Nasi Lemak

Back in Singapore and Malaysia, a good packet of nasi lemak always get my appetite going. The fragrant coconut rice with peanuts, fried anchovies, side dish of spicy squid/fish/chicken wing and killer hot chili sambal makes a wonderful breakfast or lunch.

Much as I enjoy this dish, I restrict myself from having this too often. The high calorie, carbo, fat and cholesterol combination makes me shudder. It doesn’t stop me from eating it once in a while and savor every bite though. In fact, because it’s eaten so rarely, every bite is taken seriously. The feel of the coconut flavors dancing in your mouth with the hot sambal is really too hard to resist.

Obviously my version of nasi lemak is far from the authentic one. As a kid, it was a common sight seeing freshly shredded coconut in markets. Housewives buy those freshly shredded coconut and squeeze the liquid out of it to make coconut milk/cream. This fresh coconut milk/cream is then used to cook the rice together with pandan leaves.

It’s nearly impossible to buy coconuts in Australia (for shredding I mean, drinking coconuts are available in markets). Needless to say shredding them with your bare hands and then spending hours in the kitchen squeezing the life out of those coconuts is impossible (for me at least). The not-as-good but it-will-do version means using a can or packet of coconut milk instead.

Lucky me, I spotted a box of peanuts with fried anchovies in an oriental store. That saves time! Well, it isn’t hard frying anchovies and peanuts but it’s much easier to put your spoon into that box and plating it.

I stirfried the kangkong in garlic and soya. Usually I would fry this with sambal but since we were going to have the spicy squid and hot sambal chili, simple garlic and soya would do.

The squid was easy. A tablespoon of of hot chili and quick toss in the wok and it was done.

oh! and how can we have nasi lemak without chili? Mmmm.. a satisfying meal. =)

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