Nasi lemak, rich rice, is often called Malaysia's national dish, and it is eaten at every hour: wrapped in banana leaf and newspaper as a roadside breakfast, served from hawker stalls at lunch and dressed up with fried chicken or rendang at night. The rice is cooked in coconut milk with knotted pandan leaves, which give it a soft, sweet, almost vanilla scent. Around it go the essentials: a deep red sambal of chilies, shallots and tamarind, crisp fried ikan bilis (tiny dried anchovies), roasted peanuts, a boiled or fried egg and slices of cucumber.

It began as Malay food and now belongs to everyone in Malaysia, which makes it the right first plate for a country whose great strength is its shared table. Sepang's Grand Prix ran for nineteen years in heat and sudden tropical storms; nasi lemak, sensibly, is designed to be eaten at any temperature.

The coconut rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups (400 g) jasmine rice
• 1 cup (240 ml) canned coconut milk
• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) water
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 pandan leaves
• 1 thin slice fresh ginger

Method

1. Put the rice in the saucepan, cover with cold water, swirl with your hand and pour the cloudy water off. Repeat 3 or 4 times, then drain well.
2. Add the coconut milk, water, salt, pandan knot and ginger and stir. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stir once, then cover tightly, turn the heat to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes more. (In a rice cooker, add everything and use the normal setting.)
3. Remove the pandan and ginger and fluff the rice gently with a fork or rice paddle.

The sambal ikan bilis

Ingredients

• 15 to 20 dried red chilies
• 1 tablespoon tamarind pulp
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) warm water
• 6 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon belacan (shrimp paste)
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 small red onion
• 2 tablespoons gula melaka or dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup (25 g) ikan bilis

Method

1. Cover the dried chilies with boiling water and soak for 20 minutes. Separately, soak the tamarind pulp in the warm water, then squeeze it through your fingers and press it through the sieve, keeping the brown juice and discarding seeds and fibers.
2. Wrap the belacan in a small square of foil and toast it in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes per side.
3. Drain the chilies and blend them with the shallots, garlic, belacan and 3 tablespoons water to a smooth paste.
4. Heat the oil in the skillet over medium low heat. Add the paste and cook, stirring often, for 15 to 20 minutes. Be patient; this slow frying, called pecah minyak in Malay, is what makes sambal taste deep rather than raw.
5. Add the onion rings and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the tamarind juice, sugar and salt and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in half the fried ikan bilis just before serving. Taste: it should be hot, sweet, sour and salty all at once.

Anchovies, peanuts, eggs and cucumber

Ingredients

• 1 cup (50 g) ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
• 1/2 cup (75 g) raw skin on peanuts
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cucumber

Method

1. Heat the oil in the small saucepan over medium heat. Fry the peanuts for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, then lift them out onto paper towels. They keep cooking and crisp as they cool.
2. In the same oil, fry the dried anchovies for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, then lift them onto paper towels.
3. Lower the eggs into boiling water and cook for 9 minutes for firm yolks, or 7 for jammy ones. Cool in cold water, peel and halve.

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