Herb Rice Salad/ Nasi Ulam

When i think about Nasi Ulam.. it always reminds me of the days during my confinement.. My mom would always make Nasi Ulam by carefully selecting herbs which their medicinal properties are well known especially for blood circulation and flatulence prevention. Long ago..where ulam is abundance and easily accessible..making nasi ulam requires 44 kinds of herbs! Now..getting even 7 types of herbs would be a challenge. A few days ago, the sight of an old man squatting by the road side selling a few types of ulam made me suddenly crave for nasi ulam. Starting from 3 types of herbs- tumeric leaves, indian pennywort and wild betel leaves., I started hunting for more fragrance ones like cekur leaves/sand ginger. I had to go from market to market just to search for these herbs and to my 'agony' for a few handful of herbs- they cost me RM10!! - and i could only manage to collect only 9 types of herbs.. crazy eh..- the things that i'd do only to have a plate of nasi ulam.. ;)

Basically the ingredients are:

A. 4 cups of plain cooked white rice.

B. Herbs:

a few sprigs of polygonum leaves, lemuni leaves, wild betel leaves, young mengkudu leaves,

cekur leaves, tumeric leaves, selom kafir lime leaves & pennywort.

 

the 9 types of leaves is rolled up tighly (so that it is easier to slice them as thinly as possible), fried salted talang fish, 1tbsp black pepper, 1 big onion, 4 shallots, 4 garlic, 3 lemon grass, 1 1/2" young galangal, 1 1/2" young ginger, 1" young tumeric roots and 

a handful of cekur roots as well (not in the pict).

 

 

Method:

 

1. Chop finely all the young roots, onion, shallots, garlic and lemongrass.

 

2. Pound black pepper first then the fried salted fish.

 

3. Mix the chopped roots, garlic, onion, shallots and garlic well with the pounded ingredients.
Basically, this is called: sambal lada.

 

4. To cut all the herbs as thinly as possible conveniently and less messy,

arrange all the herbs and roll them tightly and secure the roll with a rubber band.

 

5. Mix the thinly sliced herbs with plain cooked rice first evenly.

then, add the 'sambal lada' to the rice and mix well.

 

~ Bon Appetite ~