# Nasi Lemak Recipe

Nasi Lemak – This iconic Malaysian dish is all about that fragrant coconut milk rice, topped with crispy anchovies, spicy sambal, hard-boiled eggs, roasted peanuts, and fresh cucumber. It’s the most authentic and delicious nasi lemak recipe you’ll ever try!

- Servings: 4 servings
- Total time: 60 min
- Cuisine: Malaysian
- Category: Dinner
- Language: en

## Ingredients

- 2 cups rice
- 1.5 cups water (cut down to 1 1⁄4 cups if using ¾ cup coconut milk)
- 0.5 cup coconut milk (use ¾ cup for creamier rice)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 pandan leaves (tie them into a knot)
- 4 shallots (peeled)
- 1 clove garlic (peeled)
- 8 medium length dried red chilies (seeded)
- 1 teaspoon belacan (prawn paste)
- 1 cup water
- tamarind pulp (size of a small ping pong ball)
- salt (to taste)
- 2 tablespoons sugar (or more to taste)
- 1 cup ikan bilis (dried anchovies, peeled)
- 2 cups oil (for frying)
- 1 red onion (peeled, sliced into rings)
- 3 small fish (sardines or mackerel, cut into halves)
- 2 hard boiled eggs (cut into halves)
- 1 cup roasted peanuts
- 1 small cucumber (cut into slices and then quartered)

## Instructions

1. Rinse the rice with running tap water a few times until the water turns clear.
2. Drain the rice completely.
3. Add 1 ½ cups of water, coconut milk, and a pinch of salt to the washed rice.
4. Add the pandan leaves, tied into a knot, into the rice and cook your rice.
5. Discard the pandan leaves after the rice is cooked.
6. Pound the shallots, garlic, dried chilies, and prawn paste with a mortar and pestle, or grind them with a food processor, to make the spice paste.
7. Soak the tamarind pulp in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes, constantly squeezing to extract flavor.
8. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.
9. Rinse the dried anchovies with tap water a few times and let them drain.
10. Heat 2 cups of oil in a pan.
11. Fry the anchovies until they've become light brown and crispy.
12. Remove from oil with a strainer and drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
13. On medium to low heat, heat 2 tablespoons of frying oil in a pan.
14. Stir-fry the spice paste until fragrant and reddish in color.
15. Add the onion rings and fried anchovies, stirring well.
16. Pour in the tamarind juice, salt, and sugar.
17. Simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens.
18. Set the sambal aside.
19. Clean the small fish and season them with salt.
20. Deep fry the fish with the remaining frying oil.
21. To serve, scoop out a small bowl of coconut rice and place it onto the center of a plate (optionally lined with a banana leaf).
22. Arrange the fried fish, hard boiled egg, roasted peanuts, and cucumber around the rice.
23. Add 2 spoons of the sambal on top of the rice.
24. Serve immediately.

## Equipment

- mortar and pestle
- food processor
- pan
- strainer
- paper towel-lined plate
- small bowl

## Tips

- If using ¾ cup coconut milk, cut down water to 1 ¼ cups for coconut rice.
- For the spice paste, you can pound with a mortar and pestle or grind with a food processor.
- Tamarind pulp should be soaked for 15 minutes, squeezing constantly to extract flavor.
- Dried anchovies should be fried until light brown and crispy.
- Sambal should be stir-fried on medium to low heat until fragrant and reddish.
- You can serve fried anchovies as is, or add them to sambal to make sambal anchovies.
- Traditionally, nasi lemak is wrapped in banana leaf and shaped into a triangular cone, or served on a sheet of banana leaf for extra aroma.
- If using tamarind concentrate, mix 1 tablespoon with 3 tablespoons of water as a substitute for pulp.
- To reduce spice, use less dried chilies, starting with half the amount.

## Source

- Original video: https://rasamalaysia.com/nasi-lemak-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-749739
- Recipe page: https://www.cliprecipe.com/recipe/5acbedca-f36a-427b-98ee-37049cc53bbb
- Extracted: 2025-09-04

Extracted from the video by Clip Recipe (https://www.cliprecipe.com). Quantities and steps are as stated or shown in the video. Site guide for agents: https://www.cliprecipe.com/llms.txt