Nasi Lemak 2.1 Beta

Nasi Lemak - another Malaysian's favorite. I'm very sure that everyone has eaten this at least once in their lives. Well, we love Nasi Lemak and in times when you're not in your home country, you'll miss it... alot!

Simple as it looks from the Nasi Lemak stall that we often buy our favorite food, this dish is actually quite tedious. However, some things can be prepared in advanced and one will find this whole preparation a very fulfilling and satisfying adventure : )

Here's what I've prepared for our version of nasi lemak...

Rice
Most important ingredient for a nasi lemak. Prepare your rice for your usual boiling in a rice cooker. Chop up some onion and ginger then place them into the rice cooker. Pour in coconut milk into the cooker as well. If you have some pandan leaves, get a couple of it and tie into a knot and throw in together. Last but not least, add a pinch of salt. Close the lid and start the boiling!

Ikan bilis (Anchovies) and peanuts
This is the fun part! You might be thinking that you'll need to roast them thru slow frying in a wok or using the oven. But hey! We used the microwave - one of man's creation to make our life easier and shorten preparation time. Do both ingredients separately. First, give a quick rinse on the ikan bilis. Then, without a lid, set 1 minute in the microwave and keep repeating until your ikan bilis become crispy.
Same goes for your peanut. We didn't have peanut so we made our ikan bilis only and made them a couple of days in advance ^_^

Curry
This one ah... instant curry paste! Da best! Need no says... definitely easy to cook and sure very goods! : P

Sambal 'chutney'
Hmmm... this one was kinda tricky. Well, point no. 1 - I've never cooked sambal in my life before. Whenever we cook nasi lemak, we either buy it from the nasi lemak stall or we have ready made sambal paste. Point no.2 - We don't have belacan and fresh chillis. So, I've decided to experiment with... tomatoes.
I soaked some dried chilli and serai (lemongrass) in hot water the night before. I've added in an assam keping into the bowl as well. Then, fry some onion in a pan / wok and pour in diced tomatoes and the soaked ingredients (without the water). Continue to fry on medium heat and mash up the ingredients to form into a paste. Finally, add water and season the paste with salt and sugar.

Cucumber and eggs
Simples! Cucumber - slice them up. Eggs - wash the eggs and place into the rice cooker and boil together with the rice. Hehehehe...

*Drum rolls, ends with a crash of the cymbal*

The outcome of this dish was really tasty. I added in the remaining coconut milk into the curry and it was very smooth! Mmm. The rice turned out well too! Every grain of rice was scraped from the base of the cooker : ) The sambal? Well, it sort of became a chutney because of the tomatoes. Nonetheless, it was still spicy and really complemented the rice. Something different but very refreshing for us. It was also the first condiment to finish for this meal.

TheLoyalFan says: 'I've always liked home cooked nasi lemak... it's the best! You get to customize your plate of goodness and add lots and lots of the stuff that you like. You don't have to tell the man to 'tambah nasi' because you can simply help yourself to another plate. "Relatively" healthy too! No added MSG and preservatives. Hehehehehe... somewhat lah! (trying to ease my conscience...nom nom nom)'

Oh, what a meal! I think we were so stuffed that we needed to lie down in order to 'stretch out' our stuffed tummy. 

Yummy yum yum...

Pork Curry Noodles

Curry. Malaysian's all time favorite dish. Ahh, yes and now the Brits too! I think their favorite is Tikka Masala which I haven't had a chance to try it yet... but soon I will try : )

Anyways, I think curry can be either easy or tricky to prepare. The easy version - just get instant curry paste. It's foolproof and definitely taste good. The tricky version - fry your own curry powder. I've tried this once and I burnt the powder because TheLoyalFan had told me to fry the powder until the oil 'seeps' out of the powder, which it didn't happened at all and the powder became black and burnt : (

This time, we've decided to give it another go although we do have the curry paste. And, we're trying to finish our ingredients here before our rental ends in September...

Let the Curry cooking begins!

First, fry up some ginger and onions with a generous amount of oil. Perhaps double the portion of your usual meat frying oil volume. Then, pour in some curry powder. If you want more spicy, you can add in some chilli (fresh / dried ones) or chilli powder. Give it a good sitr fry for about 1 minute and pour in your meat. I use pork today because... there is only pork in my fridge. LOL!

While frying the pork and the curry mixture, you may need to add some water to prevent your curry from getting burnt. Add a little bit of water to make the paste more 'smooth' rather than lumpy during the frying. Then add more water. This will depends on how thick you want your gravy. More water will dilute the gravy and the spiciness. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until the meat is thoroughly cooked. Season the curry with salt and pepper to ensure there is enough taste. Add in some milk / coconut milk / yogurt (either one will be fine) into your curry, give it a good stir and serve!

This is the usual method for our curry cooking - simple and simply delicious!

As you are simmering away your curry, it is nice to have some carbs to compliment them. We've had spaghetti for this and we've fried a dish of celery for a balance meal ^_^ Bon appétit! 

I'm glad that this time I didn't burn the curry powder. Thanks to my mother-in-law's advise when she was here. However, I OD-ed the curry powder a little and we were having watery nose and a glass of milk for me to reduce the spiciness : P We concluded that 3 tablespoons of curry powder would do the trick for a 2 persons' curry. Also, if you wish to make extra portion for your next meal, it is better to use milk than coconut milk. Apart from that, it was really, really, really good and satisfying!

TheLoyalFan says: 'As close as we can get to Curry Mee lah! Hehe...'

Om nom nom noms... Curry dish checked and on to the next dish!