Indonesian fried rice (nasi goreng)

This recipe is a personal favourite of mine – comfort food with a Southeast Asian twist. It can be adapted to whatever ingredients you have to hand, but I prefer this chicken fried rice variation, and I always like it best with a fried egg on top.

Preparation time: Around 30 minutes

Cooking time: Around 20 minutes

This is a recipe that I adapted from one I picked up at a cookery school in Bali, Indonesia, but the basic recipe can be amended to suit your personal preferences (for example, some people add sliced mushrooms, green beans, leeks or carrot matchsticks for extra variety). I like my nasi goreng fairly spicy, but the chilli levels can also be adapted to personal tastes, or I omit the chillies completely when making this for my children. I would say that the one ingredient you can’t make an authentic nasi goreng without is kecap manis, the Indonesian sweet soy sauce. I brought a bottle back from Bali originally, but it’s now much more widely available in UK supermarkets.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• Chicken breasts – 2, diced into small pieces

• Coconut oil – 1 tbsp.

• Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed

• Shallots – 4, finely diced (or 1 onion)

• Galangal – 1 thumb sized piece, finely chopped (or root ginger if you can’t find galangal)

• Lemongrass – 1 stalk, sliced (or use lemongrass paste)

• Red chillies – 4, finely chopped (or use a chilli paste) (if using)

• Spring onions – a bunch, sliced into one-inch pieces

• Pak choi – 2, sliced

• Ready-cooked basmati rice – 2 x 250g pouches

• Lime – 1, zested and juiced

• Fish sauce – 1 tbsp.

• Soy sauce – 1 tbsp.

• Palm sugar – 1 tbsp.

• Tomato puree – 1 tbsp.

• Kecap manis – 2 tbsp.

• Eggs – 4

• Vegetable oil – for frying

• Roasted peanuts – 100g, ground

• Readymade crispy onions – to serve

• Sweet chilli sauce – to serve

Method:

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large wok, and then fry the diced chicken until it just before it starts to colour;

2. Add the garlic, shallots and galangal to the wok (and the sliced lemongrass if you’re using a fresh stalk), and fry them all until softened and beginning to colour. Add the chillies (or chilli paste) if using, and mixed everything together;

3. Add the spring onions to the wok, fry for another minute, and then add the pak choi and mix everything together so that the pak choi starts to wilt/cook;

4. Add the ready-cooked rice to the wok (there’s no need to microwave it first), and break up any lumps, then mix everything together well;

5. Add the lime zest, lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, palm sugar, tomato puree and lemongrass paste (if you’re not using fresh lemongrass) to the wok and mix well, then add the kecap manis, mix again, and put on a low heat to stay warm;

6. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan, and fry the eggs to your liking;

7. While the eggs are cooking, add 2/3rds of the ground peanuts to the fried rice, mix well, and then dish up into bowls. Scatter the rest of the ground peanuts and the crispy onions on top of the fried rice, then top each bowl with a fried egg, and finally drizzle the sweet chilli sauce over the top to your liking.

Nasi goreng