Iftar With Sisters : Nasi Minyak

i made nasi minyak for buka puasa at my younger sister’s house. we’ve been planning this iftar for the longest time and only on sunday got to finally have it.

it was probably the most enjoyable iftar i’ve had in weeks – we were so chatty, so giggly and so very very very shrill! hihi. it was just 4 girls – me, syima, syidot and azot – but the noise we make, you would think there’s a whole army of quarrelling schoolgirls in the next house.

what a wonderful memory to bring back to dubai. sob sob!

 

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now to my nasi minyak. the simplest recipe of nasi minyak taught by my mak. terima kasih, mak!

the deal was, syima makes the lauk, and i make the rice dish. i’m in a hurry so could you just zoom into the pictures to see what rempah is needed to make the base of the nasi minyak? hihi.

 

first, throw in the rempah, bawang besar and halia – tumis everything!

 

most of the time i just use the rice-cooker itself to tumis. from ‘warm’, i press ‘cook’ and i’ll wedge a folded up piece of paper to keep the lever in place while i tumis. i will take out the wedged-folded-paper when i finally add the beras, close the lid and it is time to cook.

however, at syima’s place i put the rice cooker pot on the stove to tumis, and THEN put the pot into the rice-cooker, and cook as usual like you cook normal white steamed rice.

oh, when tumis, use ghee preferably, but we didn’t have any that day so i improvised, and used plain butter! tasted just as good!

 

when the delicious smell of the tumisan starts to linger up, add the beras. stir, add salt, stir again and close lid.

 

 

tada – done!

 

syima made ayam merah, which i just love. she also made ayam kurma by special request from our youngest sister azi. at first i thought ayam kurma would be weird alongside nasi minyak, but it turned to be a pretty tasty combo!

 

 

syima made lala tu, again – special request from another sister – syida!

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in addition to the nasi minyak, and the delicious lauk, syima also made a family favorite – popiah daging. this is another one of those wonderful little simple dishes that mak taught us. simple, but priceless!

 

    

 

spending time in the kitchen folding the minced-meat curry into the popiah skin was one our many highlights with mak – we’d be sharing stories and A LOT of laughs – someone would be folding, someone would stand by the stove to fry the already folded popiah, someone would be separating the popiah skin – it was our little gathering of the day. here is syida at syima’s house last sunday.

 

 

syima’s popiah was just as crispy crunchy and absolutely tasty like mak’s!

 

a simple meal is a very big thing when prepared and shared with sisters tersayang, especially when you had to leave soon to stay somewhere so far away.

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thanks wombat-wombat!

azot & syimot with syimot’s first girl sufya

 

me & syidot