Nasi Goreng Halia (Ginger Fried Rice)

Its the second day of raya and we are full to the brim with lemang and rendang so we decided to make something simple with no fuss. We had some leftover rice from yesterday, so we decided to make nasi goreng halia. This is what we normally have for breakfast. Its one of those must haves at least once a week type meal. Served with telur mata lembu (fried egg sunny side up).
I know I said i was gonna post the curry, paceri, etc but I got distracted and sidetracked and since this is easier to write about and fast to make, I just thought this one goes first lah. Students banyak suka nie pasal senang nak buat. I remember cause i was a student once long time ago... hmmm, i hear the sniggering in the background.

So here goes:

The ingredients that needs pounding

The Ingredients
You might need to add more to this ingredient, it all depends on how much rice you are frying...pandai pandai lah, k. ;-)
• 4 to 5 bawang kecik (shallots)
• 1 and half inches halia (ginger).
• 8 to 10 cili api (small chillies).
• 1 cili merah (red chilli).
• Garam kasar (course salt) to taste.
All the ingredients above has to be finely pounded.
• A handful of ikan bilis (dried anchovies).
Add the ikan bilis to pounded ingredients. This should'nt be pounded finely. Just broken slightly. Tengok kat video nanti.
• Nasi sejuk - its important for the rice to be cold rice. If you have just cooked the rice, make sure you let it cool down first before frying.

Nasi goreng halia, its good. Percaya- lah. ;-)

The Method

• Once the ingredients are pounded, heat your wok up, keep the fire to a medium low and put some oil, enough to cook the pounded ingredients.
• Add the pounded ingredients to the hot oil. When its cooked ie the oil has surfaced and the ingredients is slightly yellow (jangan lah sampai yellow sangat), put in the rice and start mixing it well.
• Put down the fire so that you don't burn the rice while mixing the rice. Make sure it spreads evenly on the rice and there are no clumps.
• Fry an egg and put it on the fried rice and its ready to be served. ;-) Kalau nak pedas lagi, letak lah cili padi potong.

Senang kan? And very sedap.

Here is the video. Again... apologies for the kelam kabut-ness of the video. ;-)

So... masak lah dengan kasih sayang, memang lagi sedap. Enjoy!

Nasi Minyak

Its the first day of raya and mum and I are hard at work in the kitchen. Chewah! We're making nasi minyak. kari kambing, paceri nenas dah siap tapi tak blog lagi. I thought I'd do it in this order... nasi dulu, then kari and then paceri. And last but not least the acar.

Terliur den...

And oh... by the way, this is the first recipe post so kalau tersilap sini sana ampun je lah. I'm still new with this blogging thing. And the video at the end tu was done with my phone nye camera eje so tak lah canggih sangat. The editing pun kelam kabut. Nanti bila dah terror nanti... i will put music all, k? Hahaha.

Anyway here goes...

Onions and garlic sliced this way

The Preparation

• Clean 3 cups of rice (basmati rice is the best lah but regular rice pun ok gak), then strain it. For 3 cups of rice, you will need about 4 cups of water to be prepared earlier  to cook the rice. Put it aside first.
• Slice a whole onion bulat bulat and garlic dalam 5 or 6 ketul macam gambar ni hah.
• Ginger about 5 to 6 inches, crushed and blended using some of the water for the rice. Then strain it so you only get the juice of the ginger. Pakai yang ready made tu ok, kot but tak ori lah. ;-)
• Also you need 'bahan penumis' ie bunga lawang (star anise), kayu manis (cinnamon) & buah pelaga (cardamon).

The Method

• Put your rice cooker pot on the fire with some cooking oil and some ghee till its hot. You may need to judge for yourself how much oil and ghee. The more you use, the oilier it is lah so don't use too much but use enough so that the nasi will be nicely glazed. But more ghee than the cooking oil...I think that was what mum said. Remember to put course salt (garam kasar) in as well.
• Then start putting in your 'bahan penumis' into the oil & ghee followed by the onions and garlic. Cook it till its yellow (not burnt, yeah). The aroma is divine at this point.
• Add the water for the rice (the one that was put aside earlier) and also the ginger juice that was prepared. You may need to add a bit more water...just a bit. And close the lid so everything is mixed and cooked well together...sebati lah kalau orang melayu cakap... chewah.
• Once its boiling, add the rice and close the lid.
• Move the pot to the rice cooker heater and let it cook like regular rice.
• When the rice is cooked, stir gently and leave it for a few minutes.
• Add a bit of colouring so you get some specks of colour in the rice. You only want a few bits of the rice to be coloured. We've used yellow and green but its really whatever colour you want. You can also use daun pandan (pandan leaves) if you do not want to use artificial colouring.

Anyway, here is the kelam kabut video of the making of this nasi minyak in our kelam kabut kitchen. My younger sister, Eileena is in this video along with my mum.

I hope you will try it... kalau tak jadi, jangan lah salah kan kita orang cause kita nye jadi-menjadi jadi and very lah the sedap bila makan dengan kari kambing, paceri nenas and acar.

So... masak lah dengan kasih sayang, memang lagi sedap. ;-) Enjoy!