Thursday, January 19, 2006

Family-Recipe Kampung Fried Rice

Here's a dish that I've loved since I was a kid.

My grandfather used to cook it. So did my uncle, aunts, and my mom. Since I've never tasted anything similar outside of the family, I'm assuming it's a family recipe (secret? not any more..)

Recently watched my mom cook it, and was surprised at how easy it was. Ingredients are few, cheap, and easy to find (in malaysia). Yet, the results are simply amazing.

Ingredients:

* Main ingredient - dried baby shrimps and anchovies. This provides the main flavour of the dish.
Soak it for a while, then chop into fine fine pieces (as in following pic). Tumbuk even better.

* Slices of cucumber (a little more than in pic would be good)

* Garlic. My grandfather used to just take several cloves and smash it (along with the skin). Since garlic is scarce here, I chop mine into fine pieces to get as much flavour out of my 2 miserable cloves.

* Chilly. Just put aside as much chilly as you think you can take, and add on one more. Spiciness brings out the best in the dish. I don't have cilly padi, so I used dried bird-eye chilly. More spicy, but less taste.


* Another important ingredient - Fish Sauce, either Nampla or budu. Nampla should be easier to find. They even sell it here in Edinburgh. In the event that both are not available, soy sauce could be use as a substitute but with a significant loss in flavour.


* (not in pic) Overnight rice, ie. cooked rice that has been kept in fridge overnight. Provides the ideal texture for frying.

* (not in pic) 1 egg.

Steps:

Stir fry garlic in oil till lightly brown, then add in the chopped shrimp and anchovies.
Within a few minutes, you will get a wonderful aroma, a quick preview of the final results. (At this point, if you don't like the smell, it's still not too late to make a detour. Just add water, vege, some meat, and you'll have a decent soup :p )

Add in the cucumbers and chilly padi. Splash on some Fish Sauce to season the ingredients.

When the cucumber is visibly softer, add in the rice. Mix it well, and add in a little more Fish sauce.


Finally, part the rice to give an opening in the center. Add a little oil, and crack in an egg. Keep stirring the center portion till you get scrambled egg. Mix up the whole dish, and server.


Eat while it's hot!

Family-Recipe Kampung Fried Rice

6 Comments:

At January 20, 2006 1:18 am, Blogger MooPig said...

yummy yummy

very terrer lah you shawn!

i miss budu and ulam!!!!

 
At January 20, 2006 3:41 am, Blogger Alicia said...

wow the nasi goreng looks nice :P.. yummy!

 
At January 20, 2006 9:22 am, Blogger shawnchin said...

Tengkiu tengkiu.. *paiseh*

This dish very easy to make wan... anyone oso can make wan.. *blush blush*

alicia: Thanks for dropping by. BTW, your blog's in my bookmark ;)

eileen: Get Nampla!! Should be available in London. It's actually the same thing as budu. When the sediments settle, you get a clear liquid at the top - Fish sauce loh!

 
At January 24, 2006 9:48 am, Blogger boo_licious said...

Interesting ingredients. I never thought of adding fish sauce in my fried rice. Thanks for the inspiration.

 
At January 24, 2006 5:47 pm, Blogger shawnchin said...

boo: no prob. I just learnt it from my mom as well ;)

 
At January 25, 2006 4:16 am, Blogger Alicia said...

hehe thanx for dropping by my blog too.. i've been visiting ur blog for some time without comments too xD

 

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