Let's Cook: Indonesian Coconut and Spice Rice!

And I'm back with another cooking tutorial! Decided to make this the other day in honor of my future roommate in university. She's from Indonesia 😁.

This recipe is Indonesian Coconut and Spice Rice from The Essential Rice Cookbook. Definitely recommend this cookbook because it has so many interesting ways to cook rice. I often have to go to the store because my American kitchen doesn't always stock everything needed for these recipes. For some strange reason I *LOVE* grocery shopping so this isn't really a problem as long as I plan a little.

Step One: Cut Stuff Up!

First things first you have to cut up a couple ingredients. One of these ingredients is lemongrass. Take a 10cm (4 inch) section (and if you want cut it into two or three pieces) and lay your knife sideways along it. Put your hand on top of the big flat area and press down until the lemongrass squishes a bit.

The other thing you will want to cut up is 2-3 spring onions/green onions/long tiny onion things. Just cut them into 2.5mm (1/8 inch) slices. Put lemongrass and onion things in the same place so you can add them easily a little later.

Step Two: Saute Almonds and Coconut!

Put 1 tablespoonish of oil in a pan and heat it up a little bit on medium before putting 1/2 cup of nuts in. The recipe calls for peanuts but my sister is deathly allergic to peanuts so I used almonds instead. Shove them around in the pan for 1-2 minutes before adding 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut. The first time I cooked the almonds for too long so it was a burned mess the birds got to enjoy.

Step Three: Add Liquids and Spices!

To the almond and coconut mixture, add 2 cups of water and 1ish cups of coconut milk. Then add the lemon grass, onion things, and 8 curry leaves and return to boil (which takes maybe a minute). Turn the heat to the lowest setting and let simmer for two minutes (simmer means little bubbles in the liquid). After those two minutes, add 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (be careful, this stuff stains). Mix everything together.

Let everything simmer together for a bit (I told you what simmer means above). After a couple minutes, fish out the lemongrass bits.

Step Four: Add the Rice!

Add 2.5 cups long grain rice and mix it together with the broth you have made.

Cover with a lid and let cook on the lowest heat for 10 minutes. Don't peak unless you think it is burning. Mine was starting to stick to the bottom at the end of ten minutes but some aggressive stirring fixed that. Fish out the curry leaves so nobody gets a mouthful of leaf. When it is done, it should look something like this.

Step Five: Enjoy!

Put into bowls, grab your chopsticks, and dig in!

Hope you enjoyed that tutorial! Thank you to Thunder Bay Press for publishing this lovely cookbook and to my lovely roommate, I can't wait to meet you! 😄