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5 Secrets to 20 Minute Dinners!
Tips, tricks, and recipes for dinner in a hurry!
Nasi Lemak is the de facto national dish of Malaysia. It’s one of the most popular dishes, consumed and loved by all Malaysians regardless of our ethnicities, race, or origins.
A good nasi lemak recipe is not to be taken lightly; it should be have amazing quality, texture, flavors, and the right ingredients.
Secret Ingredients of Nasi Lemak
Pandan leaves or screwpine leaves in the secret ingredient. The leaves are highly fragrant with floral smell. They are used in many Malaysian recipes.
A nasi lemak will not be authentic without the leaves and coconut milk. The other main ingredient of nasi lemak is sambal. Sambal is the soul of the dish; it brings together all the various toppings and complete the iconic dish.
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Side Dishes for Nasi Lemak
There are a variety of side dishes served on top of the nasi lemak: fried anchovies, fried fish, hard-boiled eggs, cucumber slices, sambal anchovies, sambal udang (shrimp), sambal sotong (squid), beef rendang, chicken rendang or belacan fried chicken.
Assemble the side dishes on top of the rice and served in on top of banana leaf for the best and most authentic nasi lemak. Enjoy!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 338 calories per serving.
Serve Nasi Lemak With:
For a wholesome dinner, make the following dishes.
Nasi Lemak Recipe
Ingredients
- coconut milk steamed rice
- 2 cups rice
- 3 screwpine leaves (tie them into a knot as shown above)
- salt to taste
- 5.6 oz (158g) coconut milk (150 ml-180 ml)
- some water
Tamarind Juice
- 1 cup water
- tamarind pulp (size of a small ping pong ball)
Sambal Ikan Bilis (Dried Anchovies Sambal)
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 cup ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 shallots
- 10 dried chillies
- 1 teaspoon belacan (prawn paste)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Other ingredients
- 2 hard boiled eggs, cut into half
- 3 small fish (sardines or smelt fish)
- 1 small cucumber, cut into slices and then quartered
Instructions
- Just like making steamed rice, rinse your rice and drain. Add the coconut milk, a pinch of salt, and some water. Add the pandan leaves into the rice and cook your rice.
- Rinse the dried anchovies and drain the water. Fry the anchovies until they turn light brown and put aside.
- Pound the prawn paste together with shallots, garlic, and deseeded dried chilies with a mortar and pestle. You can also grind them with a food processor. Slice the red onion into rings.
- Soak the tamarind pulp in water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.
- Heat some oil in a pan and fry the spice paste until fragrant. Add in the onion rings. Add in the ikan bilis and stir well. Add tamarind juice, salt, and sugar. Simmer on low heat until the gravy thickens. Set aside.
- Clean the small fish, cut them into half and season with salt. Deep fry. Cut the cucumber into slices and then quartered into four small pieces. Dish up the steamed coconut milk rice and pour some sambal ikan bilis on top of the rice. Serve with fried fish, cucumber slices, and hard-boiled eggs.
hello, this an amazing recipe, thank you for sharing! I wanted to ask if the shrimp paste can be substituted in the sambal ikan bilis? I have shellfish allergy so it would be highly appreciated :)
Hi
Can i make the sambal without belacan
Sambal without belacan is not really sambal but you can use fish sauce.
Hi!
Where can I buy fresh pandan leaves/plant in San Francisco Bay Area?
Thanks!
Frozen ones in Vietnamese stores.
Step 1 of the instruction: “Just like making steamed rice, rinse your rice and drain. Add the coconut milk, a pinch of salt, and some water. Add the pandan leaves into the rice and cook your rice.”
How much water is “some water”? Vague instruction is not helpful in a recipe for inexperienced cook like me :(
Nasi lemak, this is the first food I ate when holiday in malaysia last year. Delicious, spicy and unique. Unfortunately I could not find that menu in budapest, so I could not eat it every day. I thank you for your recipe is very easy to cook for beginners like me
Awesome! Thanks for liking my nasi lemak.
Hi hi.. I have made the Nasi Lemak twice. So yummy. However, I would like to know how much water you use for 2 cups of rice and the small can of coconut milk. My rice is still a little soft, so I would like the exact number of cups you use. Thanks!
Hi, can i cook extra sambal ikan bilis to stock up for other days to eat?
Hi, I am not in Asia at the moment and may have some difficulty getting my hands on dried anchovies. Can you suggest an alternative? Would anchovies packed in oil work?
Not going to work, it has to be dried anchovies. If you don’t have anchovies, you can make with shrimp.
Love your website. I’m Malaysian, living in Boston. Can you tell me where to buy belacan? Any brands marketed in USA? Also where to buy pandan leaves? Many thanks.
You can buy both in Asian stores.
Kam Man in Quincy has a small Malaysia/Singapore section where you can get belacan, sometimes heh koh, and sometimes even cincalok—and they also have frozen calamansi lime juice!
yum #delicious just ate it right now :)