TRADITIONAL MALAY FOOD

Both are my favorite food which normally as breakfast .

Nasi Kerabu

Nasi Kerabu happens to be my most favourite rice dish ever. I have this ex-colleague of mine name Jeff who used to live in Kampung Baru and I will get him to tapau (take out) for me every week. I've always wanted to make nasi kerabu but when I look at the long list of ingredients and the amount of afford putting into making a dish I tend to forgo it. Being overseas doesn’t help either as it can be quite difficult for me to get some of the ingredients but because of this MFF event I don't mind spending a few hours in the kitchen to cook this meal as it is all worth it. The meal turns out great.

One of the key ingredients in Nasi Kerabu is the fish, specifically Mackerel. I was so confident I could head down to the Asian supermarket and buy some Mackerel, little did I know there is no such thing as a simple Mackeral here in the USA! I was confronted with Atlantic Mackeral, Pacific Mackerel, Indian Mackerel etc. I had no idea which one to buy as none looked familiar to me as they were huge. Almost as long as my arm, I kid you not! The fish that I'm familiar with that normally accompanies my Nasi kerabu were all cute looking and petite. That’s just the first problem I faced. The second problem was that I could not find any budu (salted / fermented anchovy sauce). Nasi kerabu without budu is like Nasi Lemak without the Sambal or teh Tarik without the froth. You can do it but it's just not the same. These all changed when my good friend gave me half a bottle of budu brought all the way back from Terengganu. I just had to make this Nasi Kerabu by hook or by crook. No more excuses!

Not many people know that Nasi Kerabu comes in a few colours other than blue although blue is the most popular colour. Variations can be white (normal white rice), yellow (turmeric and cekur / sand ginger) which is called Nasi Kerabu Tumis and grey (from Mengkudu leaves / noni / Morinda Citrifolia ) which is known as Nasi Kerabu Hitam although blue is also known by the same name. In reality, there are so many different combinations of accompaniments and styles of cooking that it is quite impossible to list them all here. If you are interested, remember 'Google' is your best friend.

Ingredients for the Rice:
Adapted from Betty Saw's Cookbook

420 gm. (2 1/2 rice cup) Rice (I used Basmathi rice)
8 - 10 Butterfly pea flower / blue pea flower / bunga telang, soaked in hot water or a few drops of blue colouring
2 -3 kaffir lime leaves / daun limau purut - optional
1stalk lemongrass, bruised - optional
1 tsp. Salt - optional (I did not add)

Wash and drain the rice. Soak the rice with the butterfly pea flower water for 10 minutes (if using) and then put in kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and salt and cook the rice as usual. If you are just using blue colouring, drop a few drops of the colour and cook as usual.

Ingredients for Kerisik Sambal Ikan / Coconut Flaked Fish

2 - 3 Chubs Mackerel / Indian Mackerel / ikan kembung, grilled and flaked
1 skinned Coconut, grated
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Sugar

Ingredients to be ground:

8 Shallots, peeled
2. 5 cm knob ginger, peeled
1/4 tsp. ground White pepper

Dry fry the grated coconut until lightly brown. If the grated coconut you are using is a little bit coarser, just pound it lightly to make it finer. Cool completely. Into a mixing bowl, put flaked fish, ground ingredients and kerisik. Add salt and sugar and mix well. Transfer to a serving dish. 

Ingredients Coconut Sauce / Sambal Tumis Kelapa

10 dried chillies, soaked with hot water to soften
8 Shallots, peeled
1 litre coconut milk, squeezed from 1 grated coconut with sufficient water added.
2 pcs dried sour fruit / asam gelugur / asam keping
2 stalks Lemongrass / serai, lightly bruised
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt - optional
2 - 3 tbsp. Budu / Salted (fermented) anchovy sauce or to taste - optional

1. Combine dried chilies and shallots by grinding or blending in a blender. Into a pot, put coconut milk, ground chilies and shallots, dried sour fruit slices and lemongrass. Bring to a slow boil.
2. Simmer gently, stirring constantly for 10 minutes or until oil separates. However, if you are using canned coconut, the oil will not separate no matter how long you cook. In this instance, just cook until the gravy thickens.
3. Add sugar and salt or budu (whichever one you prefer), then transfer to a serving bowl.

Ingredients for Turmeric Battered Fried Fish / Ikan Goreng Tepung
Source: Shereen's

8 small / medium Chubb mackeral / Indian Mackeral / Kembung
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Tamarind pulp / asam jawa + 2 tbsp. Water, strained
Cooking oil

Batter

1 cup rice flour / tepung beras
125 ml Water
1/2 tsp. Turmeric powder
a pinch of Salt

1. Rub fish with salt and tamarind juice. Leave for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare batter. Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.
2. Dip seasoned fish into batter and fry in hot oil for 2 - 3 minutes on each side. When cooked through and light golden, drain fish and transfer to a serving dish. 

