Malaysian recipe
How to make Nasi lemak
Malay cooking, all over Malaysia
Rice cooked in coconut milk with a pandan leaf, served with a spicy sambal, crispy fried anchovies, roasted peanuts, cucumber and a boiled or fried egg. It is often wrapped in a banana leaf and eaten for breakfast, and many people add fried chicken or beef rendang. It is widely seen as Malaysia's national dish.
Ingredients
- 400 g long-grain rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
- 400 ml coconut milk and 200 ml water
- 2 pandan leaves, tied in a knot (or leave out), a 2 cm piece of ginger, sliced, and 1 teaspoon salt
- For the sambal: 10 dried red chillies (soaked in hot water), 5 shallots, 2 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (optional), 1 red onion, sliced, 2 tablespoons tamarind water, 1 tablespoon sugar and 4 tablespoons oil
- 80 g dried anchovies (ikan bilis), rinsed and patted dry, and 80 g raw peanuts
- Oil for frying
- 4 eggs, and 1 cucumber, sliced
Method
- Put the rice, coconut milk, water, pandan, ginger and salt in a rice cooker or a heavy pot. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for about 15 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Rest for 10 minutes and fluff with a fork.
- For the sambal, blend the drained chillies, shallots, garlic and shrimp paste into a paste. Fry it in the oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring, until dark and fragrant. Add the onion, tamarind water and sugar and cook 5 minutes more, with a pinch of salt.
- Fry the peanuts in 2 cm of oil over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes until golden, then the anchovies for 2 to 3 minutes until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper. Peanuts cause serious allergies, so warn your guests.
- Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, cool them in cold water and cut them in half.
- Serve a mound of rice with sambal, anchovies, peanuts, egg and cucumber on the side.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
The name means 'fatty' or 'rich' rice, after the creamy coconut milk it is cooked in.
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