Nasi Goreng - Variations

Variations

There is no single recipe of nasi goreng, every fried rice dish with certain mixtures, additions, ingredients, and toppings could lead to another recipe of nasi goreng. Usually, in Indonesian households, the ingredients of nasi goreng to be prepared for daily breakfast in the morning could be the leftovers of the previous day's meals preserved in the refrigerator, added with fresh vegetables and eggs. The basic ingredients of nasi goreng are rice left over from yesterday's meal and sliced or ground bumbu (spices) mixture of shallot, garlic, pepper, salt, tomato ketchup, sambal or chili sauce, and usually sweet soy sauce. Some variants may add saus tiram (oyster sauce), ang-ciu (Chinese cooking red wine), kecap ikan (fish sauce), or kecap inggris (Worcestershire sauce). The texture of leftover cooked rice is considered more suitable for nasi goreng than that of newly cooked rice, as freshly cooked rice is too moist and soft.

Some of common nasi goreng recipes are:

• Nasi goreng ayam: the most common nasi goreng with chicken, spices and sweet soy sauce, the color is golden brown
• Nasi goreng istimewa: special nasi goreng, usually refer to nasi goreng ayam with addition of fried eggs topping
• Nasi goreng ati ampela: nasi goreng with chicken gizzard and liver
• Nasi goreng sapi: nasi goreng with beef
• Nasi goreng kambing: nasi goreng with goat meat
• Nasi goreng pete: nasi goreng with green stinky beans, the combo variation of nasi goreng kambing-pete is also popular
• Nasi goreng sea food: nasi goreng with seafood such as cuttlefish, prawns, shellfish and fish
• Nasi goreng ikan asin: nasi goreng with salted fish usually without sweet soy sauce, as the result the color is paler than regular nasi goreng
• Nasi goreng teri Medan: nasi goreng with salted anchovy, specialty of Medan, North Sumatra
• Nasi goreng Aceh: Aceh style spicy shrimp nasi goreng
• Nasi goreng Jawa Timur: East Javanese style of nasi goreng, similar with nasi goreng ayam, but sweet soy sauce is replaced with tomato and chili sauce, as the result the color is red instead of golden brown. The Makassar nasi goreng also red, similar to this one
• Nasi goreng Magelangan: Central Javanese Magelang style of chicken nasi goreng mixed with noodles, it can be considered as the crossover between nasi goreng and mie goreng, it is sometimes called as nasi ruwet .
• Nasi goreng gila: lit. "crazy nasi goreng" a rather recent variation, refer to lightly seasoned fried rice topped with rich-tasted stir-fried vegetables with chicken, beef or seafoods. The meat or fish proportion may took nearly half (or more) volume of the entire dish, hence the word "crazy/gila". There are also "Nasi gila" variant which is cooked with less ketchup.
• Nasi goreng amplop or nasi goreng pattaya: nasi goreng "enveloped" in thin omelette, can be found in Indonesia and Malaysia
• Nasi goreng santri: means priest's nasi goreng, refer to a meatless vegetarian nasi goreng
• Nasi goreng sosis: nasi goreng with sausages
• Nasi goreng Hawaii or also called nasi goreng nanas: nasi goreng with pineapple
• Nasi goreng Hongkong: nasi goreng Hongkong style, more closely related to Chinese fried rice and similar to Japanese Chahan (Yakimeshi)

Condiments:

• Krupuk: various types of crackers, usually emping or prawn crackers
• Acar: pickles made from vinegar preserved cucumber, shallots, carrot, and small chilli pepper
• Sambal: somekind of traditional chilli sauce
• Slices of fresh vegetables: usually cucumber, tomato, lettuce and cabbage
• Fried eggs: fried eggs, omelette or shredded omelette could be served as nasi goreng toppings