Photo: Encik Tekateki · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nasi Kerabu (Blue Butterfly-Pea Rice with Raw Herbs)
The blue rice of Kelantan on Malaysia's east coast. The rice is cooked in water steeped with butterfly-pea flowers, and eaten mixed with finely cut raw herbs and vegetables, toasted coconut and fried fish or chicken. The blue is an anthocyanin, which turns purple when it meets acid — so no acid goes into the cooking water, and the lime and the sour sauces wait at the side of the plate. The herbs are never cooked and go on last.
Ingredients
- Blue rice
- dried butterfly-pea flowers · or 40 fresh30
- hot water300 ml
- jasmine rice400 g
- water · 550ml with the flower water250 ml
- lemongrass · bruised and knotted1 stalk
- salt0.5 tsp
- Ulam (raw herbs and vegetables)
- lemongrass · tender centre only, sliced paper-thin2 stalks
- kaffir lime leaves · midrib removed, cut into threads6
- laksa leaf or Vietnamese coriander, mint, Thai basil · leaves only, shredded1 large handful
- beansprouts100 g
- cucumber · cut into matchsticks1
- long beans or green beans · thinly sliced60 g
- To serve
- desiccated coconut · toasted brown in a dry pan60 g
- mackerel fillets · or chicken thighs; rubbed with turmeric and salt and fried4 pieces
- ground turmeric1 tsp
- vegetable oil4 tbsp
- salted eggs, boiled · optional2
- keropok (crackers) · optional1 handful
- limes · in wedges2
- sambal · or 2 tbsp fish sauce with lime juice and chopped chilli4 tbsp
Steps
- ⏲ 10 min
Pour 300ml hot water over the butterfly-pea flowers and steep for 10 minutes. Lift the flowers out, squeeze them, and keep only the blue water.
Rinse the rice in 3-4 changes of water and drain. Put the rice, the flower water, 250ml water, the lemongrass and the salt in a pot. No lime or vinegar goes in.
- ⏲ 25 min
Bring it to the boil, turn it to the lowest heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave it for 10 minutes. Take out the lemongrass and fluff the rice lightly.
- ⏲ 5 min 30 sec
While the rice cooks, toast the coconut in a dry pan over a low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring, until evenly brown. Let it cool.
- ⏲ 7 min
Rub the fish with the turmeric and salt and fry in the oil for 3-4 minutes a side until golden.
Cut the herbs and vegetables just before serving: the lemongrass and lime leaves into fine threads, the leafy herbs into shreds.
Put the blue rice on each plate with the ulam, toasted coconut, fish, salted egg and keropok around it. Serve the sambal and lime separately. Mix everything together to eat, and squeeze the lime over.
Variations
- Yellow nasi kerabu: the article notes the rice may also be cooked with turmeric, which makes it yellow instead of blue.
- The version in the photograph: a plate with stir-fried luffa and a chicken curry, the flowers themselves scattered over it. Chicken in place of fried fish is common.
- Without fresh flowers: dried butterfly-pea flowers sold for tea are the easiest to find. Steep them stronger for a deeper colour.
More detail and the reasons why (1)
- A kind of nasi ulam: Korean Wikipedia describes nasi kerabu as a Malaysian rice dish, a type of nasi ulam, blue rice eaten with dried fish or fried chicken, crackers and other salad. Ulam are herbs and vegetables eaten raw. It is most popular in the east-coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu.
Tips
- Lemongrass and lime leaf as threads. They are tough leaves eaten raw, so cut thick they are fibre to chew; the finer they are cut, the further the aroma spreads through the rice.
- Toast the coconut low. Desiccated coconut burns from the edges quickly. Keep stirring for an even brown.
More detail and the reasons why (3)
- The blue is a colour that answers acid. Korean Wikipedia says the blue comes from the petals of the butterfly-pea flower, used as a natural colourant. English Wikipedia says the colour is anthocyanins, and that honey and lemon added to the tea raise its acidity and turn it pink-purple. Borscht says the same of the family: the shiso in umeboshi and the anthocyanins in red velvet change colour "in acid — they go bright red." So no acid goes into the cooking water. The lime is squeezed at the table, and only the rice it lands on turns purple.
- Not coconut rice. Nasi lemak, from the same country, is cooked in coconut milk so the fat keeps the grains apart "rather than knitting together". Nasi kerabu is cooked in flower water alone; the fat on the plate comes from the toasted coconut and the fried fish beside it.
- The herbs go on raw and last. The opening of fresh herbs is this dish's rule: "The same handful of coriander stirred in at the start becomes a quiet background in the broth; scattered over the bowl at the end it is the loudest thing in the dish." The ulam is not cooked into the rice but mixed through it raw at the table. Cut it ahead and the aroma leaves, so cut it just before serving.
The basics behind this dish
- Browning and the Maillard ReactionMeat fails to brown for one of three reasons: it is wet, the pan is cool, or you put too much in at once. Plus how the brown film stuck to the pan becomes your sauce.
- Cooking Meat: Temperature, Resting, and Cutting Against the GrainDoneness is a core temperature, not a number of minutes. What resting actually does, how to handle a thick cut, and why the direction you slice changes the texture.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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