Recipe: Nasi Lemak

Here's a recipe i tried yesterday, reasonably easy, adapted from a few recipes i saw online. I'm probably gonna put more recipes on my blog as and when i try new ones and figure out easy ways to cook so that those who need to know these things (like i did) don't have to search high and low for explanations for so many things. I'm taking a lesson from Julia Child's cookbook, to be detailed enough so that you know what to expect.

You can keep the sambal in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days. A few tips i learnt recently, is that cucumber always goes bad quickly, so don't put it in the fridge with any other food in the same container and hard boiled eggs can keep in the fridge for 1-2 days too. Another thing is, it may be easier to prepare the sambal the night before you want to eat it the next day for lunch or dinner, cos it took me a little less than an hour to prepare it (but that's just me, i'm a little slow in the kitchen).

Serves 3
Sambal Ikan Bilis
1 medium red onion, 1 loose cup ikan bilis, 1 clove garlic, 4 shallots, 10 dried chillies, 1 tsp belacan, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1 cup water plus tamarind pulp (about two heaped tsp or pulp the size of a ping pong ball)

1. Rinse the ikan bilis and dry with paper towels. Fry til golden in 1 tbsp oil. Set aside on paper towels.
2. Blend belacan, shallots, garlic & dried chilli. (If you prefer less spicy sambal, deseed the chillies first, but i like it fine spicy). You might need to be patient with your blender and check occasionally to make sure everything's mixed up into a fine paste.
3. Slice red onion into rings.
4. Heat oil (med-hi) and fry blended paste til fragrant. (1min)
5. Add onion rings and ikan bilis and stir well. You may need to loosen up your onion rings.
6. Add tamarind juice, salt & sugar, stir well.
7. Simmer on low heat til the sambal is thickened to your liking. (5-10 mins)

Coconut rice
2 cups rice, 3 pandan leaves, 2-4 small slices of ginger, 1 packet of coconut milk (200ml), 1 cup water.
1. Wash rice as per normal.
2. Add all ingredients into the rice cooker and set to cook. (Depending on whether you like your rice wetter or dryer you can adjust how much water to put in. I put in slightly less than 1 cup of water, but i think 1 cup would have been fine)
3. When it's done, it may look like it's still slightly wet on top, but not to worry, just stir well and it should be fine.

I served this with hard boiled eggs (done the night before also) and fried fish (just kembong covered with salt and fried in hot oil the day of), and just chopped up the cucumbers just before serving.

Enjoy!