Nasi Goreng Indonesian Fried Rice

A couple of weeks ago our friend, aka frequent dinner guest (FDG), brought me a gift. Actually two gifts the first was an Indonesian cookbook from his trip to Indonesia and the second a packet of Saffron from his trip to Egypt. As you can imagine to a foodie these make the best gifts:) The cookbook is called " The best of Indonesian Cooking" by Yasa Boga and published by Marshall Caven Dish. Here is a picture of the cookbook and I checked on Amazon but it's not available, so maybe you can try to find it else where.

There are so many recipes that look and sound so good. Just flipping through the pages makes my mouth water. Honestly, I couldn't decide which recipe to try first. It was like a mouth-watering overload and I wanted to try them all at once. But I finally decided on two recipes for two dishes that we are familiar with, Nasi Goreng or Fried Rice and Chicken Satay with peanut sauce. The first time my husband and I went to an Indonesian restaurant this is what the waiter recommended to us, and we both enjoyed it very much. Today I'll share the Nasi Goreng recipe and in another post I will share the Chicken Satay recipe. This is a very easy and fast recipe to make, also a great way to use up left over white rice.

First is the recipe as it is written in the book and following it I will share my substitute ingredients in case you need them. Also I used dark soy sauce so the color on yours rice and Satay maybe lighter.

Ingredients:
5 Tbs. oil
600 grams (1.32 lb. )refrigerated rice*
1-2 Tbs. sweet soy sauce

Spices (ground) :
5 shallots
3 garlic cloves
3-5 red chillies
1/2 tsp. dried shrimp paste

Garnishes:
sliced cucumbers
sliced tomato
fried shallots
fried eggs (per the book image)

Saute ground spices in oil until fragrant and thoroughly cooked. Add rice and sweet soy sauce. Mix well until rice becomes warm. Serve fried rice with fried eggs, finely sliced cucumber and fried shallots.

*Note: Use cooled rice, preferably rice that has been left overnight, to make fried rice. Newly-cooked rice breaks easily and sticks to the frying pan.

My substitutes:
Sweet soy sauce is soy sauce that has had refined brown sugar added to it. I only had dark Chinese soy sauce to use, so I added 1 teaspoon to the soy sauce and allow it to dissolve completely. Unfortunately I cannot find shrimp paste so I used 1 teaspoon of Fish sauce mixed with a pinch of paprika (for the color). I know not very authentic but it will add the fishy taste and smell to the rice that the shrimp paste would. This is something that I have been doing for a while and I haven't noticed the missing shrimp paste yet. The image in the book had sliced tomatoes along with the cucumbers, so I added them even though the recipe doesn't call for tomatoes.

Another tip to people that can't or don't eat very spicy food, use less chillies or perhaps omit them all together. But add a little paprika so the rice still has some of the color.


What did my husband and I think of this recipe ? YUMMM !!! it was delicious and my husband asked if we could have this again very soon:) I can't wait to make it again for us and for our friend FDG. Thanks again FDG for my gifts that keep on giving, hehe. Now I just need to figure out what to make with my Saffron, hmm .....