Nasi goreng

Ingredients

• Cooked rice — cold, from the day before600 g
• Chicken breast — diced250 g
• Prawns150 g
• Shallots4
• Garlic4 clove
• Red chillies3
• Terasi shrimp paste1 tsp
• Kecap manis3 tbsp
• Eggs4
• Cabbage — shredded150 g
• Cucumber and fried shallotsto taste
• Neutral oil4 tbsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Pound the shallot, garlic, chilli and terasi to a paste in a mortar. It smells aggressive; that is correct, frying softens it.

   8 min

2. 2

   Heat the wok and fry the paste in the oil for two minutes, until it darkens and the smell turns deep.

   3 min

3. 3

   Add the chicken and fry three minutes, then the prawns and cabbage for two more.

   5 min

4. 4

   Tip in the cold rice, breaking up the lumps with the spatula, pour in the kecap manis and fry over a high flame for three minutes, tossing constantly.

   4 min

5. 5

   Fry the eggs separately until the edges are lacy and the yolks loose. Serve the rice with an egg on top, slices of cucumber and fried shallots.

   5 min

About the dish

The rice has to be yesterday's and cold. Freshly cooked rice holds too much water: it clumps and turns to porridge instead of separating into grains.

The base is bumbu, a paste of chilli, garlic, shallot and terasi shrimp paste. It is fried in the oil first, and it is what separates nasi goreng from any other fried rice.

Kecap manis, sweet soy sauce, supplies both colour and a caramel note. Ordinary soy with sugar stands in for the taste but not the texture: kecap is as thick as syrup.

Worth knowing

• — Terasi should be toasted before use — in a dry pan or wrapped in foil over a flame. Raw, its smell is crude.
• — If there is no day-old rice, spread fresh rice on a tray and chill it for an hour. Not the same thing, but it works.
• — Kecap manis is easy to make: reduce soy sauce with palm sugar one to one to a syrup.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

22 g

Carbs

70 g

More from Indonesia

• Rendang — Beef simmered in coconut milk for four hours, until the milk turns to oil and starts frying the meat.