Coconut Rice with Dried Anchovy, Nasi Lemak Ikan Bilis

Coconut rice or nasi lemak is a dish popular in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Southern Thailand. Tourism of Malaysia has recognized "Nasi Lemak" as the National dish. A national heritage of Malaysia consume by all races. There is a similar dish in Indonesia called "Nasi Uduk."

Its name is a Malay word that literally means 'Rice in Coconut Cream'. The name is derived from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in Coconut Cream, enhance with smashed fresh ginger and shallot, dash of Fenugreek (“Halba”) and whole Black Peppercorn and then the mixture steamed (“Kukus”). Not to forget knotted screw pine (pandan) leaves are thrown into the rice while steaming to give it more fragrance. Generally, basic "Nasi Lemak" just only combination of rice, coconut cream, salt to taste and screw pine leave served with good spicy sambal.

Traditionally, this comes as a platter with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies (Ikan Bilis). Prefer head off and cleaned. Fried with fresh palm oil that gives golden colour, crisp texture and less oily. Roasted skin-on peanuts taste better than peanut without skin.

Spicy Dried Anchovies

Dried anchovies or 'Ikan Bilis' (Malaysia) or 'Ikan Teri' (Indonesian) is often used in both countries cuisine. There are different kinds of dried Anchovies sold in the local market since the country is rich with seafood product. Usually it is cooked with other food ingredients like tempeh, potatoes or eggplant. Sambal is a combination of fried anchovies with potatoes and fried peanut. The taste is a mix of sweet, sour, spicy and salty. This side dish is a good companion to coconut rice.

Recipe

[Cooking time : 15 - 20 minutes]

Ingredients

- 150 g dried anchovies

- 250 g potatoes, cut in long narrow strips

- 50 g fried peanut

- 65 g sugar

- 1 1/2 tablespoon salt

- 25 g tamarind, mix with 100 ml hot water to get a juice

Spice Paste

- 3 shallots

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 2 red chillies, seeded

- 1 teaspoon coriander

- 1 teaspoon galangal powder

Directions

1. Deep fry the potatoes and dried anchovies separately. Set aside

2. Grind or blend the spice paste

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil, then sauté the paste.

4. Add the sugar, salt, and tamarind juice and continue cooking until the sauce thickens.

5. Then add the potatoes, dried anchovies, and fried peanut. Mixed them together with the sauce and continue cooking for few minutes.

Dried Anchovy / Ikan Bilis

Dried Anchovy, is a type of dried preserved fish which is popular through out Asia.

from wikipedia
The anchovies are a family (Engraulidae) of small but common salt-water fish. The anchovy s a small green fish with blue reflections due to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. It is maximum nine inches (~23 cm) in length and body shape is variable with more slender fish in northern populations. But the species available around Langkawi Island at the Andaman Sea are only varies from 2cms to 8cms.The snout is blunt with small, sharp teeth in both jaws. The mouth is larger than those of herrings and silversides, two fish which they closely resemble. It eats plankton and fish larvae.

Known also as ikan bilis or ikan teri, it can be used to make sambals and as a base for fish stocks. In Thailand it is often an integral part of spicy salads where a large sour citrus fruit similar to grapefruit is tossed with a sweet and sour dressing and the crispy fried anchovy to make a salty, sweet, sour and spicy salad. It is also a common condiment to Boiled Rice Soup. In Korea these small-sized dried anchovies are used for a side dish, in which they are toasted and mixed with soy sauce, sugar, and hot pepper paste.

For an exotic snack shallow fry in vegetable oil over medium low heat until crispy. Sprinkle with sugar to taste or toss with deep fried basil or fresh curry leaves if desired. Cool and store in an air-tight container.

We sell them exclusively imported from Malaysia, in a pack of 150g.

Ingredients: Dried Anchovy and solt.

Nutritional info
Serving size = 30 g
Servings Per Container = 5
Calories = 45
Fat = 0 mg
Carbohydrate = 0 mg
Sodium = 58 mg
Sugar = 0 mg
Protein = 10g
Calcium = 6%
Iron = 7%