Anchovies Fried Rice

This is one of the famous variants of nasi goreng, especially sold by the chinese decendant food vendors in Indonesia. Nasi Goreng Teri, means Anchovies Fried Rice. Nasi means "rice" and Goreng means "fried" in indonesian language. This recipe looks so complicated but it is actually not. In fact..it is pretty simple & easy cooking process but the result is superb & delicious. And you don't need to worry about hunting down the uncommon ingredients. If you don't like anchovies just replace it with chicken fillet or shrimps.

The recipe I have developed from my own experiements but some of the cooking techniques I adopted from one of my website's readers as well as observer who has provided me usefull input for posting this recipe . And of course the technique has been tested for generations from someone who's really specialises in Chinese food. Thx & credits to Ms. Francine Liem ;-).

Important Tips: 1. Use cold cooked rice or you can cook the rice and store it in the refrigerator overnight. Using freshly cooked rice will makes soft, bloated rice. 2. Use high temperature of stove during cooking, especially when the rice already added on the wok and while adding the sauce. The sauce must have a direct contact to the pan's surface and provide a sound like "cho-es" to obtain the best taste. You can observe during the cooking process, when some of the rice grain appear to spring away from the wok, then the rice is done and you made it right :-).

Note : This is for one portion to serve it right away. I've tried to make it double along with all ingredients but the result was not really satisfied compare to a single portion. I can not explain why but feel free if you want to try it out with more amount of rice and good luck ;-)

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. 1a

   Heat enough vegetable oil in a small frying pan and deep fry the anchovies/baby anchovies.

2. 1b

   Stir the anchovies until well cooked (golden brown).

3. 2

   Remove from heat and put aside to drain.

4. 3

   Chop the onion and slice the white part of spring onion.

5. 4

   Dice the carrot, and slice the pak choy/china cabbage/coy sum or any vegetables you use. Put aside.

6. 5

   Heat 1 tbsp butter or margarine in a wok over medium until it melted.

8. 6

   Add the chopped onion and sliced white spring onion. Sautee the onions and stir all the time until fragrant & smell good.

9. 7

   Add the sliced vegetable, add the hard part only and stir all the time until they are half cooked/just wilted.

10. 8

    Keep the vegetables somewhere at the edge of the pan to provide free space.

11. 9a

    Add little bit oil if necessary then add the beaten egg on the left space.

12. 9b

    Stir quickly to get it scrambled then mix them well.

13. 10

    Adjust the stove to high heat, add the cold cooked rice and stir quickly and press the rice with kitchen spoon or spatula to free the rice from lump. Ensure the rice are completely free from lump before adding the sauce in the next step.

14. 11

    Add the chicken broth powder and stir quickly.

15. 12

    Make a bit free space in the center of the wok, add 10 drop/2 tsp maggi seasoning directly onto wok's/saucepan's surface, until you hear the pan sounds "cho-es" :-). Stir quickly to mix.

16. 13

    Repeat the previous step, now add 5 drops/ 1 tsp fish sauce and stir again quickly.

17. 14

    Repeat the last step, now add the sugar and wait until the sugar melted then quickly stir to mix. You may observe during the frying process when the rice moisture are released by high heating, some of the rice grain appear to spring away from the pan's surface.

18. 15

    Add the ground black paper, stir to mix.

19. 16

    Adjust the seasoning, pre-check the saltiness before adding the salt because fish sauce is quite salty. Add the salt if necessary.

20. 17

    Add the leafy vegetables part, cook just shortly.

21. 18

    Last but not least add the fried anchovies. Serve hot with sliced cucumber and sprinkling with fried onions or whatever you are preferred.

Note & Tipp:

1. You can also drop the sauce on the top edge of the pan as long as you use a wok/shallow pan which allows the sauce having a direct contact with the pan's surface and at the same time the sauce flows downn quickly into the rice.

2. But for adding sugar I suggest you to let it melted in the botton as described on the recipe. Do not add sugar to the rice to prevent bloated/moisted fried rice.