Preparing the dish
Soften the banana leaves by passing them briefly over a flame or dipping them in boiling water; this makes them pliable enough to roll without splitting. Cut them into squares of about 15 cm. Melt the palm sugar in the water and strain it, since palm sugar often carries grit.
Step-by-step instructions
- Soften the banana leaves over a flame and cut into 15 cm squares.
- Roll each into a cone and secure the seam with a cocktail stick; brush the inside lightly with oil.
- Melt the palm sugar in the water over a low heat, then strain.
- Let it cool to lukewarm.
- Whisk in the rice flour and salt until completely smooth with no lumps.
- Stand the cones upright in a steamer basket and fill each about three-quarters full.
- Steam over a rolling boil for 20–25 minutes, until set.
- Cool slightly before serving; they are eaten warm, unwrapped from the point.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
Jelurut is naturally gluten-free, being made from rice flour, and contains no dairy at all, so it is lactose-free as well. It needs no adaptation whatsoever.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
The kuih is vegan as written, rice flour, palm sugar, water and salt. It is one of the more reliable sweets to offer at a mixed table, since it excludes nothing.
More tips and tricks
Let the palm sugar syrup cool before the flour goes in, or the batter will cook into lumps. Whisk it genuinely smooth. And stand the cones upright and steady in the steamer, a fallen cone empties itself, and there is no recovering the batter.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
A splash of coconut milk in place of some of the water makes them richer, though less traditional. Pandan leaf infused in the syrup adds the green, grassy aroma common to Malay sweets. A pinch of grated coconut on top after steaming is a good finish.
Ingredient substitutions
Dark muscovado is the closest widely available stand-in for gula melaka. Greaseproof paper cones work if banana leaf is unavailable, though the aroma is lost. Glutinous rice flour makes them chewier.
Drink pairing ideas
Strong local coffee (kopi) is the standard partner. Teh tarik, the pulled milk tea, suits it well. Plain hot tea is what it is served with at home during Ramadan.
Serving and presentation ideas
Serve jelurut still in their cones, standing upright on a plate, unwrapping them is part of the pleasure. They are best warm and are usually eaten within a few hours; the rice flour firms up considerably by the next day.
A bit of history
Kuih is the shared sweet tradition of the Malay world, encompassing hundreds of steamed, boiled and fried cakes across Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Jelurut belongs to the banana-leaf-wrapped family, of which the closest relative is the Malaysian kuih koci. They appear in enormous variety at the Ramadan bazaars, which is where most Bruneians buy rather than make them. It offers a genuine window onto Bruneian cuisine.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Jelurut
Jelurut is rice flour and palm sugar batter steamed in banana leaf cones until soft and caramel-sweet. Cool the syrup before adding the flour, keep the cones upright, and eat them warm.
