Nasi Goreng met Spiegelei

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large wok or wide heavy frying pan
• •Thin spatula or wok shovel
• •Separate small frying pan for eggs

Instructions

1. 1

   Loosen the rice

   Break the chilled rice apart with your fingers before the pan goes on. Each grain should be separate. If the rice is clumped and damp, spread it on a tray for ten minutes; a dry grain fries, a wet grain stews, and nasi goreng is not rice porridge with ambitions.

2. 2

   Build the base

   Heat one tablespoon of oil in a large wok or wide frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and cook for two minutes until glossy and soft at the edges, then add the garlic, chili, sambal, and trassi if using. Fry for thirty seconds, just until the kitchen smells deeply savory. Do not let the garlic brown; bitterness is a bad historian.

   Trassi is powerful and honest. If you use it, fry it properly in the oil so its sharpness turns round and savory before the rice arrives.
3. 3

   Fry the filling

   Add the chicken or tofu, leek, and carrot. Stir-fry for three to four minutes, until the leek softens and the carrot loses its raw bite but still keeps a little firmness. The pan should sound busy and dry, not wet and lazy.

4. 4

   Season the rice

   Add the rice and toss hard, scraping the bottom of the pan so the grains meet the oil and aromatics. Sprinkle in the coriander, cumin, and white pepper, then pour the ketjap manis and soy sauce around the edge of the pan where they can sizzle before they coat the rice. Fry for four to five minutes, until the rice is evenly brown, glossy, and hot all the way through.

5. 5

   Fry the eggs

   Taste the rice and add salt only if it needs it; ketjap and soy have already spoken. Push the rice to a warm side or cover it lightly. In a separate pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and fry the eggs sunny-side up until the whites are set and the yolks remain soft. A spiegelei, mirror egg, earns its Dutch name when the yolk shines back at you.

6. 6

   Serve at once

   Spoon the nasi goreng onto plates, set a fried egg on each portion, and scatter with fried shallots. Serve with cucumber, atjar tjampoer, kroepoek, and extra sambal at the table. I prefer to keep it a bit more relaxed, in the Dutch way: everything within reach, no ceremony, and everyone responsible for their own level of fire.

Chef Tips

• •Cook the rice the day before and chill it uncovered once it stops giving off heat, then cover it in the refrigerator. Cold dry rice is the difference between fried rice and a sticky apology.
• •Ketjap manis is not ordinary soy sauce with sugar stirred in at the last moment. It is thick, dark, and rounded, and it gives nasi goreng its Dutch-Indonesian table memory.
• •If you cannot find atjar tjampoer, use quick-pickled cucumber or carrot with a little vinegar, sugar, and salt. The plate needs that sour snap against the sweet ketjap and the yolk.
• •For a dinner party, fry the rice in two batches rather than crowding the pan. A full pan traps moisture, and moisture is where good nasi goes to lose its nerve.

Advance Preparation

• •Cook the rice 12 to 24 hours ahead, cool it quickly, and refrigerate it covered once cold.
• •The shallots, garlic, chili, leek, and carrot can be cut up to one day ahead and kept refrigerated in separate containers.
• •Leftover nasi goreng keeps two days refrigerated. Reheat in a hot pan with a teaspoon of oil, not in a microwave, so the grains separate again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 360g)