Nyonya Herb Rice Salad.. Nasi Ulam Nyonya

Ulam... as Malays refer to an assortment of edible plant shoots, leaves, flowers and roots eaten raw. There many versions of nasi ulam.. varies according to region.. I remember my mom used to make nasi ulam with various shoots, leaves that may reached up to 14 types of ulam. However.. living in Penang nowadays particularly in the island- the supplies of various ulam is quite scarce.. to have an assortment up to 14 types of ulaman could be quite a challenging task to look for it. Apart from Malays, in Penang itself.. the Nyonyas have their version of Nasi Ulam which i really like and the assortment of ulaman needed for this dish is less than the Malay Nasi Ulam.

The original version of Nyonya Nasi Ulam is to assemble everything including the sambal & toasted grated coconut. I noticed that in assembling everything together- the dish will turn out soggy and it wont last long. To have a dry & fluffy nasi ulam, i prefer mixing the ulaman with the rice and serve them with the sambal & toasted grated coconut. This dish is best eaten with boiled salted egg and prawn crackers..  :)

Ingredients:

Part 1:

Part 1 consists of 4 shallots, 1/2 big red onion, 1 garlic, 1/2 ginger torch, 2 lemon grass, 2cm young ginger, 1.5 cm young galangal, 1.5cm tumeric root. Slice shallots, garlic, ginger torch, ginger, galangal, tumeric root thinly. Chop lemon grass finely & Dice the onion.

 

Part 2:
 



Part 2 consist of 6 types of ulam - 1 tumeric leaves, about 20 leaves kesom leaves, 4 kaduk leaves, 3 lime kaffir leaves, 6 cekur leaves, 1/2 cup of grated coconut toasted and sambal belacan.
There are various ways of making sambal belacan - and mine is a combo of 2 types of chillies - red chilly and the cili padi, shrimp paste, tamarind pulp, brown sugar & salt :

 

Part 3:



Wash 1 1/2 cup of rice and cook in a cooker after adding in 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder. Once cooked, set aside to let it cool.

Part 4:



Part 4 consists of a piece of fried salted mergui / kurau, 3 tbsp of fried salted prawns and a few chunks of fried stringray meat. I choose stingray meat as it has no fishy smell when it is fried.

Method:
1. Wash all the ulam, wipe them clean. Roll up all the ulaman into one neat roll and slice them very thinly.

2. Toast grate coconut till golden brown:

Let it cool and put it in a processor - blend it till it is finely chopped

3. To make the sambal, soak the tamarind pulp in a small amount of water and mash the pulp into water to make a thick tamarind paste. Put in the chillies, shrimp paste, brown sugar, salt and tamarind juice in a food processor and blend till it's quite fine:

4. In a mincer / food processor, blend the fish, salted fish and dried prawns separately:

5. In a large bowl, mix the part 1, 2 (EXclude sambal & grated coconut) and 4 well:

6. Mix in rice bit by bit till all are mixed well. Serve with boil salted egg & prawn crackers.

Bon Appetite. :)

~ this recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel (Official) fb page on 2 October 2012:
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