Malaysian Food: Nasi Lemak: My Nasi Lemak Recipe

Malaysian Food: Nasi Lemak

 

 

This week I am making Malaysian food a dish that is considered the national dish of Malayasia! This week I am going to prepare Nasi Lemak. I am doing this to fulfill a request by one of my Youtube viewers named Deeya Kaur. She is Malayasian and she has been watching some of the Asian dishes that I make and eventually she hit me up to make a Malayasian food. I asked for a suggestion from here and I got two words in reply: Nasi Lemak! I have never had Nasi Lemak nor had I even heard of Nasi Lemak before and I thought I knew Asian food. I had never experienced Malaysian food of any type and I guess now was as good a time as any. So I did some research on Malaysian food and Malaysian dishes of different types and I focused on Nasi Lemak. So this week I am going to make my Nasi Lemak recipe. I think I am going to be adding lots of Malaysian food to my Asian cooking repertoire in the future as the food looks absolutely delicious! So here it is! My Nasi Lemak recipe.

Naturally, Nasi Lemak has it's humble beginnings in the cuisine of Malay. The term Nasi Lemak means "fatty rice", not to worry there is no fat in the rice except for the content of the coconut milk and it is delicious! If you want to break the meanings of Nasi Lemak down even further you can say that Nasi Lemak means "rich" or "creamy". Originally, the way this coconut rice was cooked was by soaking the rice in the coconut milk or cream and then the mixture was steamed. Flavor is added to the Nasi Lemak by the addition of something called "screwpine" leaves or "pandan" leave. Generally the coconut rice is cooked with one or two of these leaves knotted up and put in the pot with the rice to cook. These leaves impart some of the traditional flavor to the Nasi Lemak dish. There are some additional herbs that can be added to the Nasi Lemak rice that will give it an even more spicy flavor and aroma and those herbs are lemon grass and ginger.

Nasi Lemak is traditionally served on a plate or platter that is loaded with side dishes that are wrapped in banana leaves. In most modern iterations and recipes we find that the Nasi Lemak is served on a plate or platter with a banana leaf on top and the side dishes put on top of the banana leaf. Such Nasi Lemak sides dishes as regular or seedless cucumber slices, some small fried Ikan Bilis or anchovies, roasted peanuts or roasted peanuts mixed with some friend anchovies or Ikan Bilis, quartered hard boiled eggs, and of course some hot and spicy sambal sauce. There are other sides that can be used as well such as fried chicken, fried fish, pickled vegetables, Kangkong vegetable, beef rendang, or even cuttlefish in chile called "sambal sotong". Nasi Lemak is all about whether you want your Nasi Lemak to be at some level vegetarian or not. Since Nasi Lemak is the national food of Malayasia you can find it just about anywhere. In schools, in restaurants, and even in street vendor stalls all over Malayasia! I am making my Nasi Lemak with a variety of side dishes like hard boiled egg, quail eggs in sambal (Sambal Telur), grilled ono fillets, sliced cucumbers and cashews in sambal (cashews dalam sambal). There are other side dishes that you can have with Nasi Lemak, things like fried chicken, chili cuttlefish, and vegetables of all kinds. It really is up to you to make your Nasi Lemak that way you want it to be! It is all up to you and you should try this dish at home yourself and make it yours! Enjoy!

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