Vegan Nasi Lemak
I recently did a poll on Instagram to find out if you prefer to eat nasi lemak or roti canai for breakfast. Nasi lemak won by a landslide! No surprise there! Over the years, I’ve had many variations of vegan and vegetarian nasi lemak. But all of them were missing one thing: the ikan bilis. Mushrooms are a good substitute for it but I’ve always craved that salty, umami flavour that real ikan bilis has. I’ve finally come up with a way to recreate it!
There are a few steps involved but they’re all fairly simple and not complicated at all. And I promise you, it looks and tastes just like ikan bilis! (or at least what I remember ikan bilis to taste like haha) If it seems a bit complicated in the written recipe, check out the YouTube video I posted and the steps should be clearer!
Enjoy!
Love,
Elliz x
Vegan Nasi Lemak
Yield: 4
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 2 H & 15 MTotal time: 2 H & 35 M
Ingredients
Coconut Rice
Sambal
Vegan Ikan Bilis
Instructions
Coconut Rice
- Rinse the jasmine rice and then drain well.
- Slice onions and ginger finely. If you don't like biting into small pieces of ginger, cut it into thick chucks so it's easier to retrieve once the rice is cooked.
- Bruise the lemongrass and tie the pandan into a knot.
- Heat a wok on medium and pour in some oil. Sauté all the aromatics until the onions start to brown.
- Then pour the jasmine rice into the wok and stir to coat every grain of rice with the flavoured oil.
- Transfer the rice to a rice cooker and stir in water, salt and coconut milk.
- Cook on the white rice or jasmine rice setting.
Sambal
- Cut the dried chilies in half and remove all the seeds.
- Boil the dried chilies for ten minutes until very soft.
- Once the chilies are cooled, add to a blender along with shallots, ginger, garlic, seaweed and 1/2 cup of water.
- Blend until very smooth.
- Slice a yellow onion finely.
- Heat a wok on medium and pour in the oil. Fry the yellow onions until they just start to wilt.
- Pour the sambal paste in and stir frequently to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the wok.
- Cook until the the paste changes colour and oil starts to separate or pecah minyak.
- If it looks a bit dry, add in a few drops of oil or water and continue cooking.
- Once you start seeing the oil separating, pour in 2 cups of water and stir.
- Season with mushroom seasoning, gula melaka or palm sugar, tamarind paste or asam jawa and MSG (optional). Taste the sambal and adjust the seasonings according to your preference.
- Cook for a further 30-40 minutes until the water has dried up and you're left with a thick sambal.
Vegan Ikan Bilis
- Preheat the oven at 180°c.
- Have a tray lined with parchment paper ready.
- Place an oven safe wire rack on top of the tray. Grease it generously with oil. Set aside.
- In a rimmed plate, sprinkle in 1/2 tsp of kombu dashi powder, 1/2 tsp of mushroom seasoning and 1/2 cup of water and stir to dissolve the seasonings.
- In a small bowl, create a flavoured starch slurry by mixing 1/2 tsp of kombu dashi powder, 1/2 tsp of mushroom seasoning and 2 tsp of water.
- Dip rice paper in the flavoured water, making sure it's completely submerged and absorbing the liquid.
- Then place the rice paper on the greased wire rack.
- Next, place a sheet of seaweed on top of the rice paper. Fold the edges of the seaweed in to match the circle of the rice paper. Use a little bit of water to glue the seaweed edge down.
- Then brush a generous amount of the corn starch slurry on the seaweed.
- Crumble tofu and arrange in an even layer on top of the seaweed.
- Brush the tofu with the corn starch slurry and arrange another sheet of seaweed on top.
- Dip the next sheet of rice paper in the flavoured water and layer over the seaweed.
- Bake in the oven for 8 minutes then gently flip to the other side. The rice paper may stick a little bit to the wire rack, just gently loosen with a spatula.
- Bake the other side for a further 8 - 10 minutes.
- Then let it cool completely.
- With a pair of kitchen scissors, cut into into ikan bilis strips.
- Deep fry for 1-2 minutes until golden.
- Serve immediately with coconut rice, sambal, roasted or fried peanuts, cucumber and a vegan omelette.
Notes:
- It may seem like a lot of oil, but it's really important for the raw ingredients in the sambal paste to thoroughly cook through to prevent bitterness and to extract as much flavour as possible. You know the sambal is thoroughly cooked when pecah minyak happens, or you see the oil start separating from the paste.
- If you enjoy super spicy sambal, you can skip the deseeding step for the dried chilies.
- For crisp, crunchy ikan bilis, deep fry until it's a darker shade of golden brown. If you prefer it to have a little bit of softness and a bit of bite, just fry until it has a bit of colour then take it out with a spider or slotted spoon.
