Nasi Kerabu

Ingredients

• 400 g jasmine rice
• 30 dried butterfly pea flowers
• 700 ml water
• 1 tsp salt, for the rice
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, whole
• 100 g long beans, finely sliced
• 1/4 white cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 sprigs daun kesum (Vietnamese mint)
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, for shredding
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 lemongrass stalk, finely sliced
• 1 cucumber, finely sliced
• 100 g beansprouts
• 120 g grated coconut
• 8 dried chillies
• 6 shallots, for the sambal
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 cm galangal
• 1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil, for the sambal
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 2 tbsp tamarind water
• 1 tsp salt, for the sambal
• 4 chicken thighs, bone in
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp salt, for the chicken
• 1 lemongrass stalk, minced
• 2 tbsp rice flour
• oil for shallow frying
• 2 salted duck eggs, halved
• prawn crackers, to serve
• budu or fish sauce, to serve

Before you cook

• Rinse the jasmine rice in cold water until the water runs clear, then drain it.
• Rub the chicken thighs with the curry powder, turmeric, a teaspoon of salt and the minced lemongrass, then leave them for thirty minutes.
• Slice the long beans, cabbage, shallots, lemongrass and cucumber as finely as you can and drop them into a bowl of iced water.
• Shred six kaffir lime leaves into hair-fine strips and pick the leaves off the daun kesum.
• Soak the dried chillies in hot water for twenty minutes, then drain them and blend them with the six shallots, garlic, galangal and belacan to a paste.

Steps

1. Pour 200 ml of hot water over the butterfly pea flowers and leave them to steep for fifteen minutes.
2. Strain the indigo liquid into a jug, pressing the flowers for the last of the colour.
3. Tip the drained rice into a saucepan with the blue liquid, the remaining 500 ml of water, a teaspoon of salt and the two whole lime leaves.
4. Bring the pan to a boil, then cover it and drop the heat to its lowest setting.
5. Cook the rice for twelve minutes, then take it off the heat and leave it covered for ten minutes.
6. Put the grated coconut in a dry frying pan over medium-low heat.
7. Toast the coconut for eight to twelve minutes, stirring constantly, until it turns dark brown and smells nutty.
8. Pound or blitz the toasted coconut until the oil comes out and it clumps into a coarse paste, then set this kerisik aside.
9. Heat two tablespoons of oil in the same pan over medium heat.
10. Fry the blended chilli paste for eight minutes, until it darkens and the oil separates.
11. Stir in the palm sugar, tamarind water and a teaspoon of salt, then cook for two minutes more.
12. Fold half the kerisik through the sambal and take the pan off the heat.
13. Dust the marinated chicken thighs all over with the rice flour.
14. Heat 2 cm of oil in a deep pan until a crumb of batter sizzles the instant it lands.
15. Fry the chicken for twelve to fourteen minutes, turning once, until the crust is dark and the juices run clear.
16. Drain the chicken on a rack.
17. Drain the sliced vegetables and pat them completely dry.
18. Toss the vegetables with the shredded lime leaves, daun kesum, beansprouts and the remaining kerisik.
19. Fluff the blue rice with a fork and mound it onto four plates.
20. Pile the herb salad over the rice and spoon the sambal alongside.
21. Add a fried chicken thigh, half a salted egg and a few prawn crackers to each plate.
22. Serve with a small dish of budu for spooning over the rice.