Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken

Nasi Lemak is an all time favourite food in Malaysia. It can be considered as the 'national dish' for fellow Malaysian. Nasi Lemak is a common breakfast dish, sold early in the morning at roadside stalls in Malaysia, where it is often sold packed in newspaper, brown paper or banana leaf. However, there are restaurants which serve it on a plate as noon or evening meals, making it possible for the dish to be eaten all day. As a true Malaysian myself, I love Nasi Lemak too thus prompting me to try out to make them from a scratch after tasting Mum's home cooked Nasi Lemak during the recent house warming party. Since I do not have a blender at home, I had used the traditional way to prepare the sambal paste by using stone mortar and pestle given by Mum. I think I should fasten up my process of getting a blender for my kitchen soon. It was kinda tiring using the mortar. I really salute my Grandma and Mum's generation who had been using this tool for their cooking during their time.

So after asking for Mum's recipes for preparing the Sambal Ikan Bilis and Nasi Lemak and googling internet for the recipes too, I combined both and modified myself to get the 'modified and extended version' of the recipe.

Ingredients

Nasi Lemak
2 cups of rice

5 pandan leaves, knotted

1 cup coconut milk

additional water (top up the amount till your normal water level for cooking rice)

2 stalks of lemongrass, bruised

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and bruised

Sambal Ikan Bilis

2 red onion

2 cup ikan bilis (dried anchovies), deep fried

5 cloves garlic

10 shallots

20 dried chillies, deseeded

1 stalk lemongrass, bruised

2 tsp of belacan

1/2 tsp of salt

4 tbsp of sugar

tamarind juice (2 cups of water plus 4 slices of tamarind)

Side Dishes

Peanuts, deep fried

Ikan bilis (dried anchovies), deep fried

1 cucumber, sliced

2 hard boiled eggs, halved

Curry Chicken

Hot and spicy Sambal Ikan Bilis

Fragrant Nasi Lemak

Methods

1. For Nasi Lemak: Rinse rice as per normal and drain. Add the coconut milk, a pinch of salt, and some water. Add the pandan leaves, lemongrass and garlic into the rice and cook rice.
2. For Sambal Ikan Bilis: Rinse the dried anchovies and drain the water. Deep-fried the anchovies until they turn light brown and crispy and put aside. (Leave some as side dishes)
3. Pound belacan together with shallots, garlic, and deseeded dried chilies with a mortar and pestle.
4. Slice the red onion into rings.
5. Soak the tamarind in water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Use the 'soaking' water for the recipe.
6. Add oil in wok and stir-fry the spice paste and lemon grass until fragrant.
7. Add in the onion rings.
8. Add in the ikan bilis and stir well.
9. Add tamarind juice and the rest of seasoning.
10. Simmer on low heat until the gravy thickens. Set aside.
11. Serve with hot coconut rice, peanuts, ikan bilis and any type of your favourite meat (poultry, beef, seafood etc)
    

Hot hot Sambal Ikan Bilis

Hard boiled eggs and sliced cucumber

Deep fried peanuts and ikan bilis

Curry chicken as the meat component for my Nasi Lemak

Bon Appetit!