Javanese Fried Rice (Nasi Goreng Jawa)

My mother-in-law is not in town today so I got the chance to prepare dinner today. With some left over rice from yesterday, I made a fried rice which is very closed to my heart, the Javanese Fried Rice. I am a proud Indonesian from East Java and always think so highly of Javanese culinary. In fact, I always crave for Javanese food.

My Mom used to cook Javanese Fried Rice at home when she got not much ingredients in her fridge. As I've been away for so many years, I hardly get the chance to eat her Javanese Fried Rice so often. Few weeks ago, I consulted her on how to make this and I've been making this for three times now. So far, I'm quite pleased with the result and its taste was pretty close to my Mom's authentic Javanese Fried Rice.

Javanese Fried Rice is a fried rice made using spice paste and cooked meatless. Nonetheless, we can also add chicken meat or beef or even dried shrimps (ebi) into the mix.

Javanese Fried Rice/Nasi Goreng Jawa

My Nasi Goreng Jawa.

Ingredients:

2 plates of cold boiled rice

Sliced cabbage (or other vegetables, optional)

Tutorial:

1. Blend or grind all the ingredients for the spice paste by using food processor. I don't have a food processor so I used cobek dan ulekan (stone mortar and pestle to grind sambal in Indonesia) to grind the spice paste ingredients. Set aside.

Cobek dan ulekan I use to grind spices.

2. Preheat the cooking oil (as needed) in a wok. Put the eggs onto the hot oil and scramble them.

3. Sauté the spice paste onto the scramble eggs in the hot wok until fragrant.

4. Add in cabbage and cook for few minutes.

5. Put in the rice and stir until all the ingredients well-mixed. Add in the soy sauce and mix well. Taste the fried rice and add more salt or sugar or pepper again when necessary.

Making Javanese Fried Rice indeed takes more effort than the usual fried rice since we need to create the spice paste first instead of sautéing sliced onions/garlics but the final result is always rewarding. Some people garnish this fried rice with sunny side up egg and crackers to make this dish more appetizing.