Ingredients for Roasted Turmeric Beef / Daging Bakar
Source: Shereen's

300 gm of any tender cut Beef (I used Sirlion)
2 tsp. salt or to taste (saltier nicer)
2 tsp. Turmeric powder
1 tbsp. Oil

1. Coat the beef with salt and turmeric (if you have the time, marinate for a few hours). Preheat oven at 400 degree F (grill function).
2. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Rub a wire grid with some oil. Rub beef pieces with oil and place onto the oiled grid.
3. Grill for 40 minutes or until the surface looks dry, turning once every ten minutes. Leave beef to cool down and slice thinly to serve.

Other Suggested Accompaniments:

Solok Lada – recipe coming up soon
Salted eggs
Turmeric fried chicken
Fish crackers / keropok ikan 

Garnishing (use as many or as few as preferred)

1 cucumber, shredded
3 cabbage leaves, finely sliced (I used this)
a handful of bean sprouts / taugeh
6 long beans / snake beans, finely sliced (I used this)
4 - 5 four angle bean / winged bean / kacang botol
5 - 6 sprigs Polygonum leaves / daun kesum, finely sliced (I used this)
3 kaffir lime leaves / daun limau purut, finely sliced
2 stalks lemongrass, finely sliced (I used this)
1 torch ginger buds / bunga kantan, finely sliced (I used this -frozen)
1 onion, finely sliced
a handful of daun penna
10 young Cashew nuts leaves / pucuk gajus, finely sliced 

To serve:

Put some rice onto individual serving plates, then pile on desired amounts of Coconut Flaked Fish, Coconut sauce and garnishing ingredients. Mix well with rice. Serve with side dishes / accompaniment. 

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak, a traditional Malay dish that serves as the much-loved national dish of Malaysia basically consists of coconut milk infused rice served with an assortment of crunchy, fried dried anchovies, slices of cool cucumber, a handful of roasted peanuts, a half-boiled egg and a generous serving of hot, spicy chilli paste, otherwise known as ‘sambal’.

Back in the olden days, this dish was a familiar breakfast fixture, but its increasing popularity has made it a versatile meal, enjoyed by food lovers round the clock. They are usually served steaming hot in a protective wrapping of banana leaves that lend a traditional feel to the presentation of this dish besides serving to impart their aromatic fragrance to the rice.

The rice is normally cooked with a combination of coconut milk and knotted screwpine leaves, also known as ‘pandan’ leaves to us Malaysians. But these days, many have found that adding shavings of ginger and lemon grass helps improve the flavour and fragrance of the rice further, giving a more aromatic eating experience.

Like most Malaysian dishes, this dish has been tweaked to suit the myriad of cultures present in this country as well as the varying preferences of the people who enjoy them. As a result of this, the original ‘sambal’ is now being substituted by other spicy gravies, such as chicken sambal and cuttlefish sambal among others, and the hard-boiled egg now comes with a fried egg option too.

Usually something that tastes good comes with hours of slaving in the kitchen, right? Wrong! Nasi lemak is a quick and easy dish to prepare, albeit a hearty one.

So if you’re on a strict diet, you would probably prefer to go light on your other meals after devouring this.

But then again, it’s not really every day that you get to tuck into some delicious Malaysian comfort food such as this, so my advice would be to shut off that ‘calorie calculator’ in your brain, just till you finish every last grain of your ‘nasi lemak’.

Preparation time: 30 - 45 mins

Cooking time: approximately 1 hour (excluding time to make beef rendang-so make this in advance!) 

Serves: 8 people

Rice:

4 rice cups long grain rice, washed with clean water until water runs clear

3 shallots, skin removed and finely sliced

2 lemongrass, ends of lemongrass smashed lightly

4 slices of galangal

1 teaspoon salt

2 rice cups fresh coconut milk

1 cup boiled water

4 pandan leaves, washed then knotted

For the Sambal:

100g fresh red chillies, stems removed

20g birds eye chillies, stems removed

10 shallots, skin removed

50ml tamarind juice

100g small Malaysian anchovies (ikan billis), fried until crispy

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

Salt and sugar to taste

For the beef rendang:

Check out recipe here.

Other ingredients to accompany nasi lemak:

1 cucumber, finely sliced

5 hardboiled eggs, sliced into halves

Banana leaf

1. To cook the rice, add uncooked rice, coconut milk, water, shallots, lemongrass, galangal, salt and pandan leaves into the rice cooker pot. Cook rice in rice cooker for about 30 minutes and use a ladle to gently loosen the grains of cooked rice

2. For the sambal, blend together red chillies, bird’s eye chillies, shallots and 2 tablespoons of water in a blender until you achieve a fine paste. Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a non-stick pan and add blended paste to the pan. Saute over low heat for 5 minutes. Pour in tamarind juice, salt and sugar and continue sauteing ingredients together until liquid is reduced by half. Turn off heat

3. for the beef rendang, check out recipe here.

4. To assemble nasal lemak, cut a piece of banana leaf and place it in top of your plate. Scoop a bowl of rice onto the banana leaf. Serve with beef rendang, sambal, half boiled egg and cucumbers around the rice. Top the rice with a large spoonful of fried ikan billis.