Malaysian Nasi Lemak with accompaniments

Authentic Malaysian Nasi Lemak Recipe: The Ultimate Comfort Food

    Let's cook Malaysia’s National Dish right in your home kitchen. This recipe is a simple guide which delivers fluffy, pandan infused coconut rice paired with a deeply rich, slow cooked spicy sambal, crispy anchovies, groundnuts and fried fish. Perfect for weekend feasts or a special family breakfast, this traditional recipe captures the true spirit of Malaysian street food culture. Learn the time-tested steaming methods and crucial ingredients and steps needed to balance the fiery, sweet, and savoury elements of this beloved classic "Malaysian's Own Nasi Lemak". 

SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN

     This Chicken recipe is a wonderful combination of Sweet & Sour taste, which is definitely a tongue tickler.  Within various Chinese Cooking methods, Sweet & Sour method is one variation, which is fancied all around the world.  It is cooking Chicken, Fish, Pork or Tofu along with Sweet & Sour Sauces.  It goes extremely well with simple Fragrant Jasmine Rice or Fried Rice Varieties.
     This is a very simple recipe.  But the real trick and taste lie in the consistency of the sauce and the batter used to marinate the chicken.  When you bite the chicken pieces it should be slightly crunchy, but at the same time, they should be delicate, smooth and succulent. The Sweet & Sour Sauce should be light and it should coat the chicken pieces all around evenly. And they shouldn't turn soggy. Some recipes call for Pineapples or Cucumbers along with Chicken, Onions and Bell Peppers.
     Any dish with a mix of tastes and flavours have always fancied me, especially sourness and sweetness mixed together, hold my taste buds to an extreme that they linger in my senses too deeply.  This dish is one kind that suits the trick.  It is also a family favourite.


Cuisine : Chinese
Course : Side Dish
Spice Level  : Low
Difficulty : Medium
Serves : 4
Author : SM

Preparation Time - 10 - 15 Minutes
Cooking Time - 10 -15 Minutes

INGREDIENTS :

How to Cook Jasmine Rice: The Ultimate Guide to Thai Fragrant Rice

THAI PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE

     Thai Pineapple Fried Rice called Khao op Sapparot in Thai is one of my favourite Thai dishes. Best about this Thai Pineapple Fried Rice is its bright yellow hue and the way it is served.  It is usually served in a pineapple bowl which gives a cheerful tropical feel to the dish.  This is a fancier version of Fried Rice which has Cashewnuts and Raisins in it. The aroma of Jasmine Rice, the slight sweetness from the Pineapple and nuts adds a special note to this beautiful dish.
    Thai Pineapple Fried Rice is traditionally prepared with fresh pineapples, canned pineapples can also be used for the purpose. If using a fresh pineapple, cut into halves and scoop out the flesh carefully from inside leaving the outer skin intact and you will be rewarded with a beautiful pineapple bowl to serve out Thai Pineapple Fried Rice.
     Fried Rice is ubiquitous to the region from which it originates.  So the taste, flavour, type of rice and sauces used for the dish varies from region to region.  Any Long grained variety of rice suits best for Fried Rice, but Thai Cuisine uses their unique Jasmine Rice, which is aromatic long-grained and slightly stickier.  Most of their fried rice recipes are flavoured with Fish Sauce (Nam Pla) rather than with soy sauce.

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Cuisine - Thai
Course - Main
Spice Level  - Low
Difficulty - Medium
Serves - 4
Author - SM

Preparation Time - 20 - 30 Minutes
Cooking Time - 15 -20 Minutes

HOW TO COOK THAI PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE        KHAO OP SAPPAROT

INGREDIENTS :

For Thai Pineapple Fried Rice :

Jasmine Rice - 11/2 Cups
Prawns / Chicken Pieces - 150 Gms
Eggs - 2 Nos.
Pineapple - 100 Gms
Shallots - 3 Nos.
Garlic - 3 Cloves
Bird's Eye Chillies - Few
Dried Shrimp Paste (Belacan) - 1 Tspn
Cashew nuts - 2 Tbspn
Raisins - 1 Tbspn
Oil - 2 Tbspn
Butter - 2 Tspn

