nasi liwet

Anita Jacobson’s selected nasi liwet adapts the coconut-rice dish to a rice cooker. Thai jasmine rice cooks with canned coconut milk, lemongrass and Indonesian bay leaves in the selected water version.

The rice is washed and drained before it joins coconut milk, water, salt, bruised lemongrass and Indonesian bay leaves in the cooker. The ingredients are stirred together before cooking.

The cooked rice sits with the lid unopened, then is gently fluffed and stirred with a rice spatula. It is kept warm until serving.

This preparation centres the rice cooker, rather than the separate pot-and-steamer approach the author describes as another method. The coconut milk and aromatics flavour the rice through its cooking liquid.

Her serving suggestions include shredded chicken or chicken in coconut milk, with braised eggs or eggs in an areh preparation. The selected optional sides here are shredded chicken and telur pindang braised eggs.