Nasi Lemak, often called the national dish of Malaysia, is a breakfast ritual for many there, and in Singapore. It is rice cooked in coconut milk, served with a dose of sambal and various accompaniments. It is very similar to the Indonesian Nasi Uduk and the Bruneian Nasi Katok.
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
What’s in a Name?
- Nasi = Rice
- Lemak = Cream, in culinary terms, it refers to coconut milk or a dish that has been cooked with coconut milk or coconut cream
- Nasi Lemak = Coconut Rice
- Bonus: Kelapa = Coconut
Because my kids used to ask why isn’t it Nasi Kelapa, which of course, stumped me, and I replied, well, it just isn’t!
Language Fun
The Malay language is one of the easiest languages to learn. There is no gender, no past or future form. Instead, past, future and the continuous form of a verb is relayed with the use of a particular word.
For eg:
- Makan = eat
- sudah makan = ate, have eaten
- tengah makan = am/are eating
- belum makan = haven’t eaten
See what I mean?
What is Nasi Lemak, Really?
As mentioned above, it’s rice that’s been cooked in plenty of coconut milk with added pandan leaves, and served with a variety of small portions of sides. More of that later.
Nasi Lemak Bungkus
Traditionally, Nasi Lemak is a very popular breakfast dish, alongside other local noodle favourites like Mee Rebus and Mee Siam. The rice and all its trimmings are wrapped up in banana leaves and sold just about everywhere. This is called nasi lemak bungkus.
Being wrapped up in banana leaves while still hot, allows the rice to take on some wonderful flavours from the leaves, resulting in a multitude of scents greeting you as you unwrap the bungkus.
I’ve wrapped a gazillion nasi lemak bungkus in my time, in my grandma’s old kitchen in the late 70s and early 80s. Every morning, without fail, we’d wrap hundreds of little packets of nasi lemak for our catering business. You know that saying you can do it in your sleep? I probably did more than my fair share with my eyes closed! It was very early in the morning!
And when I cook nasi lemak at home these days, I still wrap it up in banana leaves because it’s so much better eaten that way.
The Perfect Nasi Lemak
Is there such a thing as the perfect nasi lemak? Ask any Singaporean or Malaysian, and they’ll tell you, absolutely!
And it most definitely doesn’t include fried chicken, chicken curry or rendang, something one sees regularly when searching online.
I was about to start writing up this article last week when it occurred to me that perhaps I was just being fussy. So I did a post in my small SMR Facebook group, asking: “What is your idea of the perfect Nasi Lemak?”.
Almost to the man (and woman), it was rich and creamy rice, slightly spicy and sweet sambal tumis, cucumbers, omelette, ikan bilis (anchovies) and peanuts. There were about 3 members who mentioned the local fried fish, which I whole heartedly agree with.
What is important to many is the rice and the sambal – they can make or break your dish.
We all agreed that chicken curry, rendang and fried chicken have no place in the perfect nasi lemak. Save that for something else.
Nasi Lemak Deconstructed
The very first image above shows you what a typical nasi lemak plate looks like. Let’s take a look at the parts and the ingredients needed for each.
- Nasi Lemak (rice)
- Sambal
- Fried anchovies (or a small piece of fried fish)
- Omelette
- Cucumber slices
- Fried or toasted peanuts
Rice Ingredients
Rice
We cook the rice in plenty of coconut milk, with a touch of salt and pandan leaves.
What rice to use for nasi lemak? A good quality, long grain rice, whether basmati or jasmine. The fragrance of jasmine rice enhances the overall aroma of the pandan leaves, so to me, that’s always a good bet.
I’ll walk you through cooking the perfect nasi lemak rice on the stove and in a rice cooker.
Coconut Milk and Water
Whatever can of coconut milk you use, shake it up before dispensing. You can even use half fat coconut milk. Your rice won’t be as creamy but will still be delicious.
If all you can get is coconut cream, dilute it by twice the amount of water. So 1 cup coconut milk + 2 cups water = 3 cups liquid for our nasi lemak.
I also add a little water for the total amount of liquid when cooking in a saucepan on the stove. This is to reduce the risk of the rice catching during cooking.