For Sauce :

Turmeric Powder - 1 Tspn
Pineapple Juice - 1 Tbspn
Soy Sauce/Fish Sauce - 1 Tbspn
Chicken Seasoning Powder - 1 Tbspn
Salt - To Taste
Sugar -  A Pinch

METHOD :

• Mix the Ingredients mentioned under 'For Sauce' in a bowl and keep it aside.
• Dice the Pineapple into bite sized pieces.
• Clean and cut the Chicken into small pieces.  
• Clean, remove shells and devein the Prawns.
• Heat a little oil in a pan and scramble the eggs with a dash of salt and keep it aside.
• Dry toast the Dried Shrimp Paste until aromatic.
• Heat the butter in a pan and roast the Cashew nuts, sprinkle some salt over it and keep it aside.
• In the remaining butter fry the Raisins for few minutes.
• Heat Oil and Butter in pan, saute Shallots, Bird's Eye Chillies and Garlic until shallots turn translucent.
• Add the toasted Dried Shrimp Paste and give a quick stir.
• Add in the Chicken pieces and fry for a while, add Prawns and fry them until they are 1/2 cooked.
• Pour in the Sauce Mix and fry for a while in medium high flame.
• Add the cooked Jasmine Rice and fry them until the rice grains are dry and evenly coated with the sauce.
• Add the scrambled eggs to the above and mix well.
• Add Pineapple pieces, Roasted Cashew nuts and Raisins and stir fry for few minutes.
• Scoop out the Thai Pineapple Fried Rice into the Pineapple bowl.
• Garnish Thai Pineapple Fried Rice with Scallions and serve hot with any side dish of your choice.

NOTES :

• Any fragrant long-grained rice variety can be used for the recipe.
• Use a day old cooked rice for best results. Obviously, keep them refrigerated.

STEW WITH MINCED MEAT

     Stew is a delicately flavoured, curry with only a slight tinge of spices and aromatics and of course a lot of Coconut Milk. What is it about Kerala Cuisine without coconuts?  This recipe calls for minced meat, instead of meat chunks, and the ground paste gives a twist to the traditional Stew.  It is a perfect combination for bread, Appam and Idiyappam.

     This recipe is adapted from Vanitha (a Malayalam Magazine).  My MIL reads this fortnightly, and also collect these books.  Whenever she visits Malaysia, she brings few editions for me.  I love to see the pictures and scroll immediately into recipe pages before pondering into other articles. All the more I am a big fan of Mrs. K.M. Mathews (founder and editor of Vanitha Magazine), it was she who brought in the recipe culture into simple minds.  She has the glory of taking Kerala Cuisine across the globe.  I have a huge collection of her recipes, which I have been collecting since my childhood from Malayala Manorama and Vanitha.

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Cuisine - Kerala
Recipe Type - Stew
Course - Side Dish
Spice Level - Low
Difficulty - Medium
Serves - 4- 6
Author - SM

Preparation Time - 20-30 Minutes
Cooking Time - 15-20 Minutes

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HOW TO MAKE STEW WITH MINCED MEAT

INGREDIENTS:

Minced Meat - 500 Grams
Carrot - 1 Cup
Green Peas - 1/2 -3/4 Cup
Potatoes - 1 Cup
Onions - 1 No.
Tomato - 1 No.(Optional)
Thick Coconut Milk - 1 Cup
Thin Coconut Milk - 1 Cup
Curry Leaves - 2 Sprigs
Salt - To Taste
Oil - 2 Tablespoons
Coriander Leaves - To Garnish

To Grind:

Dry Red Chillies - 4 No's.
Ginger - 1/2"
Garlic - 4 Cloves
Cardamom - 2 pods
Cloves - 2 No's.
Cinnamon - 1/2" Stick
Vinegar - 1 Tablespoon

METHOD:

