Malaysian · Main · Served at Daun Pisang (#4)
Nasi lemak
Malaysia's national dish
My family spent a lot of time in Malaysia when I was a kid, and we'd get nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaves from street vendors. It's the whole plate together: rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan, with sambal, crispy ikan bilis, roasted peanuts, cucumber, and egg.
This recipe is the rice. I add lemongrass and ginger to the pot. The sambal tumis and ikan bilis have their own recipes, and I serve it all with beef rendang.
- Yield
- Serves 4
- Serve with
- Beef rendang
Ingredients
Serves
- 2 cupsjasmine rice
- 1 can (~400 ml)full-fat coconut milk
- 1 cup (~240 ml)water
- 1 tspsalt
- 2pandan leaves, knotted
- 1lemongrass stalk, bruised
- 2 slicesfresh ginger
Method
- Swish the rice in water and pour it off while it's still cloudy. Don't rinse until clear; the starch left on the grains is what makes it creamy.
- Put the rice in the cooker, then add the coconut milk, water, salt, pandan, lemongrass, and ginger.
- Cook on the normal white rice setting. Do not open the lid.
- Remove the aromatics and fluff with a paddle.
- Mound it onto a banana leaf or a plate.
Notes
- This uses more liquid than plain rice, about 1.4 parts liquid to 1 part rice. If the rice comes out wet or mushy, cook 2 cups rice with 2 cups water, then fold in half a can of warmed coconut cream with the pandan and salt while it's hot, and cover for 10 minutes.
- 2 cups dry gives about 4 cups cooked. If you scale it up, don't go past what your cooker is rated for.
- Coconut rice dries out overnight, so cook it within an hour or two of eating and hold it on warm.
