About this recipe
Rice steamed with coconut milk and pandan leaf until it is rich and faintly perfumed, served with a dark chilli sambal, crisp fried anchovies, roasted peanuts, cucumber and egg. The name means rich or fatty rice and refers to the coconut, not to anything added afterwards. It is eaten at every hour in Malaysia, wrapped in banana leaf for breakfast and plated with a protein at lunch. It is not nasi uduk, the Betawi coconut rice of Jakarta, which is seasoned with lemongrass, galangal and salam leaf and served with quite different accompaniments; and it is not plain steamed rice with sauce.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 25 minutes (plus 30 minutes soaking)
- Cook
- 45 minutes
- Total
- 100 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Medium
Allergens Contains shellfish (belacan in the sambal), fish (anchovies), peanuts and egg. Halal as written. Not vegetarian.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The coconut rice
- 2 cups (400 g) long-grain rice, preferably basmati or a Malaysian long grain, rinsed until the water runs clear and soaked 30 minutes
- 1 cup (240 ml) coconut milk
- 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) water
- 2 pandan leaves, rinsed and tied into a knot
- 3 thin slices fresh ginger
- 2 shallots, sliced thin
- 1 1/4 tsp (7 g) salt
The sambal
- 12 dried red chillies, stems removed, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and drained
- 8 shallots, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp (5 g) belacan (Malaysian fermented shrimp block), toasted
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) neutral oil
- 1 large onion, sliced into rings
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) tamarind concentrate, or 3 tbsp (45 ml) tamarind water
- 1 1/2 tbsp (18 g) sugar
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt, or to taste
To serve
- 1 cup (60 g) dried anchovies (ikan bilis), rinsed and patted very dry
- 1/2 cup (70 g) raw peanuts, skins on
- Neutral oil, for frying the anchovies and peanuts
- 4 eggs, hard-boiled and halved, or fried
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- Banana leaf, for lining (optional)
Equipment
- Medium heavy saucepan with a tight lid, about 3 qt (2.8 L)
- Blender or food processor
- Wok or deep frying pan
- Fine strainer
Method
- Drain the soaked rice thoroughly. Put it in the saucepan with the coconut milk, water, knotted pandan leaves, ginger slices, sliced shallots and salt, and stir once.
- Bring to a boil uncovered over medium-high heat, then immediately lower the heat to its lowest setting, cover tightly and cook 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
- Take the pan off the heat and leave it covered a further 10 minutes, then fluff the rice with a fork and lift out the pandan and ginger. The grains should be separate and glossy, not sticky.
- Meanwhile fry the peanuts: heat 1/2 in (1 cm) of oil in the wok over medium heat and fry the raw peanuts 4-5 minutes, stirring, until golden. Lift out onto paper. They crisp further as they cool.
- In the same oil, raise the heat slightly and fry the dried anchovies 3-4 minutes, until deep golden and hard. Lift out onto paper and set aside. Reserve the oil.
- Blend the drained dried chillies, shallots, garlic and toasted belacan to a coarse paste, adding a splash of water if the blender needs help.
- Heat the 1/3 cup neutral oil in a clean wok over medium heat. Fry the paste 12-15 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens to a deep brick red and oil separates and pools at the edges. This long fry is what removes the raw chilli edge — do not rush it.
- Add the onion rings and cook 4 minutes until softened, then stir in the tamarind, sugar and salt and simmer 3 minutes more. Taste: the sambal should be hot, sweet, salty and sour all at once.
- Stir half the fried anchovies through the sambal and keep the rest for the plate.
- Serve the rice mounded on a plate or on a square of banana leaf, with a spoonful of sambal beside it and the remaining anchovies, fried peanuts, egg and cucumber arranged around.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Nasi Lemak sits in the Malaysia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Malaysia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.