Coconut Milk Rice-Nasi Lemak

Photo of completed Coconut Milk Rice-Nasi Lemak

We are pleased to present another popular classic cuisine from Southeast Asia - Coconut Rice, or better known as Nasi Lemak. This fragrant rice is served with spicy homemade sambal, fried anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, cucumber slices, and fried peanuts. Traditionally this aromatic and delicious dish is wrapped and folded in banana leaves, then wrapped again, either with or without newsprint or paper, on the outer layer of the banana leaves into a pyramid shape.

The Rice Ingredients:

  • 3 Cups White Jasmine Rice
  • 1 ½ Cups Coconut Milk
  • 1 ½ Cups Water
  • 2 Screw Pine Leaves, knotted
  • 5-6 Slices Fresh Ginger
  • 2 Stalks Lemongrass, bruised
  • 1 Tablespoon Sliced White Onions (Your choice of onions)

Instructions:

  1. Measure 3 cups of rice (we used a rice cooker measuring cup), rinse in cold running tap water and pour out the cloudy water. Repeat this process 3-4 times.
  2. Transfer the rice to a rice cooker pot.
  3. Add water and coconut milk into the rice cooker pot. Stir to combine.
  4. Place sliced white/red onions, sliced fresh ginger & knotted screw pine leaves on top and close the lid.
  5. Cook the rice as you normally do in a rice cooker.
  6. Once the rice is done, do not open the lid. Let the rice sit for 5 mins before you fluff up the rice with a fork. Set aside for later.

The Side Dish Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Prepare enough water in a pot to make the hard-boiled egg. Once the eggs are ready, put them in cold water to stop the cooking. Once they cool down, peel off the shells and set them aside for later.
  2. Wash and cut cucumber into thick slices, set aside.
  3. Rinse raw peanuts and pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
  4. Rinse dried anchovies and pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
  5. Heat up 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and pan fry dried anchovies until light brown on medium-low heat. Remove and set aside. The fried anchovies will crisp up once they cool down.
  6. In the same pan with the remaining oil that you used to fry anchovies, pan fry peanuts over low heat for at least 4 minutes, or until brown. Please note that we used red skin peanuts, the color is darker than regular peanuts once they are cooked. Dish them out, place them on a piece of paper towel, sprinkle with salt, and set them aside. Alternatively, you can use store-bought ready-roasted salted peanuts.

Spicy Sambal Ingredients:

  • 9-10 Fresh Red Chili or softened dried chili
  • 2-3 Shallots
  • ½ Teaspoon Shrimp Paste
  • ¼ Cut White/Red Onion, sliced
  • ¼ Teaspoon Garlic Powder (May substitute with same amount of minced fresh garlic)
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt (-/+ adjust to your taste)
  • 1-2 Teaspoons Sugar (-/+ adjust to your taste)
  • ⅛ Teaspoon Tamarind Juice (May use up to ¼ Teaspoon if you like sour sambal)
  • 2-3 Tablespoons Cooking Oil (-/+ adjustable.This is optional if you re-used the same oil in a pan from making peanuts and anchovies)

Instructions:

  1. Blending process-Blend softened dried chilis or fresh red chilis, shallots, shrimp paste and tamarind juice into a paste. Add a little bit of water if necessary for smooth blending. Set aside.
  2. Slice up onion. Set aside.
  3. Heat up 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a pan on medium heat (This step is optional if you re-used the same oil in a pan from making peanuts and anchovies), add in blended spice/paste and fry for about 5-6 minutes at medium heat.
  4. Add sliced onions, garlic powder, sugar and salt. Fry for 3-4 minutes or until the onion is slightly softened. Final taste test before turning off the heat.
  5. Turn the heat off, dish out and set aside.
  6. Serve the coconut milk rice and the side dish above (spicy sambal, fried anchovies,peanuts,cucumber and ½ or ¼ hard boiled egg) on a plate or banana leaf. You can serve it on a banana leaf wrapped in paper or newsprint, as shown in the video. There are several ways of wrapping, and we will show you two ways of wrapping in today’s video. It does not matter which wrapping method you use, as long as at the end it gives you that pyramid shape, it should be fine in our opinion. So feel free to use your own method of wrapping or whichever method is most comfortable for you.
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Tips & Notes:

  1. Alternatively, you can save time and make hard boiled eggs in the rice cooker. Just place the eggs on top of the rice before you close the lid (at step 4 under rice preparation)
  2. You can use any kind of salt in this recipe. As usual, salt and sugar used in this recipe can be adjusted accordingly to your taste buds.
  3. You can use store bought roasted salted peanuts or make your own.
  4. If you can’t eat fried anchovies, omit it.
  5. We always use jasmine rice when it comes to coconut milk rice. If you want to try other kinds, you have to experiment with the water or coconut milk ratio, final taste results and find out which one you like the most. These are totally personal preferences. The water and coconut milk ratio we used above are for jasmine rice.
  6. We used garlic powder but you can use fresh minced garlic if you prefer.
  7. Double the recipe for a big serving.
  8. Wrapping in pyramid shape with banana leaves and newsprint is an optional step. You can serve it on a plate of course.
  9. There are several ways of wrapping. For reference, we will show you two ways of wrapping in today’s video if you are interested. Please note that this is just a suggestion. It does not matter which wrapping method you use. So feel free to use your own method of wrapping or whichever method is most comfortable for you.
  10. You can use fresh or frozen banana leaves. Only the frozen ones are available to us in Canada. Frozen banana leaves are available at most major Asian grocery stores.
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