Nasi Uduk
Nasi Uduk is a fragrance aromatic rice cooked with coconut milk. Nasi Uduk literally means mix rice. It tastes quite similar to Nasi Lemak which could be found in Malaysia or Singapore. Nasi lemak means coconut cream rice. However, both of them have a quite different mix of herbs and spices.
After cooked, Nasi Uduk is traditionally wrapped in banana leaves per portion. Banana leave really helps in enhancing the flavor and aroma of the rice. When I came back to Indonesia last year, Nasi Uduk has been upgraded in terms of serving and increasing its flavour and aroma. They were wrapped in banana leaves and just before serving they were roasted on top of charcoal. It really enhances the fragrance of banana leaves into the Nasi Uduk. I heard also from my cousin that in her hometown, Nasi Uduk was putted inside the coconut and roasted on top of charcoal. It is resulted in the creamier rice.
Nasi Uduk is usually served with fried shallot on top of the rice with fried aromatic turmeric chicken, shredded egg omelette, lalapan (vegetables such as cucumber, cabbage, snake beans, lettuce, tomato), and sambal oelek terasi (chili paste made from chili and shrimp paste).
Ingredients
- 800 gr rice, washed and drained
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 lime leaves
- pandan leave
- 1 pcs of lemon grass, smashed
- 3 pcs of galangal (as big as 20 cents coin), smashed
- 425 ml coconut milk (I used Kara Coconut milk)
- 400 ml water (see note)
- 1 tbsp of salt or to taste (see note)
Instructions
- If you are cooking with rice cooker, just mix everything in your rice cooker. Do not forget to taste the saltiness first. However, your rice cooker might not be able to cook the rice all the way through, so you do need to steam them again conventionally until they are cook.
- If you are using a steamer, boil the coconut milk, water, galangal, lemon grass, pandan leave, bay leaves, lime leaves, and salt. While doing that, steam the rice. When the liquid mixture is bubbling and boiling, pour in the half cook rice into the mixture, and let all the liquid be absorbed by the rice. Steam them until the rice is cook.
- Serve Nasi Uduk with deep fried shallot, which could be found in the Asian groceries stores. I bought the Indonesian brand and it tastes quite similar to the home made one back in Indonesia rather than the Vietnamese brand.
Notes
- The amount of water is just a guidance, it can be less or more than you actually required. It is all depend on the type of rice. Different brands could affect the amount of water needed.
- The amount of salt added should be quite salty, so when the rice is cooked, the salt could give taste to the rice.
Cooking time (duration): 20
Culinary tradition: Indonesian
Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!
