Simple Nasi Goreng

Hi friends,

Perhaps you have heard the word Nasi Goreng and wondering what the heck is that mean? Well, Nasi means rice, and goreng means to fry. In translation would be fried rice. The word is Indonesian(as well as Malaysians, with slightly different pronunciation). If the Italian make pizza outta of their left overs and the Swedish have pytt i panna(a little bit on the pot/pan), the Indonesians have Nasi goreng.

As I mentioned in my instagram account, we eat nasi goreng mainly for breakfast, or when we have a late night and it’s rainy and cold. A plate of warm nasi goreng will be the best cure even when you are not sick! There are of course many ways and different spices to be used for nasi goreng. BUT, the most important thing when you are making nasi goreng is THE RICE. You can use the left over rice, or cook new batch of rice. But remember, that the rice needs to be cold. Why??? Because when the rice is cold it can absorb the spices a lot better, and you will likely have the round and savoury rice grains. Plus, it don’t usually stick onto your pans. You also need to cook the rice properly, unlike the local restaurant I went to, where they put a huge banner: NASI GORENG.. and it was not properly cooked. To make it worse, it was mushy on one part and raw on the other part and no taste what so ever. That was a big insult for me. especially I paid shitloads of money for a plate of sad joke! Sorry for my honesty! They don’t even know what the word nasi goreng means. ”this is Indonesian Nasi Goreng” they said to me. I looked at them and asked: ”which part of Indonesia??”. I swear they still tried to declare me as the idiot when we argued about Nasi goreng.. ha ha ha…

To my opinion, if anyone would like to make the so called Nasi goreng, at least try to be as close as possible to the authentic recipe. In this post, I will give you the basic spices you need for your nasi goreng. From this spice, you can improvise into something more. Add vegetable, use different kinds of meat/birds, eggs, beans and so on. Alright, let’s star with the basic recipe 🙂

Simple Nasi goreng

2-4 portions

2-4 portions of cold and whole grain of rice(Basmati would be a better choice for Nasi goreng).

Spices (choose if you would like the fresh ones, which means you will need to grind them; or dried and bottled spices. I would go for fresh):

0,5 tsp white pepper

1 tbs coriander (if you use ground- 1,5 tsp)

4-5 shallots (or half onion)

2 cloves garlic

0,5 nutmeg

salt

5 cm ginger

1/4 tsp of cinnamon.

Optional but essential: approximately 2 & 2 tbs of soya and sweet soya (otherwise use soya and a tiny bit of sugar)

your choice of meat/bird, vegetable(such as carrot, pak choi etc) or egg (or everything..why not?)

How to:

Grind everything, preferably with mortar. But if you use  cooking assistant, add a little bit of water.

In a large pan/wok, heat up some oil(remember, adding up oil a little bit if needed is okay), start with frying your choice of meat and throw in all the spices and stir-fry everything. Once it starts to smell really nice, put the soya and sweet soya. Make sure it is a little bubbly. Now reduce the heat and stir in your rice little by little. Turn the heat off and continue stirring until it completely blended.

Garnish will be chopped celery, leek, fried onion and shrimp chips(or similar).

Selamat Makan!