How to cook Nasi Lemak 椰浆饭

Nasi lemak is a national and traditional dish in Malaysia. It is cook with coconut milk and pandan leaf which give the rice a special fragrant. It is so popular in Malaysia and you can get this nasi lemak at the warung (the road side stalls), the market, the food court and in restaurant. The common side dish that usually comes together with nasi lemak are: hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, fried anchovies (ikan bilis), sambal, fried peanuts and chicken/beef rendang. It can be taken any time of the day. To cook this nasi lemak, there are quite a number of ingredients required and some preparation work are needed. To cook the sambal sauce, it needs patience because it has to be cook under low heat for at least 15 -30 minutes. The longer time you cook, the better it is because all the spices aroma will be released. Some people prefer to have a more textured sambal sauce. If you do, you can slice the onion and add in to the sambal in the last 3-5 minutes before you dish it out. Prep work required: Fried 30g anchovies Fried the peanuts Fried the sambal (the shrimp paste) To cook the coconut rice: 3 cups of rice (450g) 240g coconut milk Pandan leaves (if no pandan leaves, you can use 1 stalk lemon grass) water (water + coconut milk should be little bit more than how you usually cook steamed rice). Ingredients required to blend: 15g belacan (the shrimp paste) 15g anchovies 3 cloves garlic 5g ginger 70g golden shallot 9 pieces big dry chillies Other ingredients required: Cucumber Hard boiled eggs 2tbsp palm sugar 4-5tbsp white sugar salt to taste 1tbsp tamarind with 2tbsp hot water water (if the sambal is a bit dry)