Nasi Goreng

This evening I was speaking to a good friend who LIVED IN JAPAN for about six months, and was surprised that she had never made or heard of Nasi Goreng.

We were first introduced to this wonderful, economical dish by friends in South Carolina. They had been raised in the Dutch Reform community in Canada, and therefore had deep cultural ties with the Indonesian culture, and had been raised eating Nasi Goreng.

Like most fried rice dishes, this one is very flexible, and a great way to use up the bits of this and that in your refrigerator. You need already cooked cold rice to make this dish - so make this the day after you have Chinese take-out to use up that last big container of white rice.

Ingredients:

cold cooked rice, preferably jasmine rice

onion

garlic

bits of vegetables (zucchini, peas, snow peas, carrots, peppers, tomato ....)

bits of meat or seafood (chicken, shrimp, beef, ham, pork)

3 or more eggs

a packet of Nasi Goreng seasoning (from Asian grocery store), or chili powder, corriander, curry powder, salt, pepper

sweet soy sauce (again, from the Asian grocery store)

First:

Chop an onion or two, and sautee until translucent, and then add some chopped garlic.

Meanwhile, crack and beat a few eggs. Add the eggs to the pan, and scramble them so they are in little bits.

At this point you can add the rice, and either add the seasoning packet or add the individual seasonings (I've always used the packets, but one of the recipes I found online said a teaspoon of curry powder, 1/2 tsp each of corriander and chili powder, and 2 tsps soy sauce)

Add in the (already cooked) bits of meat or seafood, mix it all in and let it sit for a few minutes.

Serve with sweet soy sauce on top. YUMMY!

sweet soy sauce really makes this dish - and is also a quick addition to many other asian or pan-asian dishes. The bottle you see to the right is the one I buy. I find it at a Vietnamese run store in Philadelphia - but I was also able to find it when I lived in South Carolina. If you can't find it nearby, you can always order it online.

... and here are some people who probably know more than this American cook of Irish-English-German-French-Swedish descent. (Notice that none of my ancestors used chopsticks very often - though I did have a Japanese Great Aunt by marriage):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_goreng

http://www.indochef.com/indo_23.shtml

http://www.melroseflowers.com/mkic/indo_recipes/rice/indonesian_fried_rice.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/NASI-GORENG-INDONESIAN-FRIED-RICE-15397