However, if I’m cooking in the rice cooker (half the time), I lose most, if not all, the water as there is no risk of that.
Many, if not all rice cookers require that you use the same amount of liquid to rice. So you’ll see that in the recipe below, I’m using 5 rice cups of RICE plus 5 rice cups LIQUID. This is the cup that comes with the rice cooker.
Because a can of coconut milk has 400ml (14 oz), I top this up with 100ml water, instead of opening another can.
I get a lot of questions about this: here is the rice cooker I own, Yum Asia Bamboo Rice Cooker (affiliate link).
Pandan Leaves
Click here to read more about pandan leaves on LinsFood.
Daun pandan in Malay (daun = leaf), these are a type of screwpine leaves, and an essential ingredient in Asian cooking. With its sweet, fragrant, grassy aroma, it is widely used in both savoury and sweet dishes.
Some folks will drop a bruised lemongrass in their rice, but it’s not really necessary as to me, it interferes with the daun pandan, which should be the overriding aroma of the perfect nasi lemak rice.
If you can’t get pandan leaves, then by all means use a lemongrass or two. But definitely no ginger in your nasi lemak. Please.
If you’re in the UK, there are 2-3 sellers who sell fresh pandan leaves and fresh banana leaves via Amazon Prime, which is very handy when you need them yesterday! Click below to get to Amazon via my affiliate links. This is the seller I use mostly. I’ve never been disappointed.
Nasi Lemak Sambal
The sambal we serve our coconut rice with is traditionally only mildly spicy and a little sweet. It is what we call sambal tumis or if adding anchovies to the sambal, then it’s called sambal ikan bilis.
The word tumis means frying or sautéing and what we mean by sambal tumis is a sambal that’s been cooked or fried for a long-ish period of time. Pronounced tu – mays (short u, as in put).
When cooking our sambal, what we’re looking for is that crucial point where the oil separates from the chilli paste, or what we call in Malay, pecah minyak, meaning oil splitting (same as in many other cuisines).
Pecah Minyak
This is the point where our chilli paste completely loses its raw taste and changes from an emulsion to a distinct oil and paste mix. However, how obvious this separation is and how long it takes for the pecah minyak stage depends on the amount of oil used, the water and the heat.
15 – 20 minutes is a good range, with 15 being one that uses more oil, and 20 or even 25, less oil and more water (when blending).
If you’re not sure about when to stop, go for 20 minutes, even if you have to add a splash of water because it’s getting too dry.
I think I’ll have to do a whole post on this, don’t you? Aiyoh, more work!🤣It’s all good.
Ingredients for Nasi Lemak Sambal
The most basic sambal nasi lemak is also a vegan sambal, the way my younger sister makes it. So exactly the recipe I have below but without the anchovies in the blended paste. This was also the sambal with the nasi lemak that was served in my school canteen for just 15 cents!
Some people will also add shrimp paste (belacan) or dried shrimp (udang kering) to their sambal, which is always nice but not really necessary for that signature sweet and slightly spicy nasi lemak sambal.
If you’re wondering why I’m saying both sambal nasi lemak and nasi lemak sambal, it’s all about the placement of adjectives in the Malay language! I addressed this in our Laksa article.
While I think in English, some phrases just come naturally in Malay, the way it’s spoken by the locals, regardless of ethnic background. Malay is my third language after all, my second, in school. Only ever got a B, at O and A levels!
This is what we’ll need to make our sambal:
Dried Red Chillies
Always use dried red chillies to make your nasi lemak sambal. This is because dried chillies will give your dish a deeper flavour, no matter what type of chilli paste you’re making.
And you want the non smoky variety, so keep those chipotles for the Mexican chilli recipes on LinsFood!
In the recipe card below, I’ve given a range for the weight (30 – 50g) of the chillies we use. This is because not all dried chillies are created equal. I’m using 2 varieties in the sambal here. One is a nondescript Chinese variety, that’s fairly spicy, and the other, my homegrown, home dried Kashmiri chillies which are mild.
