Nasi kerabu

Step 1: Pour ¾ cup boiling water over 20 dried blue pea flowers (butterfly pea) and leave for 10 minutes, until the water is inky blue. Strain, pressing the flowers, and keep the blue water.

Step 2: Put 10 ½ oz jasmine rice in a pan with the blue water, 1 ½ cups water, the bruised half of 2 lemongrass stalks and ⅔ tsp salt. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, cover, turn to the lowest heat and cook for 15 minutes; then rest, covered, off the heat for 10 minutes. Keep lime and tamarind well away from the pot: a common mistake is adding acid to the rice, which turns the blue a muddy purple.

Step 3: Toast 2 ⅛ oz desiccated coconut in a dry frying pan over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 6–8 minutes until evenly nut-brown and smelling of toffee. Pound it in a mortar while warm until it turns clumpy and oily.

Step 4: Season 7 oz firm tofu with ⅓ tsp salt. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in the same pan over a medium-high heat and fry the tofu for 3 minutes a side until golden with crisp edges, then cut into strips.

Step 5: Whisk 1 tbsp tamarind paste, 2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp palm sugar (gula Melaka), 1 tbsp tamari or gluten-free soy sauce, 2 bird's eye chillies and 1 shallot with 2 tbsp water until the sugar dissolves. It should taste sour first, then salty-sweet and hot.

Step 6: Toss the sliced 2 lemongrass stalks, 5 makrut lime leaves, 3 ½ oz long beans or green beans, 3 ½ oz bean sprouts, 1 cucumber, torn 1 handful Vietnamese mint (daun kesum), 1 handful Thai basil and 1 torch ginger flower together in a bowl.

Step 7: Mound the blue rice in the middle of each plate, arrange the herbs and tofu around it, scatter with the toasted coconut and pass the dressing to spoon over and mix in at the table.