Malay Food: Nasi Kerabu

 

Nasi kerabu is a traditional Malaysian dish from Kelantan  that is famous for its blue rice. In addition to the rice, this filling dish also contains fish, which is the base of the kerabu, or vegetable mixture. The other elements of typical nasi kerabu are the coconut-based sweet and salty sauce and the garnish, which includes vegetables and a variety of ingredients commonly used in Southeast Asian cooking. 

The rice in a nasi kerabu is blue because it has been pre-cooked in the blue extract from the dried flowers of the Clitoria ternatea  plant. These flowers, which are a strikingly vivid shade of blue, are also used to dye rice in other Malaysian dishes such as pulut tai tai and nonya chang. In a typical nasi kerabu recipe, a ratio of 1 cup (237 ml) of cooked rice to one medium fish is used.

Traditionally, the fish used for the kerabu is mackerel. In a typical recipe, the fish is grilled and flaked before being fried together with grated coconut and blended ginger and shallots. The resulting mixture then has sugar and salt added to it. Sometimes dried fish is used in place of fresh produce.

The “kerabu” (salad) could be any vegetables or edible leaves though the more or less standard version will have daun kesum, taugeh (bean sprout), thinly cut; long green beans, bunga kantan, cucumber (connoisseurs will insist “seeded”), and daun kadok.

In many nasi kerabu recipes, the base for the sauce is coconut milk. Other ingredients simmer, with salt and sugar being added to the sauce as it does so.normally include shallots, dried chili and lemongrass.