Breakfast - malaysian style

Nasi lemak is not the most conventional way to start your day as the it consists of 5 main parts:

1 – Coconut Rice

2 – Sambal

3 – Sliced Cucumber

4 – Crispy anchovies with Roasted peanuts

5 – Hard boiled egg

Anything else you add on top just makes the meal better.

For breakfast we usually have a small portion wrapped nicely in banana leaf which acts as a takeaway convenience but most importantly, it adds a distinct flavour to the steaming rice. It is served in schools, canteens, corner stalls and the Indians restaurants, Malay and Chinese restaurants all have their own take on what goes into our Nasi Lemak.

You will need

1 x cup (per person) of good quality jasmine rice

1 x ½ cup water (per cup of rice)

1 x Sachet of coconut milk powder or a can of coconut milk (if you use a can of coconut milk please consider less water per cup of water)

1 x ½ teaspoon of salt

Method:

Wash rice in water and drain cloudy water at least 3 times.

In a pot add the rice and cups of water and coconut milk and salt and simmer under low/medium fire for 15 – 20 minutes. Rice should only be stirred once or twice and once cooked through, leave lid on and set aside for rice to become fluffy

For the Sambal, You will need

10 x dried red chillies soaked in hot water

5 x shallots

3 x garlic cloves

1 x onion, sliced

½ cm shrimp paste or belacan (optional)

½ x cup tamarind juice

4 x table spoon vegetable oil

Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Ground the shallot, garlic and belacan (shrimp pste) in a pastal and mortar or blitz in a blender with a bit of water and set aside. In a separate blitz’er ground the chilie with a bit of water and set aside.

In a pan, add oil and heat slightly. When hot add the shallot and garlic ground ingredients and sauté slowly for at least 10 – 15 minute on a low heat until brown. Once the shallot and garlic mixture turns slightly brown add the chilli and sauté for another 10 – 15 minutes. (the aim is to bring out the sweetness and the caramalisation of the ingredients).

Now add the tamarind juice bit by bit and reduce every time it is mixed into the sambal. Once that has been reduced by a 3^rd, add salt and sugar to taste. Lastly add the sliced onions for a bit of dept and crunch J

The colour of the sambal should be at least 3 shades darker then the chillies you had blitz in the beginning. Sugar is important for this colourisation and make sure you have enough salt as you do not want your sambal to be blend.

At any given time, please always keep stirring your sambal as you do not want it to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. If you are a little concerned about this, just keep adding water, but not to much just a tablespoon or so every time.

The patience of doing so will be so worth the hard work, I promise you this.

Next slice your cucumber, hard boil your egg (place eggs in cold water and cook on hob for 10 minutes), and set aside your salted peanuts and friend anchovies (ikan bilis).

Enjoy!

xxx