NASI LEMAK

I love nasi lemak! What can I say! I'm a sucker for those small packets of coconut milk flavoured rice with a small piece of egg, a little fried ikan bilis with a sweet sambal and a slice of cucumber, Somehow, nasi lemak never tasted good served on a plate. Why, I can't understand. The best nasi lemak i had was a cold packet on a 30 foot fishing boat going through 2 meter high waves. Oh, did i say I am a sucker for danger as well? Anyway, the craving hit, so I decided to make it for myself. I don't know how to make small batches of sambal, as such, the recipe for sambal makes up one big bowl. You can keep it in bottles and use it for other dishes that requires sambal, such as sambal petai prawns ;-). I'm only going to show how to make the rice and sambal, the two most important part of the dish. I'm quite sure you would know how to fry up some ikan bilis and make hard boiled eggs, right? So here goes!

Ingredients (for the rice)

2 cups of rice ( I used brown rice but you can use white rice too)
Half of a big onion
2cm ginger, crushed
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a knot
Coconut milk
Water
Salt

Method

After washing the rice, put in the onion, garlic, ginger and pandan leaves
As for the amount of liquid that will be used, it all depends on the kind of rice. One cup of brown rice normally needs two cups of water, so the ratio of coconut milk to water should be 70% coconut milk, 30% water. You can use the same ratio for white rice as well. Add a pinch of salt and you can start cooking it in your rice cooker.

Ingredients (sambal)

One stalk of lemongrass (approx 6 inches)
30 dried chillis, soaked
4 fresh red chillis
3cm ginger
2.5 big red onion
1 whole garlic
2 tablespoons balachan
5 small red onions
2 tablespoons of tamarind paste
salt and sugar to taste

Method

Put the tamarind paste in a quarter cup of water and mix well. Some people can't take the heat of the chillis, so for those who can't take the seeds out of the chilies before you put it in the blender.
Next, put everything except the salt and sugar into a blender and blend it till it becomes almost a paste.

In a pot on medium heat, add some oil and pour the sambal into it. Keep stirring till the oil breaks the surface. This is the time to add the salt and sugar to taste. The sambal is now ready.

Earlier in the day, I made some roasted chicken wings. For fiber and more protein, I toasted some taupok and tempe, flash boiled some long beans and made some hard boiled eggs. Add that to the rice and sambal, with some fried ikan bilis, and you have a complete nasi lemak meal.

Enjoy!