Nasi Lemak & Sambal Ikan Bilis (Coconut Rice & Chili Anchovies)

This is my first nasi lemak attempt at home and I am excited to see my 'home critics' aka guinea pigs' reaction.

Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice)

Ingredients:

1. 2.5 cups rice (I used fragrant rice instead of basmati rice usually recommended)

2. 2 cups water (follow measurement of the rice cooker)

3. 1 box of coconut milk (Total of water & coconut milk should measure up to 2.5 cups)

4. pinch of salt

5. A slice of ginger (smashed)

6. Shallots (sliced)

7. Pandan leaves tie into a knot (screwpine leaves)

Method:

1. Wash rice till water runs clear

2. Cook rice in the rice cooker with water and coconut milk

3. Add in a pinch of salt

4. Add in ginger and shallots

5. Let rice cook for about 5 mins and add in the pandan leaves.

6. Let the rice cooker do its job.

Sambal Ikan Bilis (Chili Anchovies)

Ingredients:

To blend or ground:

1. 5 cloves of garlic

2. 5 shallots

3. 1 inch of belacan (shrimp paste)

4. 5 red chili

5. 5 dried red chili

1. About one bowl of anchovies (rinsed with water before frying)

2. Sliced red onions

3. Salt and sugar to taste (For this recipe, I used fish sauce and grated palm sugar)

4. Tamarind (Soak about 2 spoonfuls of tamarind in 1 bowl of hot water for 15 mins and squeeze out the juice)

Method:

1. Heat oil and fry the anchovies. Once it is fragrant and turn golden, remove from pan and leave aside.

2. Heat oil and saute the blended ingredients till fragrant.

3. Add in sliced onions and anchovies.

4. Add in tamarind juice. Let it simmer for few seconds.

5. Add in salt and sugar to taste.

6. Let the sambal simmer for about 2 mins and do adjust the consistency of the sambal according to your preference.

To serve & garnish:

Hard boiled eggs (sliced) or fried egg, roasted peanuts and sliced cucumber. For this recipe today, I omitted cucumber as I didn't have any in the fridge. Cheated with some greens DH bought from a nearby mamak shop.

Results

DH requested me to cook this again, tomorrow. Yippee! But no, I won’t cook this again, at least not so soon. It is thrilling to see him longing for it.

Pandan leaves (screw pine) *picture sourced from google

Coconut Milk Reduced Fat *picture sourced from google

Belacan (Shrimp paste) *picture sourced from google

This is how the ikan bilis (anchovies) looked like before cooked

*picture sourced from google