Nasi Lemak

Hello,

Nasi lemak or coconut milk rice is one of the Malaysian's or Singaporean's favourite dishes, and most of the time people having nasi lemak for breakfast. The basic nasi lemak should have the condiments of sambal chillies, anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and hard boiled egg. But nasi lemak also can served with an additional of fried chicken, fish, prawns etc...

We had nasi lemak for breakfast with friends not long ago and for the first time I guess, they having a spicy food in the morning. Introducing them to the taste of nasi lemak was something that I wanted to do to all my friends here and I suppose they enjoy to discover the new dish. I've made nasi lemak at least once every two or three months.

NASI LEMAK

Ingredients:

For coconut rice;

2 cups rice, Thai or Basmati rice
3 cups coconut milk
2cm ginger, crushed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 shallot, sliced
Salt to taste

For sambal chilli;

2 onion, sliced
10-15 dry chilli, soaked in hot water until soft
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2cm ginger, sliced
2 tablespoon tamarind, add 1/2 cup water to make a paste
Palm sugar or brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
Salt to taste

METHOD:

To prepare the coconut rice:
- Wash and clean the rice and put it in a pot or rice cooker.
- Add coconut milk, ginger, garlic, shallot and salt.
- Cover and bring to boil and then simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the water has been absorbed. If using the rice cooker, just press the button and let it cook itself.
- Removed from heat and loosen rice with chopstick or wooden spoon.
- Cover up and allow rice to cook in its own.

To prepare the sambal chilli:
- Using a blender or food processor, blend onion, chilli, garlic and ginger into fine paste.
- Heat oil in a saucepan, over meduim heat and sauté blend ingredients for a 5-10 minutes.
- Add sugar and tamarind paste and allow to cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the sauce is slightly thick.
- Season with salt and stir a while, remove from the heat.
- Add fried anchovies as individual preference.
- Dish a serving portion and serve the coconut rice with sambal and other condiments like fried anchovies, fried peanuts, hard boiled egg or fried egg and cucumber.

Bon appétit!