Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice with Pork and Tomato)

I’m starting off this blog with a common staple Indonesian breakfast dish, known as Nasi Goreng. This is one simple dish to make – especially if you have left over steamed rice from the previous night. Also, you can be creative in putting the ingredients together. I think the key ingredient that differentiates Indonesian fried rice with others is sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) and shrimp paste (belacan or terasi). Whenever you have fried rice in Indonesia, it’s almost guaranteed that the color will be a bit brownish because of the sweet soy sauce.

However, the recipe below is more of Chinese-Indonesian Fried Rice as I’m not using belacan. I’m making the “twist” because my three-year old might not like the smell of the shrimp paste. Yup, the paste can smell pretty awful to some people. Honestly, to me, I find it a very fragrant smell.

Without further ado, here you go:

Tips: Cook the rice the day before – leave it overnight in the fridge so that it will not be sticky and it’ll be easier to mix with all the other ingredients. Also, do not add the egg after the rice – you don’t want to have a “watery” fried rice.

Ingredients:

• 3 plates of cooked rice
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 medium-sized onion – diced
• 4 oz pork – cut into bite pieces
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
• 1 tomato – cut into wedges
• salt, as needed
• pepper, as needed
• Spring onion (optional – to garnish)

Directions:

• Add 1 tablespoon oil into a wok or large frying pan and heat until hot and slightly smoking. Add garlic and onion, wait until the onion a bit brownish.
• Then, add pork and stir-fry until it’s fully cooked, then, set aside in the same wok/pan to make some room for frying egg.
• Add 1 tablespoon oil, then, egg to the wok/pan and scramble the egg until it is dried up.
• Now, add the rice, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, salt, pepper and mix all the ingredients well.
• Once all is mixed well, add the tomato to the fried rice and stir-fry for two more minutes.
• Finally, add egg mixture and continue to stir-fry for another minute.
• The fried rice is now done. You can garnish with the spring onion and serve hot.