Nasi Goreng Merah Putih: Red (Spicy Shrimp) & White (Chicken) Fried Rice

Thanks to Dhi, Fitri and Dwi's Red and White food blog event, I learnt that I am not the only Indonesian living outside Indonesia with growing sense of nationalism. There are many out there who knew exactly how I felt.

I knew I had to participate in the event, and this dish I am presenting, is everything about cheesy, corny, sappy, and nostalgic me.

When I was young, I don't grow up eating my mom's cooking. She works hard and never had any time to cook (play a sappy music here). But, waitaminute! That was hardly a sad thing as there were plenty of food to eat (ordered in, take away, deliveries, etc hehe - change music to Indonesian dang dut here please). There's a place where we often order from, it is a small restaurant tucked in a corner at the end of my street, the name is Tjandra. Regulars like us know how to order beyond their famous chicken noodle dish :p. My personal favorite were their super tasty red fried rice and white fried rice. The red fried rice is typical Indonesian and the white fried rice is adapted from Chinese fried rice. No other place did fried rice like this one.

Another trip down the memory lane, I recall my primary 6 days...when I had my home economics final exam. Girls had to cook and boys had to do something technical (last time we girls swore "lucky them". All they did was connect a few cables and we had to do all the sweating, chopping, and sauteeing!). We were clueless, our mom and aunties and nannies worked hard preparing all the ingredients, all we had to do was throwing everything into a wok, and yet so many of us still managed dramatic failures, ranging from throwing a plate into flaming fire to burning our rice LOL. I am amazed our school building survived that final exam LOL. Guess what was the dish I first learnt how to cook, my final exam piece? (If the answer isn't fried rice, then it is a very twisted story build up lol) Yes, it was fried rice. Gloriously red and spicy fried rice, with all its classic and corny embellishment such as lettuce and sliced tomatoes base. Our male classmates tried our cooking and most of them ended up spitting stuff into the bins HAHAHA!

So, I've decided to recreate this dish for the event, as nothing represents everything about me and my life back in Indonesia more than this dish.

Nasi Goreng Merah Putih
Red (Spicy Shrimp) and White (Chicken) Fried Rice

Recipe
Red (Spicy Shrimp) Fried Rice
- 1 cup of rice, cooked one day ahead, refrigerated over night
- 1 pack of shrimps, deshelled, deveined
- 1 egg
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 4 cloves of shallot, chopped
- 4 red chilli (remove the core and seeds if you do not want it spicy, adjust the amount of chilli according to your taste)
- lime juice
- 1 tbsp shrimp paste
- salt, sugar, pepper, sweet soy sauce (kecap manis), soy sauce, ketchup, sambal ABC
- oil

Marinate shrimps in salt, pepper and lime juice. In food processor, grind garlic, shallot, chilli, shrimp paste, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, pepper and some oil (if you don't have a food processor, just like me, do it manually or just slice the ingredients as finely as you can). Saute shrimps in hot oil until just pink, set aside. Saute spice mixture in a bit of oil, add rice, add seasoning and sauces, ketchup and kecap manis being the most dominant, add shrimps, add eggs, set aside.

White (Chicken) Fried Rice
- 1 cup of rice, cooked one day ahead, refrigerated over night
- 1 egg
- 1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast meat, whack them with a wooden stick to tenderize, cut into cubes
- 3 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- chicken stock powder (optional), salt, pepper, sugar

Marinate chicken breast meat with salt, pepper and sugar. Saute shallots, add chicken pieces until a bit browned, add rice, season well, add egg, serve

Cheesy and Corny Assembly
Normal days, you don't even have to make both red and white :p and you can serve it in bowls or plates or even scoop the rice off the wok, or heck! Bring the wok and rest it on your lap in front of your TV ala me.

But for this event, I wanna go cheesy and corny. Lay lettuce leaves on a long plate, arrange slices of fresh tomatoes on top, just like how I did when I was 12 LOL! Scoop red fried rice into a bowl, make it dense enough to hold the shape, fill until half full, then fill the cup with white fried rice. I was going for the inverted cone shape (tumpeng), which is associated with celebrations in Indonesia, but I don't have anything in cone shape or even a martini glass, so I went for dome shape instead, with a shrimp on top hehe..and fried rice calls for shrimp crackers, so I slapped that on too!

PS. I wanted to record myself singing either Indonesia's national anthem or the Independence Day song...but I worry it might only be a disgrace for my home country hehe

Happy Independence Day, Indonesia! MERDEKA!