Nasi Lemak Kunyit Recipe

Nasi Lemak, or coconut rice, is a Malaysian staple and favourite, or rather Malaysian staple favourite, and it won't be even wrong to say favourite staple. And of course, we at home, love nasi lemak. Even more the kids especially when in Klang we used to get this awesome fried chicken together with it at the Shanmuga restaurant. It is definitely a must-have, must-eat, must-savour.

For the whole of my life I have never made nasi lemak at home, simply because it is easily available everywhere, any time. However, recently as I have been at home, cooking almost daily, I decided I should try making nasi lemak at home, giving some variety to the home menu. The same time I can prepare different types of sambal and curry to go with it.

I must admit though, the first time I was really nervous about not getting it right. Rightly so, the first time I had used only thick coconut milk and the outcome was not that pleasant. As I went on, I learnt the tricks and ingredients that help give a more fragrant coconut rice.

Over the last weekend, I was watching this cooking show, and they made this coconut rice, but with a sautee of turmeric with onion and ginger. I was delighted to watch them cook, and couldn't wait to try it on my own.

Over the last few months I have grown this new obsession with fresh turmeric since hubby has been taking them in his morning smoothies. It's been an experience of a kind discovering how much more fragrant and vibrant natural colour you get with turmeric in the recipe. And now I do not leave home (cook) without it.

So how do you make turmeric coconut rice, or nasi lemak kunyit?

It is pretty much the standard nasi lemak recipe. Some people cook rice in coconut milk, pandan leaves and ginger slices. Some people prefer to sautee the spices before cooking the rice. I do the latter.

Firstly take like 3-4cm of turmeric, and 4-5cm of ginger, and give it a nice grind or crushing (I am totally lost for words here) on the mortar and pestle. You could use a food processor if you like. Grind it slightly less than fine. Sautee chopped onion with the grinded turmeric and ginger, it can take about 10-15 minutes to give a nice fragrance. In the meantime, measure and wash your rice. Once the sautee is ready, pour in washed rice (minus water) and give it a nice stir to coat the grains of rice with the oil, flavour and colour. In about 10 minutes time, you can turn off the heat and transfer everything into the rice cooker. Add coconut milk diluted with water. Also add some fenugreek seeds, season with salt and cook like normal.

I decided to do away with pandan leaves, because I want the turmeric to be the master of the rice, The result, extremely fragrant and appetizing nasi lemak, not to mention the vibrant natural colour. Some recipes I checked online used turmeric powder, in which case you would need to give it adequate time on the flame to get off the raw powder taste. I must say, fresh turmeric just works best.

For us mothers, sometimes we are concerned over dietary factors of every meal we put on the table. I must admit I was always a tad bit skeptical making nasi lemak due to the lack of fiber content. The boys would just gobble the coconut rice without complaining. Now with nasi lemak kunyit, together with loads of raw cucumber, I think it works just perfect for taste and diet wise. Next round I am gonna use more turmeric and see how it turns out, because I can do with more natural vibrant yellow!

Happy trying!

Sitiawan Weekend Getaway

A few weekends ago we had an impromptu weekend getaway to Sitiawan, Perak, and it has got to be one of the very short and most fulfilling getaways we ever had.

One thing I researched most about Sitiawan, naturally, is the food. And thanks for the modern day technology, it is not rocket science to find great food online for every destination. And luckily for us Sitiawan is a relatively small town, so most of the hot spots are pretty close to each other.

The drive there took us 2.5 hours from Butterworth, and half the way we were driving through trunk road where you see nothing but jungle. Initially hubby thought I was bringing him through the wrong road, but eventually we realised it was what it was. 

First thing we did once reaching there was drive straight to the famous stall near Kampung Koh wet market that serves the kon lou mee. I read so much about it, and it felt so wrong to miss it for anything. Luckily we arrived there a little before their closing time at 1pm.

Jeev definitely enjoyed it as it was pretty similar to his favourite wantan noodles.

He has this special talent where he eats noodles strand by strand. True story.

And then we have the self-learner elder kid who picked up eating with chop sticks while I blinked. He is the food lover on par with hubby, and no one else comes close.

The kon lou mee was definitely worth the trip, perfect seasonings with slices of barbecued pork. We also tried the loh mee, but found it rather sour and strong for our liking. And the icing on the cake is that the pricing was very cheap compared to the city.

Later we took a drive around town to find a place to stay. After several checks online, we narrowed down to Mornington Hotel Sitiawan, and a quick check into the room confirmed our stay. The family deluxe was a tad bit pricey but spacious and perfect to stay with kids who like to run, roll, play and monkey around the room. And oh, it also had a nice bath tub, again, a plus point for the kids for little pool time.

By tea time, I was determined to get these Sitiawan famous biscuits at Cheong Cia Gong Pian. In the beginning it was a little tricky to find the shop, which later turned out to be just a small portion of a corner shop. Not only that, I turned out to be just a short walking distance from the hotel.

The very aroma of the biscuit is so familiar, till I got my hands on it. They are tandoor oven baked biscuits, that is the clay oven. It is crispy on the outside, with sweet and soft chopped onion on the inside, and a layer of what felt like pork fat. Then it hit me, it tasted just like the bacon and onion buns I used to make. The bacon and onion content gave it that aroma.

The biscuits are so famous that once the shop opens in the morning, the biscuits just get booked and disappear into hands of biscuit hungry people. In fact there is another shop that sells it, and it is no surprise people there never get enough of it.

In the evening we planned for some seafood, but before that we made a compulsory trip to the Teluk Batik beach. It is touted as one of the hidden treasures at Lumut, and since we did not go to the Pangkor Island, it was just perfect we get some dose of sand and sea in Lumut itself.

Apart from pleasure, we also completed some business, we managed to get the kids' passports done in less than an hour, with just a handful of people in the queue. It was record of sorts, and felt so relaxing getting pictures taken, papers done, without any rush or hassle. We went off for some breakfast and came back to passports ready to be picked up! How does it get any better than that!

Calamansi Juice With A Twist

Recently together with all the home cooking and home baking I have found a new frontier, making my own drinks/juices! It's been fun brewing and mixing different concoctions for drinking pleasure with the meals, especially with our hot weather, there is nothing like downing some fresh minty drink.

However, I had noticed that in the last 2 weeks, I had finished a significant amount of brown sugar. The amount that usually stays untouched for a while, unless I am making cinnamon rolls, was gone in just two weeks. 

Then it hit me, in all the fun and juice bottoms-up we have been consuming a lot of sugar. So I got determined to try out other drinks that require minimal sugar, or at least just honey. For this, I also had to make sure I ordered 1kg of commercial honey. True story, grocery bills are so high when you make everything at home.

From my last week's Tesco order, I had a good amount of calamansi limes, and what better time to make some calamansi juice. And no, this is not the bottled calamansi juice.

I squeezed juice from 7-8 pieces of calamansi lime. Be sure to cut the top small section, cutting through the seed will give bitterness. Added some 2-3 tbsp of honey, some salt, and the twist here, some apple cider vinegar! Add some water and give it a taste, adjust the taste as per liking. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out, especially with the ACV twist. Not just healthy, its yummy too! And of course I top it up with some bruised mint leaves, and get this, ginger slices, just because!

And since it turned out so good, I am roaring to try other combinations next! Happy trying!