Rice and Noodle Dishes
 
 
Nasi Goreng Lengkap 
(Festive Yellow Rice)
Ingredients (Serves 8-10)
1kg (2lb) long grain rice
4 tablespoons oil
2 large onions, finely sliced
3 gloves garlic, finely chopped
8 cups coconut milk
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
3 duan salam or 6 curry leaves
2 strips pandanus leaf (optional)
Banana leaves or bamboo leaves (for serving)
Garnish :
6 marbled eggs
2 green cucumbers
3 fresh red chillies
3 fresh green chillies
 
 If rice needs washing, wash well beforehand and allow it to drain for at least 1 hour. 
Heat oil in a large saucepan with a well fitting lid. Fry onions and garlic until onions are soft and golden, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add rice and fry for a minute or two, then add coconut milk, salt, turmeric and leaves for flavouring. Bring to the boil, stirring with a long spoon. As soon as the liquid comes to the boil, turn heat very low, cover tightly with lid and allow to steam for 20 minutes.  
Uncover, quickly stir in with a fork any coconut milk that remains unabsorbedaround edge of pan, replace lid and leave on same low heat for a further 3 minutes. Turn off heat, uncover and allow steam to escape and rice to cool slightly.  
Remove leaves used for flavouring and gently fork rice onto a large platter or a tray lined with well washed banana or bamboo leaves. Shape rice into a cone, pressing firmly. Use pieces of greased banana leaf or foil to do this. Surround with any accompaniments (which should be made beforehand) and garnish. 

Garnish : Take the six marbled eggs (made by standing shelled hard boiled eggs in water and food colouring for 2 hours) and cut each in halves lengthways.  
Score the skin of the cucumbers with a fork and cut in very thin slices. 
Make a flower with one of the red chillies, and cut the others into thin diagonal slices. Flip out seeds with the point of a small knife.  
To make a chilli flower, cut off the stem end and slit several times with opint of a sharp knife from about 2.5cm (1inch) above the tip to the cut end of the stem. Drop into iced water to make the strips curl.  
Put the flower on top of the cone, scatter the sliced chillies around the side of the cone, and put the sliced cucumbers and marbled egss around the base.
 
 
Nasi Goreng 
(Fried Rice)
Ingredients (Serves 6-8) 
3 eggs 
Salt and pepper 
Oil for frying 
250g (8oz) raw prawns 
500g (1lb) lean beef steak 
2 medium onions 
2 cloves garlic 
 ½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste (trasi) 
4 cups cold cooked rice 
6 spring onions, thinly sliced 
2 tablespoons light soy sauce 
3 tablespoons onion flakes 
1 green cucumber, thinly sliced		 Beat eggs with salt and pepper to taste. Heat very little oil in a frying pan and make an omelette with half the beaten eggs. Turn on a plate to cool (do not fold omelette). Repeat the process with the remaining beaten eggs. When cool, put one omelette on top of the other, roll up and cut into thin strips. 
Shell and de-vein prawns, cut beef into fine strips. Chop onions roughly and put in blender container with garlic and trasi. Cover and blend into a paste. (If blender is not available, finely chop onions and crush garlic. Dissolve trasi in a little hot water. Combine these three ingredients.) 
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan or wok and fry the blended ingredients until cooked. Add prawns and meat to the pan and fry, stirring constantly, until they are cooked. Add 2 more tablespoons of oil, and when hot stir in the rice and spring onions, tossing and mixing throughly until very hot. Sprinkle with soy sauce and mix evenly. 
Serve the friend rice garnished with strips of omelette, fried onion flakes and cucumber.
 
