A perfect Balinese rice recipe (nasi goreng)

This nasi goreng is a traditional recipe and you can use as a breakfast or with different sidedishes.

 

What you need:

For the Balinese spice paste

• ¾ tsp black peppercorns
• ¼ nutmeg, freshly grated
• 15gr kemirinuts
• ½ tsp sesame seeds
• 30g shallots, peeled, roughly chopped
• 1 cm fresh ginger, roughly chopped
• 1 cm fresh galanagal (from the freezer), roughly chopped
• 2 cm fresh tumeric (from the freezer), roughly chopped
• 2 lemongrass stalks, the white inner side, in peices of 2 cm and broosed
• two pieces of garlic
• 2 red rawit (bird's eye chillies), roughly chopped
• ½ tsp shrimp paste
• 1½ tsp gula jawa (palm sugar)
• salt to taste
• 1½ tbsp oil
• ¼ lime juice

For the Indonesian stir-fried rice

• oil, for shallow frying
• 300g shallots, peeled, thinly sliced
• salt to taste
• 300g long garin rice
• 500ml water
• 100g fine long green beans, cut into 2 cm pieces
• 2 gloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 red rawit (bird's-eye chillies), thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp ketjap manis
• 250g shrimps
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 8 spring onions, thinly sliced

How to prepare it:

1. For the Balinese spice paste, grind the peppercorns, nutmeg, nuts and sesame seeds to a fine powder in a morter. Add remaining Balinese spice paste ingredients and grind to a very smooth paste.
   
2. Best to use leftover cold rice, or cook and cool it on a plate.
   
3. Cook the beans in a pan of boiling, salted water until just tender. Drain well, then to keep it green, refresh under cold water and set aside.
   
4. Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok over a high heat, until just smoking. Add the remaining sliced shallots, the garlic, chillies and carrot and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes, or until the carrot is just tender.
   
5. Stir in the Balinese spice paste and stir-fry for a further minute, then add the tomato purée and ketjap manis and stir-fry for 20-30 seconds.
   
6. Add the shrimps, rice and blanched green beans and stir-fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes, or until heated through. Add the soy sauce and spring onions and stir until well combined, then remove the pan from the heat. Set aside and keep warm.
   
7. Just before serving, heat the oil in a large frying pan, crack in the eggs, one at a time, and fry for 1-2 minutes, or until cooked to your liking, spooning the hot oil over the yolks as they cook.
   
8. To serve, spoon the Indonesian stir-fried rice into the centre of four warm serving plates. Sprinkle over crisp fried shallots. Top each serving with a fried egg. Serve with baskets of prawn crackers.
   

After Rick Stein