Name: Gary Rhodes' Nasi Lemak and Sambal Prawn
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4 people
Ingredients: 300 Long grain rice, washed in a sieve until water runs clear; g 400ml tin coconut milk; 1 Water; 100 Salt; ml Thin slices of ginger; 0.5 Medium sized fresh king prawns, peeled; tsp Small or ½ large pineapple, cut into ½ cm cubes; 4 Light soft brown sugar; 20 Thick coconut cream; 1 Lime juice; 2 Salt; tbsp Vegetable oil; 3 Red chillies, each halved with seeds removed (1 or 2 more can be added for a more fiery finish); tbsp 1cm piece of fresh ginger, sliced; 4 Large red onion, sliced; tbsp Cloves of garlic, crushed; 0.5 Water

Why it works: Ginger and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,621 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,621 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Coconut + limetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together934 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Coconut + pineappletop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together651 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Rice + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,063 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pineapple + limetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together469 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, coconut, milk, ginger, pineapple, sugar, cream):

Vanillafits better
Mangofits better
Bananafits better
Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, coconut, milk, ginger, pineapple, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Pineapple	1 cup chunks (165g)	82
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Gary Rhodes' Nasi Lemak and Sambal Prawn