Name: Nasi Lemak
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 3 servings
Cuisine: Malaysian
Ingredients: 2 cups Rice; 1 cup Coconut milk; 1 cup Water; 2 Pandan leaves; 2 slices Ginger; 1 tsp Salt; 10 Dried chilies; 1 Shallot; 3 cloves Garlic; 1 tsp Belacan; 1 tbsp Tamarind; 1 tbsp Sugar; 3 tbsp Oil; 0.5 cup Fried anchovies; 0.5 cup Roasted peanuts; 2 Boiled eggs; 0.5 Cucumber

Ingredients

3servings

Coconut rice
Rice2 cups
Coconut milk1 cup
Water1 cup
Pandan leaves · optional, knotted2
Ginger · optional2 slices
Salt1 tsp
Sambal
Dried chilies · soaked, or chili flakes10
Shallot · or onion1
Garlic3 cloves
Belacan · shrimp paste, optional1 tsp
Tamarind1 tbsp
Sugar1 tbsp
Oil3 tbsp
To serve
Fried anchovies · ikan bilis0.5 cup
Roasted peanuts0.5 cup
Boiled eggs2
Cucumber · sliced0.5

Steps

Rinse the rice and cook it with the coconut milk, water, salt, pandan, and ginger until fluffy.
⏲ 30 min
Sambal: blend the soaked chilies, shallot, garlic, and belacan into a paste.
⏲ 5 min
Fry the paste in oil over low heat, cooking it long until fragrant and the red oil separates.
⏲ 10 min
Add the tamarind, sugar, and salt and cook down to a thick, glossy sambal.
⏲ 5 min
Fry or toast the anchovies and peanuts separately until crisp.
⏲ 5 min
Mound the coconut rice on a plate and arrange the sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, boiled egg, and cucumber around it.
⏲ 2 min
Serve with fried chicken (ayam goreng) or rendang if you like.

Variations

Nasi lemak ayam: Serve with fried chicken (ayam goreng).
With rendang: Pair with beef rendang for a hearty plate.
Banana-leaf wrapped: Wrap in banana leaf for extra aroma (traditional).
Vegetarian: Skip the anchovies and use tofu or tempeh.

Tips

Cook the rice in coconut milk for a rich, fragrant base; pandan adds aroma.
Fry the sambal low and slow so it turns sweet-spicy with red oil.
Toast the anchovies and peanuts until crisp for texture.
The charm of nasi lemak is one plate balancing rice, sambal, and sides.

More detail and the reasons why (4)

This rice is not cooked in water, and cooking rice's ratios all assume it is. That guide's list runs new-crop 1:1, older rice up to 1:1.2, brown 1:1.5 or more, stickier rice a little more again — four entries, and every one of them is a water ratio. Coconut milk is roughly half to two-thirds water, the rest fat and solids, so a cup of it is not a cup of water and a straight swap comes out underhydrated. Thin it, or use part coconut milk and part water; the figure this recipe gives is already that compromise.
The fat is doing a job as well as tasting of something. Banh xeo states the property for the same ingredient in a batter: "fat gets in among those starch chains and shortens them." In a pot of whole grains it coats each one instead, so less water reaches the starch and the grains stay separate rather than knitting together. That is the texture nasi lemak is served as, and why it holds up sitting on a plate under sambal instead of turning to paste.
It also puts a ceiling on the heat. Rendang is built on cooking coconut milk until it breaks; here breaking is the failure. A hard boil splits it and the solids catch on the base of the pot, so the pot is brought up once and then left alone on the lowest heat. The pandan goes in at the start for the same reason — not stirred through later, but left for the steam to carry up through the grains.
The sambal's "low and slow until the red oil comes out" is a signal, and two pages already explain it. Chana masala names this dish while doing so: the oil breaking out "is not a flavour event, it is a moisture gauge." A paste is oil dispersed through the ingredients' own water, and once enough of that water has boiled off there is not enough left to keep the oil dispersed, so it comes out and pools. Kaeng som is the control — a curry with neither coconut milk nor oil, so the instruction has nothing to apply to.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

More of the same kind

Main course →

More from this country

Malaysian →