Christina Makes Nasi Lemak at Kopitiam | From Outside the Test Kitchen | Bon Appétit

hello so we are in the Test Kitchen obviously it's very exciting time to be up on up teeth because it is October which means that it is time for our best new restaurants in America issue which we do every year it is a list of the ten best places to eat right now and among them is a very special restaurant that's right here in New York City it's number six it's called Copa tiem it is an all-day Malaysian Cafe that is run by these two amazing women moon Lin Tsai who is the GM and Keo ping who is the chef there's one dish that I get every time I go there which is the nasi lemak that is pictured here it is this just delicious bed of coconut rice topped with crispy fried anchovies dressed in this like spicy sambal sauce and because they are right here in York City I thought that we might pay them a visit and see how they actually make it okay so this is the first time I'm seeing you guys I think it's hot announcement can you just tell me a little bit about like cope team culture and also what the word cope tiem comes from kopi teams means coffee shop copies stand for coffee and tea I mean shops and yeah kofi so I obviously want to talk about food that's why I'm here today so of all the amazing food that I get here there is one dish that I come back to over and over again and that is obviously the nasi lemak it's everything that I ever want to eat in a dish and I'm trying to think of how to describe it so it's basically coconut rice or coconut pond on rice and then on top you have this like beautiful caramelized dome of like crispy fried anchovies and salted peanuts dressed in this spicy sambal that you guys make okay so I'm hoping that we can go into the kitchen and cook this together right now sounds like forget how tiny the kitchen is so we're starting with the sambal right so yeah walk me through it okay so we have the shallots and we have garlic and then we have this red Chili's and also this is the dry chilies you need to serve them into the hot water and then is the raw anchovies and then this is the peanuts and then this is the tamarind juice or a tamarind sauce right and then this is the Colossians and this is the optional one you can choose to put it or not - and then this is the pandan leaves the egg and also the a cucumber so first we're gonna blend all these things together okay so it's chili paste that has anchovies but that you're gonna use to dress more anchovies not yeah I mean we love anchovies so I'm gonna put all the shallots in the garlic in and then I like a blended first and then I add that troubies after then don't use all of them because the rest we're gonna use that for to fry it the half a liter so about half of this they're dancing okay there you go and then we're gonna put back into that bowl oh you're gonna put it back in here yes the color is not really that attractive okay so you have anchovy paste that's done mm-hmm so now the chewy oh just like straight in there all the seeds are left in yes yes so these are Chili's the dried Chili's are soaked and then you've already and then you drain them so these are the dried Chili's we're using I'm just curious like what do you call these for us we called them directly the dried Chili's that's what I call them too and then I realized it's confusing when people go shopping for for these Chili's like what do you look for and I always say you know just go to any age market like go to Chinatown like there will always be some kind of chili that looks approximately like this it's like gonna be about the size of your thumb they're all pretty interchangeable right so whether you're using a Taiwan or a Chinese one the qualities are similar enough rate that you can use whatever you can find yes okay so this is the Dubois hum can you smell it oh yeah and so this chili paste that we just made what are we going to do with it like how does this all come together so I'm gonna go over to that that stove and I started to cook everything together this one should be nice and and the shallot and anchovy and garlic yes so we're basically making a chili paste with dried anchovies that's correct this is the oil and what kind of oil are you using vegetables oil sorry it's so cool that it's already a paste mm-hmm okay so why do you do this first and not just put both of them in together at once because the the shallots or once the shallots and the garlic's wants to heat the the heat you know if you give you a little bit better fragrance uh-huh so it's the same thing as any kind of any recipe where you're starting by cooking an onion or like garlic or any of that stuff first yes what are you looking for in the shallot mixture that tells you you're ready to add this you judge by the the color it gets darker it gets darker and also the smells tell you that when it's really like the it has a stronger smells as you're cooking this out like the majority of what you're doing is taking the water out of the mixture and you're like reducing it down basically until it becomes like super concentrated and jammy and like all the flavors really develop and marry yes and then this is the tamarind sauce it's just totally it's an acidic note yes so we're gonna let this go for about 40 minutes and we'll keep checking back on it and stirring it but in the meantime we're gonna do rice yes let's talk about rice one thing obviously that we did for the recipe was we gave measured quantities of rice and water right in my house like no one measures water to cook rice you use your hand as like a measuring tool like did you guys do that growing up - chuckles she she learned what I was taught is that you like you have it in an even layer right mhm and then you put your you just put your palm down on the top of the rice yes and then I was taught that you pour water right up until it reaches this like like the second knuckle knuckle the second like that joint the yes this this yeah second where it bends yes okay so we're making the coconut pond on rice yeah I feel like it no okay yes it's touching right at the base of my face yeah okay so voila got your pond on leaves and we're gonna knock them we're gonna knock them yeah so it's easier to later it's not all just all over okay so we're just nodding it and then it'll we just will drop it in there and then we'll pluck it right out later a pinch of salt a pinch of salt okay you do the honors and then you just