Malaysian Nasi Lemak

I fell in love with this dish when I tasted it almost 15 years ago in a cultural fest.The flavor was so good as were its accompaniments. Since then I have always assumed it to be a vegetarian .It was after I entered the blogging world did I find out that the accompaniments are not vegetarian ones.

Since this dish is available nearby, I hardly make it at home.But then I changed my mind for this marathon and went ahead to make it hoping that it would taste just like the one I tasted years back and in the restaurant I have here near moms place.

Nasi Lemak is a dish that is usually served for breakfast.It is rice cooked in a fragrant coconut milk broth. The accompaniments are a spicy sambal, fried anchovies, fried groundnuts,boiled eggs and cucumber slices.

Many people outside Malaysia would find it a ridiculous option to have a rice based dish for breakfast. But I do know some other countries that have rice soups and rice based dishes as the first meal of the day.

For me, rice can be a part of the meal any time of the day. For many years I used to eat just curd rice for breakfast before going off the school and college. I found it very soothing to the tummy and since it is my favorite meal, I always had my breakfast if it was curd rice. Hence the ritual started.

So coming back to this Nasi Lemak, I made it a couple of days back which we enjoyed with fried groundnuts, spicy sambal and cucumber slices.

I used:

Rice- 1 cup
Coconut milk- 2 cups
Screw pine leaves- 3 tied as a knot / screw pine essence/ kewra water - a few drops
Ginger- 1" piece , grated[optional]
Salt to taste

Wash rice and place the rice and all the other ingredients in a pressure cooker and cook for 12-15 minutes / till the rice is done.
You can also cook this in a rice cooker / in a pan on the stove top. The timings will vary in each method.
One the pressure releases, fluff it up with a fork and serve with accompaniments of your choice.

I served it with Sambal Tomat , fried groundnuts and cucumber slices.