Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Nasi goreng pattaya

We invite our wobbly dining regulars to travel with us today to Malaysia, in search of "nasi goreng pattaya" – a tempting egg omelette envelope stuffed with chicken fried rice, with a distinctly Western splash of tomato ketchup. Nasi goreng pattaya is known as nasi goreng amplop in Indonesia, where nasi goreng ("fried rice") is …

[Tom 7]

Need a drool proogf keyboard.

To avoid complete kitchen destruction while passing out pissed with the cooker on all of this can be prepared beforehand for quick heat on returning from hostelry.

We keep chickens and ducks and sometime we get a lot of eggs hanging about and have found that making omelettes and freezing them is a remarkably good thing to do! Stack them with grease proof paper and you can just pull out as many as you need and have them micro-waved before the frying pan is even warmed.

[iranu]

Ketchup?

Sambal chilli sauce please.

[chivo243]

Re: Ketchup?

up vote for sure. Ketchup is helpful in some circumstances, but this really seems to miss the mark. There some things that Ketchup shouldn't go on, like Chicago Style Hotdogs.

Bring on the sambal variants.

[Twilight Turtle]

Re: Ketchup?

Alternatively, Ketjap Manis might make a more authentic substitution for Ketchup for the napalm-shy.

[Roq D. Kasba]

Mee Goreng

Mee (noodles) for those who don't like Nasi (rice) also works well

[Anonymous Coward]

Incredibly stupid question!

But do you have to boil the rice before you put it in?

[Vincent Ballard]

Re: Incredibly stupid question!

Since it says that traditionally you use left-over rice from yesterday, the answer must be "Yes". (And I personally would not do anything with left-over rice from yesterday other than chuck it in the bin: with its massive surface area, left-over rice is once of the main sources of food poisoning).

I have to wonder whether it's coincidence that this recipe should appear on El Reg in the same week that a menu offering Nazi Goring appeared on a major linguistics blog.

[John H Woods]

Re: Incredibly stupid question!

There's a difference between "left over" rice and that which has been "left out". I'm happy to keep rice till the next day when it has been cooled, covered and refrigerated. But eating last night's takeaway rice when it's been on the counter overnight, no chance. Bacillus cereus food poisoning is very unpleasant and rice is both cheap and quick to prepare: the reward to risk ratio simply does not justify eating day-old rice for most people, even if you'd be fine 90% of the time.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Incredibly stupid question!

Whenever I cook rice for lots of people there's some left. As long as you cover and fridge/freezer it as soon as it's cold, there's no problem. The risk is when it's left out for a long time.

I tend to freeze it in single portions in plastic tubs. A sprinkle of water, replace the lid and a minute in the microwave makes them perfect and fluffy, straight out of the freezer. should also be great for stir frying.

[launcap]

Re: Incredibly stupid question!

> I tend to freeze it in single portions in plastic tubs

Likewise (although my single portion is for two people).

Proper fried rice has to be pre-cooked and cooled - otherwise the starches are not cooked properly and don't fry will (turn into a glutinous mass).

Makes it easy to use up left-overs generally and is a good 'just-in-from-work-and-tired' meal.

(Something like cut up baccon/sausages/chicken/cold roast pork, stir fry till cooked with random assortment of sauces/spices/veggies, microwave pre-cooked egg-fried rice and serve with generous glass of something alcoholic)

[Efros]

Re: Incredibly stupid question!

Rice for frying should be dry, hence the preference for left over rice. Usually I cook my rice in the morning, actually slightly undercooked, wash it thoroughly with boiling water when its done and then leave to dry spread thinly on a baking sheet. In the evening the other ingredients are fried on a high heat until the desired level of doneness is achieved and some rice is added and the frying continued at high heat with the addition of lots of good soy sauce. The key is to keep the contents of the wok/pan moving all the time and to make sure everything gets really hot. Our practice has always been to add the uncooked omelette mix to the cooked Nasi Goreng while it is still on the heat and in the wok, vigorous movement of the eggy nasi goodness maintained until the egg has been cooked.

[Neil Barnes]

In the absence of Katerina

Could you not perhaps of borrowed มาลัย (which means Garland of Flowers in Thai) from Steve Bong?

I'm sure she'd have loved the change of pace.

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have thought banana ketchup but looks tasty all the same.

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

Is this site sponsered by the Beeb? Mary Berry did this on Friday sans omlette.

[John Tserkezis]

Thank you El Reg, thank you...

...for making me hungry again...

[Trixr]

A bit of spice IN the rice, please. A dash of sambal oeluk is the thing. Also, instead of plain soy sauce, kecap manis, soy sauce and a bit of sweet chili mixed together - if you have them. Shrimp paste is probably going a bit far for post-pub.

[dan1980]

Drinking must be a far more sedate and earlier-ending affair in Lester's world than elsewhere.

Dealing with raw chicken and omelettes is not something I would attempt in my post-session state!

[I ain't Spartacus]

Fried rice is for leftovers. Most weekends see my fridge full of stuff to be eaten up, after people have been round on Friday evening. I currently have ham and lemon chicken. There's rice in the freezer. So long as I'm sober enough to chop an onion, I'm OK.

Although a decent-ish bag of frozen prawns should do you. My fried rice would have frozen sweetcorn, for both taste and colour, and I'd expect to be able to produce something from leftovers at least one weekend in two.

[launcap]

> frozen sweetcorn

<Shudder>. How does freezing the yellow-bird-droppings-of-the-Evil-One make them edible?

(Not a fan of sweetcorn..)

[Anonymous Coward]

First-hand experience of Pattaya (the cuisine, rather than the prostitutes) can set us straight

Fish dishes aside, there goes my comment out the window.

[severs1966]

Pattaya's cuisine... no thanks

Having visited Pattaya on a number of occasions (primarily to convert whoremongers to the more wholesome pursuit of Scuba Diving) I have to say that its cuisine is the least Thai in Thailand, due to what might be described as "pandering to international tourists". It has a fish'n'chip shop, for dog's sake, not to mention countless pizzerias.

Also, the Issaan food influence originating in migrant labour in the tourist industry leads to just a few too many street carts selling bags of fried insects.

On the positive side, some other street carts will sell coconut sticky rice and mango, which is delicious, or deep fried battered banana, to which I am now addicted.

The recipe dealt with here is also suited for shoving into heated & split pitta bread, which is good hold-it-in-your-hands food. Under these circumstances, added diced cucumber (at the point of shovelling it into the pittas) is suprisingly lovely.

Finally, and maybe most important... ketchup? I know the word originated in Malay, just like the phrase "Nasi Goreng", but really? For after the pub? Surely this should be chilli sauce, and furthermore it should be Rooster Sauce (Sriracha), which improves everything.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha

[ukgnome]

As it happens I make these for the kids, well sort of. I use baked beans, butter cooked mushrooms and chopped up vege sausages. Although when I partake myself I tend to dash in some green chili sauce and an extra grind of pepper.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thai Eggy Envelope

The Thai food stall that's often on Tatchbrook street market near Pimlico presents its pad thai wrapped in a single egg omelette.

However I've never seen the same done in any Thai eatery of any level here in the UK or in Thaliand itself.