Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice)

This is a dish that I've been wanting to pt up for ages! Nasi lemak as most of you would already heard of, is indefinitely one of Malaysian's favourite favourite food to eat, be it breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner, midnight - anytime. Just check out this very famous place in Kuala Lumpur, where nasi lemak gets even more happening late nights - Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa at Kampung Baru.

For those who haven't tried it, please do so. Especially if you love spicy food! Not to be missed. Many varieties of nasi lemak around, most famous and common are those wrapped in banana leaves, usually with a little bit of sambal, hard boiled egg, fried ikan bilis and cucumbers or, those where they have a variety of sambals, and curries to add with the coconut rice. The sambals are usually very spicy, mostly cooked with squids, ikan bilis, fish, or blood clams. Also served with nasi lemak is chicken or beef rendang, fried fish, fried chicken, and a whole lot more. Take your pick.
I love my nasi lemak cooked today. Usually mum cooks. Well, I am married and staying away from mum, it's time I cook my own and explore my cooking skills further. F enjoyed my nasi lemak, so... I guess it tastes delicious and guess what?? It's not that difficult to cook nasi lemak! :-)

Basic must-have is hard boiled egg, fried fish or ikan bilis (anchovies), and sambal. You can't go wrong. Since I had some extra stuffs in the kitchen, there's prawns, chicken and also papadams! :-P

Recipe may be a bit long down here, but they're all easy if you want to follow..

:: Recipe ::
serves two

(A) Coconut Rice
2 cups jasmine rice
2 cups water
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 pandan leaves
1 inch fresh ginger, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 shallots, sliced (optional)
pinch of salt

How: Wash and drain the rice, place in rice cooker along with the rest of the ingredients above. Cook the rice in the rice cooker, and meanwhile, prepare the rest...

(B) Sambal, and other side dish
2 hard boiled eggs, cut in half
a few slices of fresh cucumber
papadams, deep fried (available at most Asian grocery stores & supermarkets)

Sambal
2 tablespoon of tamarind juice
2 tablesppon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 red onion, ringed
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 stalk of small fresh lemongrass
medium sized prawns, shelled
1 cup processed dried red chili (chili boh) (made my own so it won't get too spicy)
1 teaspoon coconut milk

How: With about 3 tablespoons of cooking oil, fry the onions, garlic, lemongrass. Add in chili boh and stir. Add in tamarind juice, salt, and sugar and stir. Let cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat until the sambal thickens and then add in the prawns and stir until prawns are cooked.Finally, assemble all together, like in the picture and serve warm. It's dinner time now, I'm off to fine FOOD!! :-)

Creamy Gumbo Rice

This gumbo is not exactly the gumbo you're thinking about - thickened soupy, gravy kinda veges served over a plate of rice. Nope, nothing like that at all. And to me, I don't know why this is even called gumbo rice, except that Sue (my sister) told me so. :-)

It's a recipe from her, long time ago, that I really liked. Hmm, what does she cook that I don't like? :-P So, a friend of hers gave this to her. Then she cooked for me. Then I cooked for me. Then I cooked for F. Then now, here it is, embedded on this beautiful day of April, in Foodilicious.

The taste? Apart from it looking very similar to risotto and fried rice, the taste is something I would go for during cool, rainy days. It is creamy, but not too overwhelming, warm, filling, has both that Asian and Italian kinda taste which I "fusionly" like, and what can go wrong with chicken and capsicums?? I like....

Kids love this too. It's flavoured rice, and a whole gazillion of people around the globe loves flavoured rice. I'm sharing my creamy version right here...

:: Recipe ::
serves 2

1 cup jasmine rice + 1 cup water
1/2 cup whipped cream
a dash of Italian herbs
1 cube Maggi ikan bilis stock (powder type)
1 cup mixed frozen vege, fresh green/red capsicum (add broccoli if you have)
1/2 green onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
200gm chicken breast meat, cut into small cubes
some extra virgin olive oil to cook
salt & pepper to taste

1. In a rice cooker, pour the olive oil and fry onions & garlic. Add chicken meat & stir until it whitens, before adding the ikan bilis stock & a little bit of water to dilute the stock.
2. Pour rice, stirring while adding 1 cup water.

3. Add the veges, salt & pepper & stir. Close lid and let it come to boil.
4. Open the rice cooker lid, add in the cream, stir, and close lid until rice cooks.

So it's not just all creamy here. The chicken and sweetness of the vegetables all combined and makes the rice taste so good! Well, at least I liked it just nice! :-)