Wednesday 26 August 2015

Grandma's Fried Rice


This is the fried rice that my mum and auntie still rave about up till today. I don't remember grandma cooking this fried rice for me. Maybe it is because it is loaded with chillies.



Since I wanted very much to taste this fried rice, I had no choice (what else hah..hah..) but to cook it myself. The spice paste is the same as the spice paste used to make grandma's kerabu.

First thing I did was to toast the belacan. You must toast your belacan for that powerful belacan aroma. 


Toast it in a pan until it is dry and crumbly. The smell at this point is wonderful. Your neighbors will either get hungry or curse you for the pong.


The spice paste is made of belacan, dried shrimps (hae bee), shallots and chillies. 


I pounded the ingredients using my prized heirloom, the trusty lesung batu (mortar and pestle). The blended paste will not smell or taste as good if you used a blender. Serious.


Then this spice paste is sauteed in hot oil until fragrant. Just add rice and toss it around until it is evenly coated with the spice paste. Then simply add sliced cucumbers and it's all done and good to go.

And oh, if you want more oomph, add some pepper for the nice peppery aroma. I know, there's already chillies but adding pepper will take it to another level. Unless if you can't take the heat.

I heard that grandma also added kangkung or beansprouts. There is no need for any meat or prawns because this fried rice as it is, is already awesome. Of course you can choose to add meat and/or prawns to make it even more awesome. I topped mine with a fried egg for some protein hee..hee..

You know, a funny thing happened. As I was getting my phone ready to snap the above pics, my grandma's photo appeared on my photo slideshow. Those were the photos I snapped of her back in June, about a month before she passed away.

It was as if grandma was paying me a visit and asking me "lu cho hamik?" (what are you doing?). LOL! 


Well, after my first mouthful, I can say that it was worth the effort. No wonder my mum and auntie love this so much. Next time, I will add some chicken and prawns for a more luxurious fried rice. I am sure grandma would approve.











Grandma's Fried Rice
Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :
- 1 tablespoon of belacan, toasted till fragrant.
- 4 red chillies
- 5 shallots
- 2 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked to soften
- One big bowl of overnight rice (sorry, this is agak-agak. Enough for 2 persons but I walloped the whole lot in one sitting)
- some sliced cucumbers

Method :
1. Pound or blend the belacan, chillies, shallots and dried shrimps until fine.
2. Heat oil in a wok and saute the spice paste until fragrant.
3. Add rice and fry until the rice is well coated with the spice paste.
4. Add sliced cucumbers and give the rice a final stir.
5. Serve immediately.

48 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see the ingredients in your grandma's fried rice.. For my mum's fried rice, it's always two trademark fried rice - bacon fried rice and beef fried rice.. Her bacon fried rice got 3 ingredients - long beans/french beans, bacon and egg. Her beef fried rice also got 3 ingredients - beef chunks, green beans (from the can) and egg. Sedap to the max. But I see your grandma's fried rice lagi best, got belacan and dried shrimps wei... Must be very fragrant.. I want 3 bowls please !!

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    1. Louiz, your mum's beef fried rice sounds interesting. I've never eaten fried rice with beef, wor! I must experiment. But must find tender cut of beef first.

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  2. Ooooo...salivating!!! Bet I would love this...a lot!!! I love your egg too! Just the way I like it!!! I just cannot understand why so many in the food business be it at a stall, shop or even at the classier cafe or restaurant...cannot seem to fry eggs right. Don't see what is so hard about doing that. Tsk! Tsk!

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    1. Oh! I got your stamp of approval on the egg. Yippee!! :D

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  3. Wah belacan fried rice. Tambah petai best oh!

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  4. Wahhhh that's a lot of belacan.

    My resdung prone nose get itchy looking at it but I'm sure I would love it too. Hihihi

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  5. aiyoyo!!! FRIED RICE!! I love fried rice of all kinds lah, whatever style be it cina, kampung, pattaya, amerika, ikan masin, ayam, nenas, cili padi, sambal, tomyum eye etc etc.. fried rice and I can wallop a lot and putting aside the haunting word "carbo", haha!!! xD

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    1. Me too, cannot resist fried rice! But I cannot eat too much or too often. It makes me put on weight very easily :(

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  6. I agree!! fried rice doesn't need to have lots of things inside.. I can survive with the most basic fried rice and still love them, eg: egg fried rice, garlic fried rice, chili padi fried rice.. no need meat also no problem, as long as enough flavor, wok hey and the grains are all separated one biji one biji.. now that's the best skill of fried rice, agree?? :)

    oh, one more thing.. minus the spring onions for garnishing, hahaha!!! xD

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    1. Yup, fried rice is easy to cook. I do remember this SK don't like spring onions hah..hah... except when in Japan lah kot. For me, I love lots of spring onions in my Chinese style fried rice!

