The Scent of Banana Leaves

I didn't plan to cook Nasi Lemak for dinner tonight, but somehow when you're away from home either your senses become more sensitive or you're hallucinating. It all started when B reminded me about the two pounds of prawns in a freezer. Out of nowhere I could smell a dreamy fragrant of hot Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaf. We know smell depends of sensory receptors cells that respond to airborne particles, and as far as I know I'm the only Malay lives in this hood'. So, I must be hallucinating.

"How about sambaa toomes udeng and nasi laymak?"

"Boo, you're freaking me out. I'm thinking about nasik lemak too."

"Am I fine and good or am I fine and good?"

I rolled my eyes.

I pulled out the veggie compartment to look for lemongrass. The lemongrass I had planted in a terracotta pot in the kitchen all wittered when were away visiting in-laws in Harlem, Brooklyn and Queen.

"We are out of lemongrass, and sambal(cooked chillies paste)tumis udang without isn't a sambal tumis udang without lemongrass."

We had a short conference and came to a conclusion. B would do the dishes and clean the kitchen and I'll go and get a few stalks of lemongrass at Super88Market.

Back home, I ate nasi lemak three or four times a week for breakfast. My favorite warung (stall) was at Taman Selera Tun Sardon. For RM1 I could get a scoop(which was plenty) of nasi lemak with sambal of my choice. Either sambal ikan bilis (anchovy)or chicken, shrimp. Sometimes they had cuttlefish sambal too. The stall was always full. Tak cukup kaki tangan. One person scooped the rice in medium bowl, pressed the rice to the rim and smacked down on banana leaves, the next person scooped the lauk and gravy, added two or three slices of cucumber and pushed it to the last assembler which was to wrap the nasi lemak with banana leaves layered on top of piece of newspaper cut. When it was ready, the nasi lemak presented to a customer in neat wrap resembled a pyramid.

When I got home from the store, B already thawed, shelled and cleaned the prawns, julienned the fresh ginger, sliced the shallots and washed two cups of jasmine rice. I prefer to steam the rice rather than cook it in a traditional way. I put the rice in a transparent bowl, added a cinnamon stick, three cloves, a stalk of lemon grass, ginger, a pinch of salt and shallots. I poured 3 and 1/2 cups of coconut milk diluted with water. The only ingredient I was lack of was daun pandan (screw pine leaves)

While the rice on the stove, I pureed lemongrass, garlic and onion and added to chillies paste. I didn't add belacan (shrimp paste) because B would sneezing all day.When the oil was hot in a wok, I poured the ingredients in a hot oil. I lowered the heat to medium. Mak always said, tried not to cook in a hurry because I would forget to berdoa (pray). Pray for the food to be nourished. I stirred chillies paste now and then to make sure it cooked evenly. I added a half cup of water and stirred again and waited until the paste was pecah minyak- I could see the oil surfaced and the smell of raw chillies in the air was completely gone. I added the prawns and covered the pot. After 10 minutes I split the sambal into two halves. One half I added orange juice and a teaspoon of sugar. It was for B. I improvised it as his taste buds isn't develop to take Malay hot food. And the other half I added tamarind juice. I let them simmered on medium heat for another 30 minutes. By this time the Nasi Lemak was ready, scooped in each plate. I forgot to get a cucumber, I used lettuce as a condiment.

Comments

[jo]

Mmmmmm. That looks yummy!