Malaysia Popular Dish - Nasi Lemak with Sambal Ikan Bilis 班兰参巴椰浆饭

Nasi Lemak is basically a  fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf commonly found in Malaysia, where it is considered the nation dish of Malaysia. 
Nasi lemak is traditionally eaten for breakfast but these days people are ordering it any time of day.
Sinful and bad for the heart but incredibly delicious.. If you eat this once in a while, it should be ok not so bad!

The nasi lemak consists of a hot spicy sauce (sambal), hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, small dried anchovies (ikan bilis) and fried  peanuts at its core and any other side dish you preferred.   Just to name a few  sambal cuttlefish, Ayam masak merah, cockle, stir fried water convolvulus (kangkong),  or beef rendang (beef stewed in coconut milk and spices).

The side dish as follows:

This sambal Ikan Bilis (Anchovies cooked with chilli) is a must to go with nasi lemak.  Look appealing?    I love it!

Sliced cucumber

Fried groundnuts

Fried luncheon meat

 These heart shaped eggs are made by my daughter Tammie,  I have failed twice with my 2 attempts.  Too rough or  press to hard I broke the hard boiled eggs.    hehe....    For the making of heart shape hard boiled please refer a video clips  here. 

Fried Anchovies

I used Basmathi long grain and frangance rice for my nasi lemak.  The rice is so long and the texture is chewy and nice.  

The recipe was adapted from a charity cooking demo initiated by Fugi Magic and sponsored/organized by Ajinomota (Malaysia) Berhad on Living skill Development Programme to benefit  3 orphanage homes.   The cooking was demonstration by the chef from ajinomoto, after her demonstration, 6 groups will prepared  the dished taught at  cooking station at the venue.       A Big  Thank you to Ajinomotoa!!!

Recipe

For the Nasi Lemak

3 cups of rice  - washed and drained ( I used Basmathi long grain fragrance rice)

150 ml santan (coconut milk)

3 cups of water

1 tsp salt or to taste

4 pices of pandan leaves knotted. (I used  3 tbsp of pure pandan juice ( blend about 10 pandan leave with some water to extract/sieve the juice) 

3 slices ginger

Put all the above together in the electric rice cooker, stir it and cook the rice as usual.

Ingredients  for Sambal Ikan Bilis - all blend together with some water

1 big onion- chopped  (or 5-6  shallots)

50 gm of dried chillies (seeded and soaked)

10 gm belacan (shrimp paste) -  toasted

Other ingredients 

150 ml cooking oil

2 tbsp sugar or to taste

50 grms of Ikan bilies (fry briefly)

1 tabsp of Asam jawa without  seed mixed with 100 ml of water 

1 big onion (sliced) 

1 tbsp Tumix Pati Ikan Bilis  

Method  

Heat oil in a wok saute the blended ingredients using medium fire till oil seep out.  This will take at least 20 minutes.  

Add in the asam java juice, Tumix Pati Ikan bilis, big onion and sugar to taste.

Add in the fried ikan bilis and mix well dish out to service with hot nasi lemak.

Other condiments

3 hard boiled egg (cut into halved  or quartered) - For the heart shape egg, pse refer the above video

1 cucumber -  sliced

100grms groundnuts  - fried

50 gm Ikan  bilis (deep fried till crispy) 

Fried luncheon meat (Optional)

Arrange the Nasi Lemak, sambal Ikan bilis and other condiments and have hearty Malaysian meal.   

On the day of the above charity cooking demo, the group with 3 children lead by me are the winner of the best Nasi Lemak prepared among 6 groups that taking part in the hands-on live cooking.  Each of us received a thermos for our joint effort!    The judging  is base on the presentation  of food including the cooking of fried ikan billis, groundnuts, hard boiled eggs and cucumber cutting.

I am submitting this post for the little thumbs up event.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out