let it go and then later we'll be mixing in the coconut milk and fluffing it up so while the rice is cooking let's figure out like everything else we have to do so this is our sauce and it's like cooked out into this like really awesome dark jammy thick paste now we have the first man trophies right yes okay okay so this is this vegetable oil again yes a special oil I usually like to start with the peanuts first so we're gonna fry the peanuts first and then we're gonna take them out and then we'll put in the anchovies but eventually they'll all be mixed up together okay and then for the peanuts just remember once you take it out to let it cool down make sure you spread all of them like equally like flat so that they they are fine okay okay this is already done yes yeah the oil is already very hot so do you want me to grab this little yes please okay so Kevin I can smell it yeah I'm gonna do that and taking me right back to my so you have to like spread it out like yes so he's not give them give him some breathing room yes then the next time I'm just gonna continue doing it is the anchovies and you don't need to wait for the oil to like reheat it's already hot enough he's already hot enough okay so when you're frying these how do you know when they're done well the color and then you can tell them they are crunchy because sometimes when you think that they are cooked but they're so soft so is - it's like golden darker Brown okay so this is partial of the sauce that we cooked earlier so you kind of like mixed it together then then this one try not to put like too much of that so it's enough to do kind of like caramels everything so you're just looking to mix in enough sauce so that the anchovies and the peanuts kind of cling together because eventually what we're gonna do is we're gonna pack it into a bowl and then put the rice on top and then we're gonna invert the whole thing yes so that the anchovy dome is kind of like perfectly circular on the top okay so we're back to the rice so it's like basically almost cooked through yes like 3/4 done okay and now comes the fun part yes rice facial so coconut milk to go inside the rice and we're gonna let steam out pour it in yes and then you're gonna fluff the rice outdoors okay so I'm leaving the pandan leaves in here for now for aromatics and then just kind of like flopping the milk through the rice it smells super good so a little bit more okay great so we're like almost there yeah shall we prep the garden shoes let's do it okay kiyo told me something once about the way that the cucumbers are arranged because you have like the bowl of rice and anchovies and then you have the cucumbers in this like little fan around well we believe in like eight is the lucky numbers for our logo for instance there are eight of the rule that represents like good energy star form good energy is a compact good energy so we're gonna do eight cucumber slices in a fan of good energy that comes back to you I love it these are a little thick no yeah this is perfect yeah that is perfect any other eggs so they have what the hard-boiled egg so you just want to cut that in half here you're steep and on Elise mmm and then put it in the on the bottom mm-hmm then you put like this so you want to be like half and chobe mixture half price a little bit less is like forty percent of the entry fees and then 60 percent of the rice okay so we're gonna do the rice now okay I think I did pretty okay the measurement looks right to me so you can see from the rice itself like every pieces of rice is covered with the coconut milk oh yeah that's what we call it individually coating the grains yeah then you put it here under you and you're packing it in fairly tightly right mm-hmm yes and then you flip it flip it and then and then this is when you start to garnish them so he goes that way from left to right one Chu oops three four five six seven and eight and you put the two eggs together here comes the smiley face and then you finish your eggs here with something right you finish it with your like special mushroom sauce yes the mushroom soy sauce I top it up a little bit because when I was a kid I liked to eat it with soy sauce you know I like as as a pinning night we are very specific to our own soy sauce but it has to be that way okay so banana leaf square and then is this the right bowl yes okay just want to make sure I'm cutting yeah [Laughter] okay what do you think really pack that in maybe that looks good yeah like however like put on which is funny to catch you I'm gonna do I'm so scared [Music] and then my cukes so I start from here yeah I will fan and then my little egg guys go over here mm-hmm and then can I get is it this guy yes just like a little bit of soy to finish yes and there we go oh and the sambar oh wait you talk about that really quickly right here okay so this is so we made a sambar obviously for the dried anchovies but there's another type of sambal that they have at coba tiem that you can actually buy highly recommend buying some of the stuff to keep it home because it is good on literally everything shall we take our our beautiful creations out I sort of feel like you're supposed to use chopsticks and I actually fundamentally I'm opposed to it because I want to shovel as much of it into my mouth as possible and using a chopstick offends me from doing that can I dig in yeah I did an awesome job hard to get everything in one bite the Furby whisperer I mean it's really good the race is actually the research I turned out perfectly well thank you so much for letting me come in and cook this with you today and if you're watching this at home make the recipe at home it's on Bon Appetit calm and if you're in New York don't make it just come here and eat it at kopi tiam and hang out with us and look for us in the back [Music]

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 582,394

Keywords: from the test kitchen, christina chaey, christina bon appetit, christina makes, christina makes malaysian food, christina makes nasi lemak, nasi lemak, nasi lemak recipe, make nasi lemak, making nasi lemak, how to nasi lemak, how to make nasi lemak, nasi lemak kopitiam, nasi lemak bon appetit, kopitiam, kopitiam restaurant, kopitiam bon appetit, malaysian food, malaysian recipe, bon appetit malaysian recipe, nasi lemak malaysian, malaysian, chaey, food, bon appetit

Id: ex3hbXchxiQ

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 11 2019