The Chinese chilli is light, not even registering on my scale when weighed singly. Each dried Kashmiri chilli on the other hand, weighs about 2 grams, give or take. So if your chillies are pretty light, say lighter or similar to a small clove of garlic in weight, then use 30g (1 oz). If each chilli is heavier than a small clove of garlic, then use 50g.
Just bear in mind though, if you’re using a hot variety, your sambal will be hot. Step away from those Scorpions and Reapers!
Aromatics
Brown onions or red onions, it’s all a matter of preference. I personally don’t like cooking red onions, something about their sweet nature when cooked puts me off. Use whatever onions you habitually cook with.
Then we also have a small amount of garlic in our sambal.
Tamarind
Click here to read more about tamarind.
It’s a souring agent used around the world. Whether you use tamarind pulp or shop bought paste, it doesn’t matter. I explain amount in the recipe card below.
No tamarind? Generally, the best substitute for tamarind is clear vinegar. Not lime juice or lemon juice because they will impart a citrus flavour that you might not always want. But for our nasi lemak sambal, yes, you can use lime juice because lime and chillies = match made in heaven!
Gula Melaka
The traditional sugar used to sweeten this sambal is gula melaka. It’s a type of palm sugar that is more often than not, made from the coconut palm. It’s much darker in colour and has a more pronounced caramel/toffee flavour and aroma.
So not only does it sweeten our nasi lemak sambal but it also deepens the flavour and darkens it.
Gula melaka substitute – you can use the Indian jaggery or a combination of dark brown sugar and white (half each). Don’t use Thai palm sugar, as it’s neither sweet nor dark enough.
Dark Soy Sauce
This is optional, as it’s like a secret weapon for me, like sundried tomato paste in many tomato based dishes. I even add it to dals and Indian curries for that added depth and flavour.
I do the same thing for our sambal nasi lemak. Just half a tablespoon. You could also use sweet soy sauce (kicap manis) if that’s what you have instead.
The Other Nasi Lemak Condiments
Dried Anchovies
Known as ikan bilis in Malay, (ikan = fish) these are another essential ingredient in much of East and South East Asia. They can be found in East Asian stores (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). And most definitely online.
If you can, get the cleaned ones. Although more expensive, they will save you a bit of time. Otherwise, you’ll spend about 10 minutes pulling off the head and pinching off the grubby bits. In recent years, I’ve had no choice in the matter as the cleaned ones are not easy to come by.
Omelette
A small strip or square of omelette is a must in traditional nasi lemak. Boiled eggs are not really as common unless they are actually a part of the sambal, which would be sambal telur (egg = telur).
I’ve given 4 eggs in the recipe below, to make 2 omelettes. So each diner will have a quarter of an omelette.
Cucumber Slices
The little bit of green in nasi lemak is provided by slices of cucumber. Be as generous as you want, I’ve given 2 per diner. I know, so stingy!
Peanuts
An absolute must in any self respecting nasi lemak bungkus, the peanuts are traditionally fried in a little oil, alongside the ikan bilis.
I prefer to use ready salted and roasted peanuts for this because they are incredibly delicious, and I always have some at home for my mid afternoon snack.
Can’t do peanuts? Leave them out, no need to substitute with anything.
Phew that about covers the ins and outs of making the perfect nasi lemak, the way I grew up cooking it, eating it and selling it!
Now, let’s get our aprons on!
If you enjoy the recipe, drop me a comment and let me know. And if you are feeling like a star, don’t forget that 5-star rating! 😉 Terima Kasih!
If you make this recipe, post it on Instagram and tag me @azlinbloor and hashtag it #linsfood.
Lin xx
I made it today for the family. Very easy instructions and the sambal was just amazing, so good to eat with other stuff. How long will the sambal keep?
Sambal will keep in the fridge for 2 days. Pleased you enjoyed it, Nicola.
Thank you so so much Lin for this recipe! I’ve just spent a few minutes reading the whole post and hats off to you for the amount of information you always provide here and on linsfood! I just love the language lessons you give on both blogs!
I’m planning on making this on Sunday for my dad and brother. Got everything bought! Thank you again!
My pleasure Cassie, let me know how it goes.