CHECK OUT MORE UPDATES AT http://www.crizfood.com/

RECIPE – SPICY NYONYA NASI ULAM (JUNGLE HERBS RICE)

>> Thursday, October 23, 2008

Cooking Nyonya cuisines which are normally spicy, tangy, herbal and aromatic has always required a lot of patience. In fact, the preparation alone for most of the dishes would take up a long time as it involved so much hard work in slicing, cutting and chopping of herbs and ingredients. Some such examples could be seen in dishes like Laksa, Perut Ikan, Acar Awak, Otak Otak and many more. But there is one dish that even some of the established Nyonya restaurants such as Hot Wok did not have it in their menu as it involved a lot of tedious fine slicing of many herbal leaves – SPICY NYONYA NASI ULAM (JUNGLE HERBS RICE).

This dish is definitely a very healthy diet as most of the ingredients are taken raw. My demised grandmother had made this yummy dish all the time, so have my mother some of the time. Before it ended up in my generation that none of us would even remember the existence of this dish, I would like to take some time to prepare this dish and share with you my heirloom recipe. Although I am not the descendants of the Baba-Nyonya, I would love to see someone pick up this recipe and be proud that it has been part of the Malaysian cuisines.

NASIULAM

INGREDIENTS A:
4 plastic cups of rice (about 1kg of cooked rice)
100gms dried shrimps (soak, dice, fry & cool)
100gms salted ikan kurau (treadfin) meat (cut small thin slices, fry and cool)
1 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste) powder – Maggi
3 tablespoon kerisik (toasted and pounded grated coconut)
1/2” fresh turmeric (chop finely)
10 mint leaves (daun pudina – chop finely)
3 screwpine leaves (daun pandan - knotted)
Salt, sugar and grounded black pepper to taste

INGREDIENTS B (FINELY SLICED):
6 shallots
1 stalk lemongrass (serai – use the thinner end only)
1/2 stalk torch ginger flower (bunga kantan)
4 kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut)
6 polygonum leaves (daun kesom/laksa leaves/Vietnamese mint)
6 asiatica pennywort leaves (daun pegaga)
2 turmeric leaves (daun kunyit)
15 basil leaves (daun selasih)
4 galangal leaves (daun cekur)
10 wild betel leaves (daun kaduk/Piper sarmentosum)

GARNISHING:
1 cucumber (halves and sliced)
Sambal Belacan (fresh shrimp paste chili sauce)
Some wild betel leaves (optional)
Some mint leaves (optional)

PREPARATION:
1. Cook rice. When cooked, loosen the rice and fold in the knotted screwpine leaves. Leave aside to be fully cool. Make sure the rice maintain the grain shape but still soft.
2. Find a large container (4 times the amount of the rice would do).
3. Toss evenly all the ingredients in A & B and serve.
4. You can eat it just as it plain or garnish it with the above garnishing with side seafood dishes like Assam Prawns, Assam Fish, Grilled Fish or even some dry meat curries. Sambal Belacan and cucumber is a must if you like the dish spicier.

(Serves: 4-6)

YOU CAN CHECK HERE FOR MORE RECIPES.

10 comments:

Anonymous October 23, 2008 at 9:14 PM  

This plate of nasi ulam looks delicious and colourful too. I had it once at Nyonya Cafe...the herbs gives a strong and pungent aroma.

http://www.what2seeonline.com

ling239 October 23, 2008 at 10:58 PM  

ulam = jungle herbs ? @_@

email2me October 23, 2008 at 11:22 PM  

Looks like hakka Lui Cha to me minus the peppermint soup .... hehehehe

Penang Tua Pui October 24, 2008 at 7:31 AM  

wow.. looks so delicious la.... so colorful also...

Ciki October 24, 2008 at 9:39 AM  

wonderfully authentically malaysian. love it!

Anonymous October 24, 2008 at 12:59 PM  

nice presentation skill. not bad wor..... :)

gill gill October 26, 2008 at 4:41 PM  

wah...thanks for your receipy! wish to try this long time but never have a chance to get the receipy..hee, sure will try this out!

Steven Goh October 26, 2008 at 5:11 PM  

oh this is the ulam rice that you told me. I never know that I have had this rice before until I see the picture. No wonder people say picture speak thousand words. Is there any place we can have this rice in Penang? Rather than making ourselve?

cariso October 26, 2008 at 7:32 PM  

When are you going to post up the video clip?! :)

Lingzie October 27, 2008 at 10:53 PM  

i love nasi ulam! and i agree with you, must preserve this recipe before it goes 'extinct'. thanks for sharing it. will definitely give this a try soon... :)

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

STALKERS



About

My photo
WELCOME TO MY HUMBLE SITE... This is just a place for me to share my interests with my readers. Feel free to drop a comment and I shall get back to you soonest possible. Have a great day everyone here! NO TAG/MEME REQUEST IN THIS BLOG!!/

STALKERS

Followers