Nasi Goreng

Indonesian fried rice dish with King Prawns, vegetables and a fried egg.

I visited Bali in 2014 as part of my honeymoon and had this dish several times as I liked it so much. The best version I had was at “Breeze” the excellent beach side restaurant at The Samaya hotel in Seminyak, on which I base this recipe.

The flavour in this dish comes from a wonderful curry paste like so many South East Asian dishes. This is fried in hot oil before adding some sliced carrot, chillies and red onion. Pre cooked jasmine rice is added next, which is best cooked in advance and kept in fridge for 1-2 hours – it just tastes better. Cooked prawns are then added with light soy, ketchup manis, tomato paste, peanuts and onion flakes which are stirred through the rice. Chopped coriander leaf, fresh tomato and cucumber slices are added and stirred through the rice. The dish is then served with the essential fried egg on top.

The recipe for the paste below gives two portions, the leftover half can either be frozen or stored in fridge in an airtight jar for up to seven days. You can use this same recipe to make the noodle version Mee Goreng or use the paste as a base for a curry then add coconut milk to make a sauce.

Serves two people

Preparation time 20 minutes, cooking time 10 minutes

Ingredients

For Nasi Goreng paste:

1 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Handful peanuts

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp turmeric

2 white onions – peeled

Thumb of root ginger – peeled, roughly chop 

2 stalks lemon grass – discard outer husks, thinly slice 

6 cloves garlic – peel

2 large red chillies

1 tsp shrimp paste

1 dessert spoon brown sugar

1 Tbsp Ketchup manis

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Method: Use a min blender to blitz into a smooth paste. Chopping the tough ingredients before blending helps make a smooth paste. Only use half for this recipe, the remainder can be frozen or stored in the fridge (see notes above).

For the dish:

2 portions of pre cooked Jasmine rice – best stored in fridge for 1-2 hours

Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp for dish plus extra to shallow fry prawns and fry egg

12-18 raw King prawns – devein and butterfly 

1 carrot – cut into thin batons

4 birds eye chilies – keep whole

1 red onion – cut into thin strips

1 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tbsp. ketchup manis

1 tbsp. light soy sauce

2-3 tbsp. peanuts

2-3 tbsp. onion flakes

5cm cucumber – slice and quarter

2 round tomatoes – cut into eighths 

Handful coriander leaf – roughly chopped

2 eggs – fried sunny side up

Method: Start by cooking the Prawns by shallow frying in very hot oil, this method is quick and helps to seal in the juices, as soon as they start to turn from grey to pink remove them from the oil and drain on absorbent paper. Next heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok or deep-frying pan until smoking hot, add the curry paste and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the carrot, onion and birds eye chillies and fry for a further minute then add the rice. Stir fry the rice until it fully breaks up and combines with the paste then add the pre cooked prawns. Add a tablespoon of tomato paste, ketchup manis and light soy sauce and stir into the rice until combined then add the onion flakes and peanuts. Stir fry for a further minute until dish is heated through. Add the coriander, tomatoes and cucumber, stir through the dish then turn off the heat. In a separate pan add a little oil and quickly fry 2 eggs sunny side up. Serve immediately with the fried egg on top of the rice.