Recipe Blog: Nasi Kerabu

Nasi kerabu is a fragrant rice meal eaten mostly in the east coast. Basically it's rice eaten with ulam, serunding kelapa and sambal budu. Often there is telur masin and keropok on the side. Dishes eaten with it are such as solok cili, daging salai or ayam percik but it can easily remain vegetarian, just take out the budu from the sambal.


Here is the step-by-step procedure of Nasi Kerabu:


Solok Lada 
8 large green chillies 
1 cup coconut 

Milk Blitz into a paste: 
1 whole ikan kembung (mackerel) boiled and deboned 
2 cups grated coconut 
4 shallots 
2 cloves garlic 
1 tsp black pepper Salt and sugar to taste 

Method: 
Slice chillies lengthwise to make a pocket, remove all seeds and soak in water for 10 minutes. 
Fill chillies with blitzed ingredients. 
In a deep frying pan, arrange the stuffed chillies flat. 
Simmer in a cup of coconut milk for about 10 minutes. 

Kerabu

¼ cabbage, sliced thinly 

4 long beans, chopped 

1 torch ginger, sliced thinly 

A handful Vietnamese mint, roughly chopped 

A handful bean sprouts 

1 cucumber, sliced

Serunding Kelapa

2 Tbs palm sugar 

1 Tbs tamarind paste, mixed with a bit of water and strained 

1 whole coconut, grated 

2 Tbs oil 

Salt to taste 

To pound:

6 shallots 

3 cloves garlic 

1 inch fresh tumeric 

½ inch ginger 

2 bird's eye chillies 

2 Tbs dried shrimps 

Method: 

Heat oil and saute all pounded ingredients until fragrant and brown.

Add in palm sugar and let it melt.

Pour in tamarind juice. 

Throw in grated coconut. Stir evenly and let it cook till it's dry and golden brown.

Ayam Percik

6 large chicken thighs

3-4 cups coconut milk
2 tsp tamarind juice
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

To blend:
10 dried chillies, soaked 
4 stalks lemongrass
2 inches galangal
½ inch fresh turmeric
4 cloves garlic
16 shallots
½ inch belacan, toasted
4 candlenuts

Method:

Marinate chicken with blended ingredients for an hour. Preheat oven to 180C on grill setting.
Heat pan over medium flame without oil. Fry chicken for 3 minutes to tighten up skin. 
Place chicken on oven tray.
Pour coconut milk, tamarind juice, sugar and salt in pan mixing with the marinade left in the wok. 
Coat chicken with this mixture and put it in the oven, turn it down to 160C. Grill for 40 minutes, change to top grill during the last 5 minutes.
Reduce the sauce in pan and pour it over the chicken once it's done.

Blue Rice

The colour comes from bunga telang (morning glory). Simply soak 2 morning glories in 4 ½ cups of water and strain. Cook about 3 cups of rice in this water with 1 pandan leaf and 1 torn up kaffir lime leaf. 

Sambal Budu

4 shallots

1 clove garlic
½ inch turmeric
20-25 bird's eye chillies
8 Tbs budu 
4 kalamansi limes, squeezed

Method: 

Pound shallots, garlic, turmeric and chillies. Mix in budu and lime juice. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

Nasi Kerabu is served with keropok

Now the key to great nasi kerabu is the sum of all things. You need to fold everything in, even the keropok which you break and mix it all up. Eaten separately it can almost be called a Malay version of a banana leaf rice. 

Enjoy the Nasi Kerabu!

Online recipe from Allrecipes.asia by Suhara:

Ingredients

• For the kerabu
• 3 mackerel, grilled and flaked
• 8 shallots
• 2 cm ginger
• 250g grated coconut to make kerisik
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• For the sauce
• 4 cups (1l) coconut milk
• 10 dried chillies, soak in hot water discard seeds
• 8 shallots
• 2 slices asam keping
• 2 stalks lemongrass, crushed slightly
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• For the garnish
• 1 cucumber, cut in matchstick slices
• 6 sprigs polygonum leaves, sliced finely
• 6 long beans, sliced finely
• 2 lemongrass bulbs, sliced finely
• 6 sprigs basil leaves, sliced finely
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) budu, a pungent Kelantanese fish sauce
• 5 bird's eye chilies, sliced
• 1 lime, sliced in segments
• Step-by-step procedure

1. For the kerabu: To make the kerisik, toast the grated coconut in a dry pan, over low heat making sure to stir constantly until it turns golden brown. Set aside to cool.
2. Blend the ginger and shallots together until fine. Add the flaked fish, blended ingredients, and kerisik in a bowl and mix well. Season with salt and sugar and place in a serving dish.
3. For the sauce: Grind the chillies and shallots together until fine. Put the blended spices with coconut milk, asam keping and lemongrass in a pot and bring to a slow boil. Add salt and sugar to taste and simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Put in a serving bowl.
4. For the garnishing: Arrange all the sliced ingredients onto a serving platter. In a separate bowl put the budu and sliced bird chillies with lime wedges on the side.
5. To serve Nasi Kerabu: Put rice on a plate and pile on a handful of the kerabu, several pinches of the herb and vegetable garnishes, top with a little sauce and mix everything together with the rice. For added flavour, add a teaspoon of the budu sauce to the rice. 

Differences between two recipes 

There are differences between the recipe I have interviewed and an existing online recipe. There is no Solok Lada, Ayam Percik and Sambal Budu in the online recipe whereas there is no sauce in the recipe I have interviewed. Preparing Nasi Kerabu is very time consuming, thus reducing the side dishes can save a lot of time for the cook. On the other hand, the sauce in the online recipe is changed with Sambal Budu in the actual recipe. It is probably because these two recipes come from different region. 

In reality, there are so many different combinations of accompaniments. Nasi Kerabu is a National Heritage because it is one of the Malay delicacies being identified as truly Malaysian. The Nasi Kerabu is a dish of Kelantanese origin. Besides, all the ingredients used to make Nasi Kerabu are from Malaysia. Nasi Kerabu normally served with fried fish, grilled chicken and keropok which are signature food in Malay dishes. In a nutshell, Nasi Kerabu is a unique delicacy in Malaysia and it is a must-try dish for foreign visitors.