Nasi Goreng - serves 4 people.

In 2007 we made our first visit to Indonesia. Our filming trip had included Korea a place we have filmed in now four times over a period of six or seven years. I didn't have much knowledge of Indonesia other than what I had read about Bali so it was a new adventure. We arrived in Jakarta and travelled 100kms by taxi to our hotel the Permata Krakatau Hotel & golf course which turned out to be a number of different buildings rather like a holiday village. Our journey there took in a lot of the countryside which was full of paddy fields and small villages with people sitting out taking in the evening air. I immediately fell in love with the country and the people who seemed so friendly.


The hotel was not far from the island volcano Krakatau which, on August 26,1883, erupted causing what was one of the largest natural disasters in recorded history. The explosion was equivalent to 200 mega tonnes of TNT - about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Bomb, which devastated Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion was heard more than 3000 miles away and fine ashes from the eruption were carried by upper level winds as far away as New York City. and a series of large tsunami waves generated by the main explosion, some reaching a height of nearly 40 meters (more than 120 feet) above sea level, killed more than 36,000 people in the coastal towns and villages.


In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888.

The food at the hotel was very good but one of my favourite dishes was Nasi Goreng. Nasi goreng literally means fried rice and is often accompanied by additional items such as a fried eggs, chicken and kripuk (fried crackers / chips made of shrimp or vegetables). Nasi goreng can be eaten at any time of day, although the Indonesians often eat it during breakfast, and mostly the ingredients are a previous day's dinner leftover.

THE RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of rice (basmati)
• 4 cups of water.
• 1 chicken stock cube.
• 2 tbls of oil (groundnut or vegetable oil)
• 3 onions chopped small.
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped small
• 2 green chillies (medium) chopped.
• 2 skinless chicken breasts diced.
• 400g raw prawns
• ½ tbls coriander seeds
• 1 tsp of shrimp paste.
• ½ tsp of sugar.
• 2 tsps of Kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
• 1 tbls soy sauce
• ½ lettuce finely sliced.
• ½ cucumber sliced.
• 4 eggs (one per person)

METHOD:

Cooking the rice:

1. Wash the rice once. Crumble the stock cube into the water and bring to the boil. Add the rice and let it boil for two to three minuets. Cover with a lid, turn off the gas and let it stand for around 15 minutes, loosed with a fork and let it cool down. This can be done the day before and when cool put in the fridge until required.

Main recipe:

1. Put oil in Cobb wok.
2. Add onions, garlic and chillies and fry until softened. Do not let the colour. When soft remove from the pan and put to one side.
3. Add a little more oil to the pan if necessary and heat until very hot.
4. Add the coriander, shrimp paste and sugar and let it cook for 30 secs stirring it all the time.
5. Add the chicken once again stirring until the chicken has turned white and is cooked.
6. Now return the onion mix to the pan containing the chicken mix well. making sure the heat is high add the rice to the chicken. Keep tossing it until the rice is heated through.
7. Add the Kecip mantis, soy sauce and spring onions, turn down the heat to keep the mixture hot while you fry the four eggs.
8. To serve arrange the lettuce around the outside of 4 plates. Place the rice mixture in the centre. Garnish with the cucumber strips and put a fried egg on top of the rice.
9. Serve immediately and enjoy.