Nasi Lemak
Ask a Malaysian the first thing that comes into their mind when you mention "Malaysian food", it will be nasi lemak! Nasi lemak is undoubtedly one of Malaysia's most popular breakfast dish and is considered as the national dish of Malaysia. It traditionally consists of coconut rice, sambal (prawn paste), ikan bilis (anchovies), peanuts, hard boiled egg and slices of cucumber and is wrapped in banana leaf! Add in fried chicken, or rendang chicken/beef, chicken/lamb curry, sambal prawn, sambal sotong, deep fried fish, etc and it will make a sumptuous and hearty lunch/dinner as well. It's a "must eat" if you are in Malaysia!
Ingredients:
Rice: 2 cups of rice 150ml of coconut milk (can reduce if you want a less coconut-y rice) 1 cup of water 1/2 tsp of salt 1 knot of screwpine leave Sambal prawn: 300g of shrimps/prawns 1/2 an onion (sliced) 3 cloves of garlic (minced) Ready made Sambal paste (yay!) Handful of anchovies Raw peanuts Sliced cucumbers Note: Buying premade sambal made my life so much easier! With a really active baby walking and exploring around the house all the time, I find it really hard to find time to make the sambal paste from scratch. The premade ones taste pretty good too. My favorite is "Teans" sambal tumis paste. Really spicy! They ran out of it at my local grocery store and I tried "Raya" instead.Oh well, it's good, just not as good as Teans :) |
Wash and dry the raw peanuts.
Then, roast them in the oven at 350F for 12 minutes. I did move the peanuts around midway to make sure that they are evenly roasted. After 12 minutes in the oven, I took out the tray of peanuts, added some oil and sprinkled salt on them! I gave them a good shake/stir and continued roasting them for another 3 minutes. Now, they look like I have deep fried them! Aha! |
Give the anchovies a good rinse and dry them well. I feel that rinsing the anchovies reduces its sodium level and makes it more palatable as a snack on its own. Haha!
Heat up some oil to medium heat and deep fry the anchovies. There are so many different types of anchovies. Choose the ones you like - I tried the really small one this time. So crunchy! |