Thursday, June 19, 2008

Nasi goreng

Nasi goreng (literally: rice fried) is a well know Indonesian dish, especially in The Netherlands. It’s great for leftovers (rice, meat, vegetables). You have to use old rice, which has been cooked the day before. I use brown basmati rice. And you really need a wok.

The base is an onion-spice mixture. Most people buy a weak spice mixture from the supermarket (Nasi goreng mix). Forget about that. Making your own spice mixture is so much better! And it only takes 2 minutes. Really.

Sauté a thickly sliced onion for three minutes in a hot wok. Add:

1 tsp trassi (Indonesian shrimp paste)
1 tsp garlic, finely minced
1 tsp sweet soy sauce (ketjap manis) or dark soy sauce
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
3 tbsp thinly sliced fresh green chili peppers, deseed

Stir fry the onion-spice mixture for a minute, then add the cold rice. Keep on tossing until hot. This will only take a couple of minutes. While tossing the rice you can add almost anything you like: pre-fried shrimps, chicken, ham, egg (make a thin omelet and slice into strips), pre-cooked or raw vegetables (cut into very small cubes) and mushrooms. Rick Stein uses flaked mackerel, which seems like a good idea.

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