When we were in Indonesia, we were introduced to Nasi Goreng, which literally translates to “fried rice”. The Indonesian version, however, was far tastier than anything we had ever experienced with Chinese food take-out in the USA. It soon became our “go-to” dish, especially when we needed to keep to a budget. It was a particularly safe choice when ordering room service at hotels or eating in park cafeterias – even though we had our share terrible pizzas, somehow no one who ever offered n goring ever messed it up. As soon as we got home, Lindsay combed Pinterest, looking for a recipe.
Nasi Goreng in Malaysia, Thailand & Indonesia
Turns out, there are hundreds of variations on nasi goring. Lindsay had a few requirements in mind for her ideal recipe: a fried egg, sweet soy sauce, vegetarian, and full of veggies. In the end, she took bits and pieces from a couple different blogs and created her own recipe. She also failed (multiple times!) to cook a sunny side up egg, so in order to keep the yolks runny she had to just flip them and cook them rare. Whether or not it’s technically authentic doesn’t matter – as soon as Igor took a bite, he was flooded with memories of Southeast Asia!
INGREDIENTS
Serves 2
SWEET SOY SAUCE
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
RICE
2 tbsp EVOO + 2 tbsp EVOO for eggs
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red chili, minced
1 carrot, grated
¼ cup mung bean sprout
1 scallion, sliced
3 cups day-old rice*
4 eggs
Salt & pepper to taste
GARNISHES
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
½ cucumber, sliced
½ tomato, cut into wedges
*If you don’t have leftover rice, make the rice the day before and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Trust me – the texture is completely difficult, and allows the rice to be more evenly coated with the sauce. I tried this recipe with rice cooked the same day, and it was too sticky.
INSTRUCTIONS
MAKE THE SWEET SOY SAUCE: Whisk the brown sugar into the soy sauce in a sauce pan over medium heat. Allow mixture to reduce (it will foam from time to time – whisk it and remove temporarily from heat from time to time as needed to keep it from boiling over) until it has the consistency of maple syrup, around 5-10min. Remove from heat and allow to cool (it will thicken even more as it reaches room temperature).
Note on the pepper – first time I made this with a red pepper and it was *fiery*. Second time, the shad orange peppers and the result was rather bland.
SAUTÉ THE AROMATICS: Heat half the EVOO in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chili, and cook until softened, about 10min.
ADD THE RICE & THE SWEET SOY SAUCE: Mix the rice around the pan with a spoon to make sure it gets evenly coated with the soy sauce. Don’t worry if the sauce seems really thick after cooling – it will loosen up as it reheats.
ADD THE VEGGIES: Mix the veggies, season with salt & pepper and allow the mixture to get coated with sauce / heat up for about 2min, then remove from heat. Top with cilantro garnish and divide onto 2 plates. Serve with cucumber & tomato garnish on the side.
COOK THE EGGS: The key here is to have runny yolks. If you feel comfortable cooking the eggs sunny side up, go for it! It’s much prettier. Otherwise, coat a clean frying pan with EVOO and crack the eggs into the pan. Turn the heat on to medium, and cook on one side for about 2min, then gently flip the eggs over and cook on the other side for about 1min. Gently press the yolk to check how rare it is. Remove from heat and serve on top of plated rice.
Nasi Goreng – enjoy!