Forbidden Nasi Lemak red rice

A Malaysian friend of mine, Lily, was kind enough to lend me a book on Singaporean cooking when she heard about all my rice adventures.  This is a recipe adapted from a very old edition of ‘The Best of Singapore Cooking’ by Mrs Leong Yee Soo.  First published in 1988 and then again up to 2004 it must have been the local favourite.  You can tell that it was an old book as a lot of the recipes included MSG!  It is a long time since I have seen that in a recipe.

Lily said that the combination of the lemongrass and spices were good in this dish so I thought I would try it with the Red rice from Forbidden foods and cook it in the steam oven.  The Red rice is a longer grain than the other varieties so it will suit this dish better.  Our friends in Manly regularly use the Hainanese Chicken rice recipe here so it will be good to offer them another Asian rice dish too.

Ingredients:  Serves 6

1½ cups Forbidden Red Rice, washed
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2 fresh pandan leaves if available (optional)
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp. finely chopped lemongrass, white part only
¾ cup chicken stock
¾ cup coconut milk
½ cinnamon stick
1 medium onion, finely diced
Salt if required

Method:

1. Heat oil and fry lemongrass and onion until fragrant and softened
2. Add cinnamon, chilli powder and rice
3. Stir to mix well and place into the solid stainless steel steam oven tray
4. Pour over the stock and coconut milk, add the pandan leaves and cook @ 100°C 30 minutes
5. Stir through the fresh lime juice and taste for seasoning.  You may need salt depending on your stock.

Garnish with sliced egg omelette (2 eggs beaten and cooked in a hot, oiled pan), fine chilli strips and crispy shallots 🙂