• Grind the ingredients mentioned under 'To Grind' along with vinegar to a smooth paste.
• Clean, Peel and dice Carrots and Potatoes.
• Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the diced Potatoes until 1/2 cooked.
• Remove the potatoes from the oil and drain them on a paper towel.
• In the remaining oil, sauté Onions and Curry leaves until onions turn translucent.
• Add the ground paste to the above and fry them until oil separate from the mixture.
• Add Tomatoes and sauté until they are well cooked.
• Then add in thhe Minced Meat and sauté it for a while until the colour changes.
• Next, add Carrots, Peas and Shallow fried Potatoes to the above.
• Sprinkle some salt and enough water for the Vegetables and Minced meat to cook.
• Once the vegetables and minced meat are cooked, pour thin coconut milk and mix well.
• Leave this to boil on a very low flame, stirring occasionally.
• Finally, pour in the Thick Coconut Milk and give a quick stir.
• Leave this on a low flame for a few minutes.
• Finally, garnish it with Coriander Leaves.
• Creamy Minced Meat Stew is ready to be served with Appam, Idiyappam, Puttu or any dish of your choice.
• Goes well with Bread too. 

NOTES:

• Shallow frying the potatoes are truly optional.
• If you want bit more spicy stew, can add few Green Chillies while sauteing the onions, or finally sprinkle some white pepper over the stew (this is to retain the white colour of the stew).
• If cooking the meat and vegetable in a pressure cooker, just cook it for a whistle.  
• Minced meat tends to cook sooner, and the vinegar makes it soft and succulent.
• I usually add about 3-4 teaspoons of Milk Powder along with Coconut Milk, which yields you with a creamy, white Stew.  But it is purely optional
  

CHOCOLATE PUDDING

      This is a simple stove-top Chocolate pudding.  The best about this recipe is that it is very easy to make, yet it is rich, creamy and delicious. When it comes to desserts, I feel puddings are always a delight and infinitely adaptable to your whims. As simple as it is, but you can make it look more glamorous with a little bit of dressing.  Just a dollop of whipped cream, some chocolate shavings or just dust some cocoa powder over the pudding, they can really dazzle your palate. 
     The process of making pudding is quite simple. Puddings are usually made with milk or cream, sweetened and thickened by cooking them briefly on the stove top or in the oven.  Unbaked puddings get their thickness and rich, creamy and silky texture from a mixture of corn starch and egg yolks.  Needless to say, Chocolate pudding gets its intense flavour from the chocolate.

Recipe Type - Pudding, Dessert
Difficulty - Easy
Serves - 6
Author - SM

Preparation Time - 5-10 Minutes
Cooking Time - 5 -10 Minutes
Setting Time - 3 -4 Hours

HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE PUDDING

 

INGREDIENTS :

Milk - 2 Cups
Sugar - 1/4 - 1/2 Cup
Cocoa Powder/Cooking Chocolate - 1/3 Cup
Corn Starch - 4 Tspn.
Egg Yolks - 3 (Large)
Vanilla Extract - 2 Tspn.
Salt - 1/4 Tspn.
Whipping Cream - 3/4 Cup

METHOD :

• Mix 11/2 Cups of Milk, Sugar, Cocoa Powder in a Sauce Pan.
• Cook this is on a medium high heat.
• Once cooked, remove from fire and keep it aside.
• Whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of Milk with Corn Starch, Salt, Egg Yolks and Vanilla Extract in a bowl.
• Gradually whisk the above hot milk and cocoa mixture into the egg mixture until well incorporated.
• Cook this mixture over medium-high heat whisking constantly, until it comes to a full boil.
• Reduce the heat and whisk again until the mixture thickens for about 2 -3 minutes.
• Pour this into small cups.
• Cover the cups and refrigerate it for 3-4 hours or until set.
• Serve the Chocolate Pudding with a dollop of whipped Cream on top.

