I'm a Nasi Lemak lover but I don't cook this often as it is quite addictive. Most times we hear people talking about Nasi Lemak being a high cholesterol type of food because of the coconut milk and some of its' condiments like eggs, fried anchovies/groundnuts, prawns are also high cholesterol stuffs.
Keeping this in mind, I will go for the really good Nasi Lemak but it's quite hard to come by these day. Sometimes, the rice is good but the condiments aren't that pleasing and vice versa.
During my childhood days, we used to visit my maternal grandma in Kuala Kurau [a small fishing village] in Perak. She will buy a heap of the Nasi Lemak Bungkus in banana leaf as breakfast for us. The condiments are simple assam prawns or fried fish with sambal belacan. I remembered the rice was so fragrant especially wrapped with banana leaf. At that time, a packet is only RM0.15. We are always so happy and grateful to enjoy these little packets. This is also one of the reasons we look forward to visiting my late grandma. It's not happening now. Those were the good old times and memories.
So, hehehe!, the best option is to cook my own as I would know what goes in to the rice and the condiments [sambal belacan, fried prawns, cucumbers/tomatoes, fried fish etc] that we love to have with it.
Forget about the coconut milk and other 'sinful' stuffs, we will enjoy it to the fullest, then forget about Nasi Lemak for some time. The 'some time' duration can be months later or even a year. My last Nasi Lemak was in September 2013 when we had Pandan Nasi Lemak. I can have Nasi Lemak with curry or sambal belacan but not my hubby. He only wants Sambal Belacan with fried fish, anchovies and some ulam [fresh herbs] or fresh vegetables [cucumbers, four angled beans, ladies' finger etc].
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My hubby eating his plate of Nasi Lemak with his fingers. Tastier?
This time, we are having Nasi Lemak with fried tumeric fish, soy sauce small prawns, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes and of course the sambal belacan.
Ingredients
[serves 5-6]
3 cups long grain rice
200 ml coconut milk
1-2 tsp oil [to prevent the rice from sticking together]
375 ml water
a few slices of ginger
1-2 shallots - sliced
1 lemongrass - crushed
1 piece pandan leave - knoted
1 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp salt to taste
- Wash rice in cold water and drain. Soak in coconut milk for 10 minutes.
- Put oil in rice cooker, add rice and let oil coat the rice.
- Add in water and the remaining ingredients.
- Cook rice in rice cooker for 30 minutes or until cooked [I used the steamer to steam the rice].
- Fluff up rice after 5-10 minutes. Dish up to serve [wrap with banana leaf or on banana leaf] with sambal belacan, sambal tumis and other condiments etc according to your preference.
Some other dishes that go well with Nasi Lemak
6 comments:
oh dear, you make me drooling early the morning .Totally irresistible!
Me too love Nasi Lemak so much.Especially those wrapped with banana leaf,I like it in warm,can easily wallop at least 2 packets one go!
Hi Aunty Young, I couldn't get banana leaves from the market as I went late. So I went to my mom's neighbourhood to cut the leaves from a banana tree. Serve the rice hot on banana leaf makes it more aromatic.
Hi Kimmy,
Serving the nasi lemak on banana leaf reminds me of my childhood days, when my mother cut the leaves from our own banana trees. We would wrap up the hot rice, sambal, etc and leave it for about at least half an hour so that the fragrance of the leaf and the rice blends together. When you open up the packet, you can smell both the fragrance from the banana leaf and the rice, totally awesome!
Hi Joyce, I thought of wrapping the rice with banana leaf but my hubby prefers the rice warm/hot and we wanted the fried fish crispy, that's why I give up the idea.
Kimmy, your nasi lemak is irresistible! I haven't cooked nasi lemak because I am too lazy to make the sambal. But really, I wish I could eat some nasi lemak now!
Hi Phong Hong, I had to exercise 'control' when I prepared this meal. I kept munching on the cucumbers so that I don't over eat the nasi lemak, poor thing.
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