Nasi Goreng Laksa

Nasi goreng Laksa

"Today's steamed rice is tomorrow's fried rice," so recites many forwarded joke emails on what defines an Asian. Another one of my favourite is "You know you're Indonesian when you carry a bottle of your own chilli wherever you go." Well, with the airline rules to strict these days, I can't do that but I was so delighted when I found a Nando stand selling any 3 sauces and marinates for $10 in the Kingscross festival.

The most stereotypical Indonesian dish is Nasi Goreng, which literally translates to fried rice. I'm not sure if it if possible to find the original recipe even if you land in Indonesia and search all over. Indonesia is an archipelago made up of tens of thousands of islands and is a multi ethnic society. My mother has her own recipe as do my nanny, my aunts, my cousins and restaurants from those that reside within hotels to street side hawkers. Multiply that by the number of islands and you'll roughly get the number of variation available.

My nasi goreng nestled on a Japanese desert bowl that I received for my birthday

Nasi goreng is one of those great yet simple and nurturing food that employs, in its least elaborate form, humble ingredients such as rice, soy sauce and eggs. I made a version tonight using the jar of laksa paste (bumbu laksa) in my cupboard, some black bean anchovies (ikan teri bumbu tauco hitam), fresh eggs and steamed rice, still freshy steaming from my rice cooker. The great thing about this is that it's vegetarian and it calls for ingredients that you can very easily find in your pantry. If not, you could always take up my phillosophy in cooking: Improvise!

To make my Nasi Goreng Laksa, you'll need

• 2 fresh eggs
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of laksa paste (I used Asia at home which you could easily find in any Australian supermarket)
• a soup bowl of rice
• 2 teaspoons of jarred Asian anchovies/ikan teri/ikan bilis (but if you don't have this, don't worry, just use a small can of tuna in oil or springwater).

Heat a wok or pan with 2 tablespoon of oil until it's smokey then pour in beaten eggs into the wok. This bit is fun, you get to see the eggs curdle. Fry the egg, quickly but don't over do it. Take it off the heat and rest the egg on a plate when it's still slightly runny. next put the laksa sauce and the anchovy or tuna into the wok and stir around. Add the rice and stir well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the eggs and mix around. At this stage the eggs would be broken off into little bits scattered around. Serve!