Hi friends.
Today I'll be veganizing Nasi Lemak which
is the national dish of Malaysia, which by
the way, is where I was born and grew up in.
It's been a long time since I've moved to
Canada and it's not very often that I get
to enjoy Malaysian cuisine, so I thought,
you know, maybe try and veganize some Malaysian
food and get it tasting as close to the classic
Nasi Lemak as I can.
As a side note just in case you're wondering
what Nasi Lemak actually means, it literally
translates to "fatty rice".
Well, I guess a proper translation would be
"rich coconut rice"?
By the way, just a head's up, this dish is
pretty damn spicy so if you're not into spicy
food, you might want to stop watching....I'M
KIDDING!
DO NOT STOP WATCHING!
Anyways, let's get on with the recipe.
First up, we'll need to make the vegan egg.
Hard boiled egg is a pretty standard component
of the dish, so I'm gonna emulate it with
a soy-based egg that has a sort of runny egg
yolk.
Here I'm using soy milk for its fairly neutral
flavour but any plant milk will work for this
recipe.
We're setting the milk with agar powder and
adding a hint of eggy flavour using black
salt.
You can find black salt at any Indian grocer.
Mix it up and bring it up to a gentle simmer,
then allow it to simmer for 2 minutes.
I'm being careful here when stirring it so
that I don't create too much foam and bubbles.
To form the egg, I'm using a silicone easter
egg mold that I got off Amazon.
Make sure that you have a flat tray under
the mold so that you can safely carry it to
the fridge.
A word of caution here, be careful not to
overfill it...tsk damn it Leroy, you made
a mess.
Poke away any excess bubbles with a skewer
and keep it in the fridge until it is fully
set.
Next, I'm making the sambal, which is the
quote unquote "sauce" component of the dish.
Basically, it's a chilli jam that has a fermented
fishy flavour to it.
To a blender, I'm adding all the aromatic
vegetables that form the base of the sambal.
To emulate and veganize the fermented fishy
flavour, I'm using ground up wakame seaweed
and fermented bean paste.
I'm gonna blend all this into a fine paste.
Here, I'm heating up some canola oil to fry
up some finely sliced red onion.
The caramelized onions will be added towards
the end when the sambal is done.
Strain out the excess oil from the caramelized
onions.
Next I'm gonna cook out the chilli paste.
We're gonna need quite a lot of oil here,
I'd say about a quarter cup.
Gently simmer and fry the paste on very low
heat to reduce it down.
Just a head's up that this process takes a
really long time so you'll need a little bit
of patience here.
Frequently stir as it reduces so that it doesn't
scorch on the bottom.
The sambal is ready to be seasoned once it
has reduced into a thick paste and the oil
has split from the it.
You can adjust the amount of seasoning depending
on how salty, sour and sweet you like it to
be.
Mix it up and continue to gently heat it for
another 15 minutes to meld in the pandan flavour.
Once the sambal is nice and rich and aromatic,
remove the pandan leaves and mix in the caramelized
onions then set it aside.
For the coconut rice, I'm adding all the ingredients
and cooking it in a digital pressure cooker.
If you don't have an Instant Pot, a regular
rice cooker works too.
Set the cooking time to 20 minutes.
So, this next step here is completely optional.
Nasi Lemak is classically garnished with fried
anchovies, so as a vegan replacement, I'm
using fried shiitake mushrooms instead.
I'm adding the mushrooms to a pot of oil set
over medium low heat and let it slowly fry
until golden brown.
To emulate the flavour of anchovies, I'm seasoning
it with salt and ground up nori.
Alright, I know this dish has had many steps
and components, but I swear this is the last
one.
I'm just blending together all the ingredients
to make the egg yolk for the vegan egg.
Basically, I'm making tofu mayonaise here.
The idea is to get it tasting a little eggy
with the black salt and give it a deep orange
colour using annatto and yellow mustard.
Transfering it to a squeeze bottle is optional.
I'm just doing it so that I can fill the egg
neatly.
And...it just looks a lot nicer.
By the way, the vegan egg should ideally be
served at room temperature so leave it sitting
at room temperature before serving.
Once the egg whites are set, hollow them out
with a melon baller.
Okay, time to plate.
Now, you don't have to plate it the way I'm
doing it.
I'm just doing it in a way that looks a little
more modern instead of the classic way of
seperating all the components in different
quadrants of the plate.
Also, feel free to add whatever garnishes
that you prefer.
The classic ones are peanuts and cucumber.
Just wanna mention here before any Malaysians
crucify me, I'm adding basil just to freshen
up the dish.
It is by no means a traditional component.
Thanks for watching friends.
