How to easily make butterfly blue pea Nasi Lemak in a rice cooker.
Nasi Lemak is Coconut Rice, a hawker favourite in Singapore and Malaysia. You can also find Nasi Lemak in Indonesia, where it is known as Nasi Uduk.
In Malay, nasi = rice. Meanwhile, lemak literally means fat. More specifically, lemak refers to that rich, creamy taste. In Nasi Lemak, the lemak refers to the coconut milk added to the rice.
While Nasi Lemak refers to the rice itself, it is more commonly referred to as a dish. The basic Nasi Lemak is served with a spicy sweet sambal sauce, refreshing cucumbers, as well as a spoonful of crunchy Fried Ikan Bilis and Peanuts. Watch the YouTube video for the full recipe.
The most traditional protein would be eggs as well as Ikan Selar, or fried Yellowtail fish. These days, Ikan Selar is a rare find. Instead, Ayam Goreng or Otah is the more preferred protein.
Coconut Cream vs Coconut Milk
There are generally two types of coconut liquids sold out there: coconut cream and coconut milk. Coconut cream is typically what we buy in the supermarkets that can sometimes be confusingly labelled as coconut milk. These are the ones sold in cartons or tin cans.
The main brands available in Singapore supermarkets would be Kara and Ayam Brand. Coconut cream, if you can guess, have a thick, creamy but still runny consistency. This recipe uses this coconut cream.
Coconut Milk are the thinner, more runny liquid, much like water. If you buy fresh coconut milk from the market, this would be it. Unfortunately these are not too easily accessible for most of us city folks. If using coconut milk, I would stick to the amount in this recipe, as I prefer a less lemak rice. Add more if you want to have a richer dish, but you really don’t want to have only coconut milk. This will result in a very oily rice that can get mushy.
Sometimes your rice will have clumps of coagulated coconut cream – this is perfectly normal. When you fluff it, it should disappear into the rice.
Can I use the fancy coconut milk that I add to my morning coffee? Yes! Make sure it’s the plain, unsweetened coconut milk. Though I personally would not use that for my Nasi Lemak – it’s much more expensive!
Rice to Water Ratio for Perfect Nasi Lemak
I used Jasmine white rice, which is the standard rice for nasi lemak. Basmati rice is also a good option for nasi lemak, although there’s no reason why you can’t use your favourite type of rice for nasi lemak. The measurements here will work with long grain rice.
There are three ways to cook this in a rice cooker:
1. Finger Test
Personally I use the… finger marker test! If you’re Asian, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Fill the pot with rice and add the coconut milk. Then rest your finger gently on top of the rice. Pour in just enough water so that it reaches the first knuckle line of your index finger. I don’t know what the science is, but this results in perfectly cooked rice each time.
2. Rice Cooker Line
Follow the directions on your rice cooker manual. Most rice cookers these days have levels indicated in the inner pot on the perfect amount of water needed to cook rice. Add the coconut cream to rice first, and then pour in water until it reaches the ‘2 cup’ line on the marking on the inner pot.
3. 1 Rice : 1 Water
Stick to the general ratio of 1 cup of rice to 1 cup water. In this recipe, do note that I used “cup” as a measurement instead of specific grams and millilitres. The simple answer is that you can use literally any cup – as long as it’s the same cup to measure out rice AND liquid. 1 cup of rice does not always equate to a specific amount of grams or millilitres.
You would also notice that in this recipe, I do not consider the coconut cream as part of the 1 cup liquid. Unlike the first two steps above, when I used cups, I resulted in undercooked rice.
The next time round, I did a 1:1 + coconut cream measurement and the rice came out perfect. Again, I don’t know what science this is, but those were my results.
How to Get Butterfly Blue Pea Nasi Lemak
If you want to level up your nasi lemak, at least appearance-wise, then add a few sprinkling of natural blue food colouring from dried butterfly blue pea flowers (bunga telang)!
Butterfly Blue Pea flowers commonly sold dry and used extensively as food colouring. I made a Lavender Blue Pea Kueh Lapis here. It’s not used much as actual flavouring as it is a very mild flavour. It’s more common use is as a drink for its attractive blue colour and health benefits like antioxidants and insomnia-curing properties. The flavour is a very very mildly tangy, floral flavour, but hardly noticeable.
Extracting the blue food colouring is easy. Simply steep the flowers in some warm water and the colour would immediately get extracted. You can use room temperature water by the way; I like to use warm water to speed up the extraction process.
Personally I prefer a blend of white and blue rice, but if you want your whole pot to be blue, you absolutely can. Replace the water with the blue pea-steeped water.
If you want a darker or concentrated shade of blue, use more blue pea flowers, and less water to steep the flowers in. Allow it to steep for longer as well.
Pandan or Screwpine Leaves
Pandan Leaves or screwpine leaves are what give Nasi Lemak a lovely fragrance. If you’re Southeast Asian, you know that we love the combination of pandan leaves and coconut cream!
To prepare pandan leaves, wash the leaves and then knot together 2-3 leaves to form a bundle. This bruises the leaves so it releases fragrance into the Nasi Lemak. Knotting it in a bundle will allow you to take it out of the rice easily after the rice is cooked.
Ginger
I never could have guessed Nasi Lemak has ginger! When I first asked my mom for the nasi lemak recipe, I was surprised to hear ginger as an ingredient.
I would use minced ginger whenever I can, but you can simply rough chop chunks of ginger and add it to the rice. Make sure it’s bigger chunks so that you can fish it out of the rice easier after it is cooked.
More Recipes Like This:
Nasi Lemak is such a versatile rice! Serve this with:
- The BEST Sambal for Nasi Lemak
- Ayam Goreng | Crispy Malay Fried Chicken
- Ikan Bilis and Kacang Goreng | Fried Dried Anchovies and Peanuts
Butterfly Blue Pea Nasi Lemak | Blue Coconut Rice
Course: Recipes4
servings10
minutes20
minutesIngredients
2 Cups Jasmine Rice
2 Cups Water
1/2 Cup Coconut Cream
1 tsp Ginger
3-4 Pandan Leaves, knotted in a bundle
1/2 tsp Salt
- Butterfly Blue Pea Colouring
1 tbsp Butterfly Blue Pea Flowers (optional)
2-3 tbsps warm water
Directions
- Preparing Blue Pea Food Colouring
- Give the butterfly blue pea flowers a quick rinse. Steep the butterfly blue pea flowers in warm water to extract the blue dye. Use more flowers and less water for a darker blue. Allow to steep while the rice cooks.
- Strain the liquid to remove the flowers and keep the blue water as the colouring.
- Cooking the Nasi Lemak
- Wash the rice until the water runs clear and is not cloudy anymore. Drain the water and add to the rice cooker pot. Make sure the rice is evenly level.
- Add coconut cream, water, minced ginger and salt to the rice and stir through.
- Nestle the knotted pandan leaves in the rice.
- Close lid and let the rice cook fully.
- Once rice cooks, allow to rest for 10 minutes before opening the lid. Remove the pandan leaves and fluff the rice.
- With a teaspoon, drizzle the blue pea food colour over the rice. With a rice paddle, flip the rice over to the other side, and drizzle more of the blue pea food colouring. There is no need to stir the rice at all.
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