Passport & Plate - Nasi Goreng
Indonesia | Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice (such as basmati rice)
1 chopped onion
2-3 cloves minced garlic
2 chopped leeks
3 chopped green onions
1 cubed chicken breast
3 Tbsp. ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp oil
1-2 tsp curry powder
2-3 Tbsp sambal badjaak or oelek (to taste)
2 eggs
How to prepare this recipeCook rice and set aside to cool.
Heat oil in a large wok. Add in chicken and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring to allow chicken to cook evenly. Add in onions and stir fry 1-2 minutes, until translucent.
Add leeks and garlic to wok and cook for about 30 seconds, until garlic is fragrant.
Add rice, fish sauce, ketjap manis, curry powder, and sambal to wok and cook until everything is heated throughout, about 3-5 minutes. Add green onions and remove from heat.
Fry two eggs, keeping those yolks deliciously runny.
Serve rice topped with fried egg and extra sambal, fish sauce, and ketjap manis on side.
The story behind this recipeGrowing up, most kids in my neighborhood looked forward to pizza, hamburgers, or mac and cheese for dinner. Not me, though: Me, I looked forward to nasi goreng.
In Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian variation of the Malay language), "goreng" means fried and "nasi" means rice, so, simply put, nasi goreng is Indonesian fried rice, and I couldn't get enough of it. For 10-year-old me, though, the story basically ended there. I never questioned why an Indonesian dish was such a staple menu item in our house when neither of my parents were Indonesian (my mother is a Dutch immigrant, my father Swiss). My mother cooked dinner every night and loved to experiment with exotic meals, and I assumed this repeat appearance on our dinner table had been born from that adventurous spirit.
It wasn't until I was 15 that the story behind the nasi goreng began to unfold.
My mother's nasi goreng is actually a recipe handed down from my grandmother, who was born and spent her childhood in Indonesia when it was still a Dutch colony. Japan later occupied the country during World War II, during which time my Oma (Dutch for “grandma”) and her family were forced into concentration camps. After Indonesia declared independence in 1945, Oma and her family moved to the Netherlands.
As a kid, I was completely unaware of all of this. My Oma, Opa, and all my aunts, uncles and cousins lived across the ocean, and during my grandparents' annual weeklong visit, concentration camps weren't at the top of Oma's list of conversation topics.
Yet Oma wrote down her story and sent a copy to my mom, and though I couldn't read Dutch, I pushed my mom to tell me Oma's history.
In learning Oma's history, nasi goreng became more than just an exotic meal for me; it became my way to connect with my buried roots and the grandmother I rarely see. When I prepare it in my own kitchen, I feel Oma cooking alongside me, even if I've never actually had the chance to stand in the kitchen beside her.
