chicken rice

truly a malaysian favourite, chicken rice is sold all over the country. usually teamed with BBQ pork and Char Siew, this dish is lunch to many people.


Ingredients
For the chicken:
chicken breast meat (500-600 gm for two person)
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp light soy sauce

For the rice:
2 cups long grain rice
3-4 cm piece ginger, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Bring water to a boil in a pot. Put in chicken and cook for nine to 10 minutes.

2. Turn off the heat and allow chicken to remain in the stock for five minutes, then remove chicken and immerse in a basin of cold water. Reserve chicken stock for cooking the rice.

3. Drain the chicken meat. Combine sesame oil and light soy sauce, then brush it all over the chicken. Set aside. Steam the chicken for about 10-15 minutes in medium flame.

4. Wash the rice clean, then drain. Heat up oil in a wok and stir-fry garlic and ginger until lightly browned and fragrant. Put in rice and stir-fry well. Dish out rice and put into a rice cooker. Add enough chicken stock, salt and pepper to taste and a dash of sesame oil. Cook until rice is done.

5. To serve, scoop warm rice into a rice bowl and overturn this on the plate. Serve with cut-up chicken and chilli sauce. (Options: garnish with cucumber slices, spring onion curls and coriander leaves)

nasi lemak

I think Nasi lemak can be named as national breakfast. Malaysian eats it for breakfast on daily basis. It’s just simply rice cooked with coconut milk. This coming weekend I will attempt my first trial of cooking nasi lemak. On the side, I will prepare sambal ikan bilis and maybe if time permits, I would like to try chicken rendang.

For nasi lemak, the ingredients are as below:

2 shallots
2 slices ginger
1 tsp salt
375-400ml coconut milk (from 1/2 a grated coconut)
2 pandan leaves, knotted

1. Wash rice until clean then drain. Put rice, shallots, ginger and salt in a rice cooker. Pour coconut milk over the rice. (The level of the coconut milk should be 2cm above the level of the rice.) Cook rice until dry then use a wooden ladle to loosen the grains.

As for sambal ikan bilis:
200g ikan bilis, soaked and washed
3 tbsp oil
1 Bombay onion, sliced


Pound:
5 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk lemon grass, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp belacan granules

1. Heat oil in a wok, saute pounded ingredients, chilli paste and belacan until fragrant. Add ikan bilis and big onions and stir-fry well.