Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak is a typical Malaysian breakfast. But we also love to eat this for lunch, dinner & supper. (Basically anytime of the day)
The typical condiments are fried peanuts, hard boiled egg, fried anchovies and sliced cucumber.

Nasi Lemak (Rice in Coconut Milk)

Ingredients for Nasi Lemak:
1 cup rice
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
3 screwpine leaves (Pandan Leaves)
salt to taste
1 small piece of sliced ginger
1 small clove of garlic

Method:
1. Clean the rice and drain.
2. Cook the rice in the coconut milk with screwpine leaves, salt, ginger, garlic.

Tips:
If you can't get Pandan leaves, you may replace it with 1 stalk of lemongrass(slightly bruised the bottom part). It add's a different aroma to the rice.


Ingredients for Sambal Ikan Bilis (Anchovies in Hot Sauce)
1/2 cup dried ikan bilis (Dried anchovies)
1 Onion, sliced
4 Shallots
2 tbsp tamarind juice [you may add more if the sambal is too spicy]
Prawn paste (belacan) [Optional]
8 dried chillies, soaked in warm water
1 clove garlic
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
1. Fry the ikan bilis until crisp and put aside.
2. Grind the prawn paste together with shallots, garlic, deseeded dried chillies.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the ground ingredients until fragrant. Add in the onion and continue to cook for a few minutes.
4. Add tamarind juice, salt and sugar to taste.
5. Continue cooking and stirring occasionally until the gravy is thickens.
6. Add in some of the ikan bilis and mix well. Keep the remaining ikan bilis to serve as condiments
7. Serve with steaming hot Nasi Lemak.

Tips:
1. If you can't take too spicy, reduce on the number of dried chillies and substitute it with fresh red chillies.
2. Mix tamarind paste with water and strained to get tamarind juice.
3. Tamarind juice is to give the savory and sour taste and in this case it helps to reduce the spiciness.
4. You can cook this sambal in advance and freeze it in the freezer.