NOTES :

• Whisk the mix throughout the cooking process.
• If you have lumps in the pudding, strain it through a fine-mesh.
• The pudding mix would be slightly thin and runny when warm.
• But it would be firm enough when cooled.
• Smooth the pudding tops gently against the surface before refrigerating.
• Put a cling wrap on top or cover the pudding mould/cups before refrigerating. 
• Adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste preference.
• Pudding stays good for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

   

RICE/ARISI UPMA KOZHUKATTAI

    Rice/Arisi Upma Kozhukattai is one of the popular tiffin items in a Brahmin household. This is a simple recipe made with coarsely ground rice, which is called as NOI ARISI. The only work in terms of this tiffin item is soaking the raw rice, and then drying it indoor for a few hours until all the moist is gone, then pulsing it in a dry mixer grinder jar into a coarse rice powder a.k.a kurunai like texture.  Once you have the coarsely ground rice/noi(small tit bits), then the job gets easier.

    The coarsely ground rice is then cooked along with seasoning, once it is 3/4 cooked we need to make small balls out of it and then again it is steam cooked. This is a simple twist given to the classic brahmin dish Arisi Upma, where the Noi Arisi is well cooked and served as such.  Arisi Upma Kozhukattai taste great with sambar and chutney.  It is usually served as a breakfast item or as an evening tiffin.  This is a simple dish, with very few ingredients.  But the taste and flavour of this dish is quite unique. 

 
     I learnt this recipe from our neighbour aunty, Bhuvana's Amma.  She prepares something for evening tiffin,  almost every day, ammini kozhukattai, aval upma, pidi kozhukattai, mor kazhi - a long list of simple tiffin items.   She always treats me with her specialties, every evening, along with her wonderful Filter Coffee. And this recipe is from her repertoire.  

   I need to mention Anu, my long forgotten friend and neighbour who also makes wonderful Arisi Upma Kozhukattai.  Some recipes remind me of a few people, and this recipe reminds of Anu and Bhuvana's Amma.

 

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Cuisine : South Indian
Course : Main Course
Difficulty : Medium
Serves : 3-4
Yields : 15 No's
Author : SM

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HOW TO MAKE RICE / ARISI UPMA KOZHUKATTAI

RICE / ARISI UPMA KOZHUKATTAI

INGREDIENTS:

To make Arisi:

 

For Arisi Upma Kozhukattai:

 

RICE / ARISI UPMA KOZHUKATTAI

 METHOD:

To make Noi Arisi:

• Soak the raw rice for 15 mins in water. 
• After 15 mins, drain the water and spread the rice in a clean kitchen towel and allow it to dry completely. 
• Can dry the Rice indoor under a fan.
• Once the rice is dry, grind the rice coarsely in a dry mixer grinder jar.  
• Just pulse it once or twice. It should not be ground into a fine powder.
• Noi Arisi is ready for use.
  

 

For Arisi Upma Kozhukattai:

• Boil 21/2 Cups of Water and keep it aside. 
• Heat oil in a pan, splutter Mustard seeds, Bengal Gram Dhal and Black Gram Dhal.
• Fry them until they turn into golden brown colour on a low flame.
• Add finely chopped Green Chillies, Ginger and Curry Leaves and sauté for a while.
• Sprinkle asafoetida powder and give a quick stir.
• Add grated coconuts and fry for a few seconds on a very low flame.
• Pour the water into the above mix, add salt and mix well. 
• Add a Teaspoon of ghee to the water.
• Add the coarsely ground rice gradually into the boiling water, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
• Lower the flame and cover the pan with a lid.
• Cook the rice, stirring it occasionally.
• Once the mix becomes thick and dry, switch off the flame and allow it to cool.
• Make small balls out of the arisi upma mix and steam cook in a steamer for about 5-8 minutes or until well cooked.
  
• Serve Arisi Upma Kozhukattai hot with Brinjal Gothsu, Sambar, Puli Kuzhambu or any preferred Chutney. 

NOTES:

• Do not grind the rice into fine powder, it should be ground coarsely like a kurunai.  Just a pulse or two in a dry mixer grinder jar would do the job.
• Adding some ghee or oil to the boiling water before adding the rice mixture helps to avoid forming lumps. Also, make sure to stir the mixture continuously.
• Adding Coconut is totally optional.
• The whole cooking process happens in two steps - 3/4 while it's cooked with the tempering and 1/4 of the cooking happens while the Arisi Upma Kozhukattai is steamed.