 
Mie Goreng 
(Fried Noodles)
Ingredients (Serves 4)
250g (8oz) fine egg noodles
250g (8oz) prawns, raw or cooked
4 tablespoons peanut oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, seeded and sliced
½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste (trasi)
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
small wedge of cabbage, finely shredded
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1-2 tablespoons light soy sauce
Garnish :
fried onion flakes
4 spring onions
thinly sliced cucumber
Soak the noodles in hot water, whilst bringing a large saucepan of water to the boil. Drain noodles and drop into the boiling water & return to the boil for 1-3 minutes. Keep testing one strand every ½ minute or so because they must not overcook ; like good spaghetti, they must be tender but still firm to bite. As soon as they reach this stage, drain in colander and run cold water through them until they are cool, or else they will continue to cook under their own heat. Drain well.
Shell and de-vein prawns. Heat peanut oil in a wok or large deep frying pan. Fry onion, garlic and chilli until onion is soft and golden. Add trasi and prawns, and stir fry until cooked through. Add celery, cabbage, salt and pepper and fry for a further minute or until tender. Vegetables should retain their crispness.
Add noodles and keep turning the mixture so that every part of it gets heated through. Season with soy sauce to taste. Pile into a serving dish and sprinkle onion flakes over the top. Chop the spring onions, green leaves and all, and sprinkle over. Arrange cucumber slices around the edge of the dish. Serve hot.
 
 
Lemper 
(Rice Rolls with Spicy Filling)
Ingredients 
500g (1lb) glutinous rice
2 cups water
1 cup thick coconut milk
250g (8oz) finely chopped chicken
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 curry leaves
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste (trasi)
squeeze of lemon juice
squares of banana leaf or aluminium foil
Wash rice and drain. Put into saucepan with water and bring to the boil. then turn heat very low, cover pan tightly and steam for 15 minutes. Mix ¾ cup of the coconut milk with ½ cup of water in a small saucepan and heat without boiling. Add to rice, stir gently with a fork, cover and steam for 5-10 minutes until coconut milk is absorbed. Leave to cool.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a wok or medium sized saucepan, and fry the garlic and curry leaves for 1 minute. Add ground spices and trasi and fry, stirring, for a minute longer, crushing the trasi with a spoon. Add the chicken and fry until the colour changes and it no longer looks raw. Add reserved ¼ cup coconut milk and simmer uncovered on a low heat until well cooked and quite dry. Add lemon juice to taste, check seasoning and add more slat and pepper if required. Cool.
Take a large tablespoon of rice and flatten on a piece of banana leaf till 12mm (½ inch) thick. Put a good teaspoonful of rice of the filling in the middle and mould the rice around it into a cylindrical shape. Roll up in the banana leaf and secure with wooden toothpicks, or roll in the foil to make a neat parcel. These parcels can be heated over a barbeque or steamed for 15 minutes, then allowed to cool again. They are served at room temperature as a snack.
 
 
Ketupat 
(Compressed Rice Cakes)
Ingredients (Serves 6)
500g (1lb) short or medium grain rice
4 cups water
banana leaf or aluminium foil
Bring the water and rice to boil, cover tightly with lid, turn heat very low and cook for 35-40 minutes until all water is absorbed. Stir vigourously with wooden spoon, then press rice into a cake tin or pie plate to a depth of 2.5cm (½ inch). Use a piece of washed and greased banana leaf or greased aluminium foil to cover the surface of the rice and put another plate on top, then press down very firmly. Put a weight on top and leave at room temperature for a few hours untli very firm. Remove weight, plate and banana leaf and use a wet knife to cut rice into 5cm (2 inch) squares.
 
 
Nasi Lemak 
(Coconut Rice)
Ingredients (Serves 4-5)
500g (1lb) medium or long grain rice
1¼ cups coconut milk
2½ teaspoons salt
Soak rice in cold water overnight. Drain rice, spread in top part of a steamer and steam over rapidly boiling water for 30 minutes. Halfway through steaming, stir rice and turn it so that the rice on the bottom comes to the top, and vice versa.
Gently heat the coconut milk with the salt in a lrage saucepan, stirring. Do not boil. Add the steamed rice, stir well, cover tightly and let stand for a further 30 minutes, by which time the milk should be completely absorbed. Once more spread the rice in the top of the steamer, bring water back to the boil and steam for 30 minutes, starting on high heat and gradually turning heat lower until in the end the water merely simmers. 
Serve hot with meat, poultry, fish or vegetable dishes, both mild and hot.
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