Friday, March 13, 2009

Tiger Mike's Nasi Lemak

Dear SY,
Here's the way to cook nasi lemak my style:

600g of rice. ( Don't use Basmati. Use any long grain rice. The best is to use Baram-Bario rice which you can easily buy in Miri from the Orang Ulu in front of the Supermarket or in front of Mega Hotel. Keep your Baram-Bario rice in your fridge veg compt. It gets bugs easily)
450g grated coconut for santan.( It does not matter if you have a bit more)
4 helai daun pandan.Tie into knots. (Cheen loi yip)
2 cm ginger, sliced thinly.
3 gloves garlic, sliced finely.
1 tsp sea salt.
1 piece cinnamon (mook kwei pei)
3 Bunga cengkis (teng heong)

Method.

* Wash the rice and drain well.
* Put rice, coconut milk and other ingredients into a pot or electric rice cooker and cook until all liquid is absorbed.
* Loosen rice grain and test for doneness.
* Add a little water if the rice is not well cooked. Close the pot tightly until rice is fluffy.

Here is the Teipin style:
When the rice is half cooked, wrap banana leaf between the rice and the side of the pot carefully with daun pandan after stirring the rice.Pour in in some left-over santan, place some torn-up daun pandan and cover with banana leaf. Close the lid and let it fully cook.When you wish to serve the rice, scissor small circles of banana leaf. Fry some dried udang in garlic chips and veg oil. You get the best dried udang from Labuan at the Ferry Point, they are large and very well engineered.They come from Southern Philippines and cheap as nothing.
Use a Chinese small rice bowl, place the fried prawn first and then the daun pisang circle, shiny side down, and then the rice for serving.

Now For the Accompaniments
My girls are impatient when I cook for them. The worst part is I normally have a bottle of Chateau Lafitte in me and singing discordantly, pretending to be the top tenor in the Klang Valley, " Con Te Partiro". OCPD muka masam. So I do my shortcuts, ma!!
1. Buy Brahim's Kuah Sambal Tumis. Add Si Hum and cook. Get peeled si hum, wash and drown in brine and wash b4 cooking.
2. Buy and use Tean's Gourmet Chicken Curry Paste and cook your chicken. Use only skinned drumsticks and marinate in Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade - Honey & Soy. Place in Glad Zip slide reclosable storage plastic bags ( 30 cm X 30 cm ). Keep in the fridge overnight.

What about Kiddies?
You Teipin super girls can eat hot food. Liz Tan is a good example. Take a separate bowl of chicken curry, scrape 1 in of cooking chocolate and 1 tbsp of tomato puree plus a little of gula batu.or a bit of wong thong. Reheat and stir softly. Mum will be the greatest in the whole of East Borneo.
Sy, good luck from Pak Naser.

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