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  7. okay now back to your grandma's belacan fried rice.. first thing, the belacan in balls like that?? here, very cute lah, first time seeing this form of belacan, pardon me!! but very true lah, you tumbuk the belacan and cili and dried shrimps and shallots, sure nicer than using a blender.. any idea why ah??

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    1. The balacan was given to me by my mum. Yes, they are packed inside well sealed plastic bags in the form of cute little balls. Very convenient to use. Pounding gives a different effect from blending because when you pound, you are effectively smashing the cell walls of the ingredients. That releases the flavors much better than just cutting through the cell walls. Scientific or not? hee..hee...

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  8. simple ingredients (but not necessarily simple and easy to cook) but already one plate of very delicious fried rice, no need meat or prawns or any other things, good enough!! your bowl is too small lah like that, I can have two bowls without problem, hehe!! and how many bowls you had, and errr, for how many days?? haha~~ :D

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    1. Eh, that was a big bowl. Should be enough for two or three small eaters. But I can wallop the whole lot by myself, so there were no leftovers.

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  9. Phong Hong, just reading your post makes me salivate liao! You know I just ate my dinner an hour ago and I am drooling for your spicy fried rice! Yesterday I make sambal fried rice with petai! Very appetizing. Probably your grandma smelt her sambal fried rice and gave her approval.

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    1. Nancy, I must buy petai and add to the fried rice. hah..hah.. kind of regret that grandma never got to eat my cooking.

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  10. Just by reading the recipe, we can tell that this fried rice is a winner. So delicious! Except maybe I can't eat too much since the spices paste you made should be pedas looking at the number of chillies used.

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    1. Mun, can always use less chillies or even remove the seeds. Somehow this batch of chillies wasn't that hot.

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  11. I've never tried belacan fried rice before but your fried rices looks very delicious!

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    Replies
    1. Ann, I hope you like belacan hee..hee...

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  12. Replies
    1. Sharon, I know you can cook fried rice...

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  13. I love this! I don't care if my neighbours curse me. I am so going to cook this very very soon! Thanks for sharing Phong Hong!

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    Replies
    1. Diana, I hope that you enjoy the fried rice as much as i did!

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  14. There's nothing more delicious than simple comfort food like a good fried rice...what more if it's belacan fried rice! I'd love to make this but I'm probably too lazy to use my lesung batu....can use blender ah? ;)

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    1. Kris, of course you can use the blender hah..hah...That was how I used to do it too until I used the lesung batu and appreciated the difference.

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  15. Hi Phong Hong, family dishes are simply delicious however simple they are. Mama's flavours. Nice.

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    1. Thanks, Kimmy! My grandma once commented (after a below par dinner at a restaurant) that home cooking, even if we simply stir, it can taste so delicious. hah..hah...

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  16. Maybe grandma wanted to tell you that you used incorrect amount of belacan and was off by 0.01%? XD

    I can handle spicy, but I don't like spicy fried rice, not sure why though... so I probably would not be looking forward to this one..

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    Replies
    1. hah..hah...grandma came to supervise :D Well, there are other types of fried rice you can enjoy.

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  17. I can imagine the sedapness of the fried rice!! Hoe heong ah!!

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    Replies
    1. Claire, very heong! I wonder if my neighbors smelt it hee..hee...

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  18. The wonderful colours of the fried rice is enough to make me salivate!
    The added fried sunny egg on top was like a jewel to cap it.
    My grandmas never cooked anything for me to eat. Now I am just wondering
    whether they could even cook.

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    Replies
    1. Alamak, I was wondering who is the antiques lover and then I realized it is good old TM! hee..hee... I am sure your grandmas could cook very well.

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  19. If I only had dried schrimps! Wonderful!

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    Replies
    1. Ola, maybe you can get at the Asian grocery stores?

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  20. Hi Phong Hong. I like this and will be very satisfied with just an egg to go with it. Wonderful fried rice. I'm definitely going to for it.

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    1. Amy, I hope you enjoy this fried rice because it is delicious!

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  21. Phong Hong,
    1st there's grandma's meatballs soup, now grandma's fragrance fried rice ... so what's next huh ?! I used to run far away whenever my late mom was in the process of cooking belacan ... hee ...hee I can't tahan the 'nice fragrance'. But I do eat selective dishes cooked with belacan where the fragrance is not too pungent ...lol.

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    1. Karen, hah..hah.. I didn't know that you are "scared" of belacan. So funny!

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  22. wow... you can remember your grandma's recipe...not bad!!
    Looks spicy to me... hahaha

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  23. I like my fried rice with lots of long beans and luncheon meat, homecooked fried rice is better than those fried rice outside

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    Replies
    1. Libby, I also like putting thinly sliced long beans. Very ho chiak!

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  24. Hi Phong Hong,

    Seeing how you cooked and descried your grandma's fried rice, I know it must be super fragrant and super ho chiak :D

    Zoe

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    1. Hi Zoe! Well, what can I say? I finished every grain of rice and wished that I had more! LOL!

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