Nasi Goreng Kerabu (Kerabu Fried Rice)

Last weekend I had no idea what to cook. Then while catching up with my blog hopping, I stopped by Kak Azie's blog and I was very tempted when I saw her Nasi Goreng Kerabu. 

It's basically a Nasi Goreng Kampung with lots of herbs and aromatics added to it. That sounded really delicious to me. As with this type of cooking, you have to make the spice paste. To save time, I made the spice paste a day ahead, using my good old lesung batu (mortar and pestle).

Since I am restricting my carb intake, as you may have guessed, I used a mix of rice and grated cauliflower. My proportion is one part rice to two parts cauliflower. It always works for me when I make fried rice like this.

For the fresh herbs, I used daun kesum (laksa leaves), daun selasih (local basil) and young kaffir lime leaves, all from my garden. All these are sliced very thinly. 

Speaking of kerabu, while I was tinkering in the kitchen, my auntie sent me a photo of her family lunch.

Does that look scrumptious or what? That big platter of kerabu is made by my auntie's granddaughter. In fact this soon to be 11 year old helped her proud mah-mah (grandmother) to cook the lunch. It looks like she has inherited my auntie's cooking genes hee..hee...

That's her in action frying the longs beans. What was I doing when I was 11? Yeah. I was watching Ultraman. Tsk!

Coming back to this kerabu fried rice, I must say that it was worth the effort of pounding the spice paste and painstaking slicing of the herbs (and long beans). The fried rice itself is already so tasty and add to that all the aromatic herbs which brought the taste and aroma from super to superb.

Another dish of Kak Azie's that I cooked is Daging Goreng Kunyit (Fried Turmeric Beef) which I will also share in a future post.  The beef went so well with this fried rice.

I'll have to say that this is one of my most satisfying lunches. I have extra to take to work too and that saves me having to cook on Monday morning. Yay!

Nasi Goreng Kerabu

Recipe source : Adapted from Azie Kitchen

Ingredients :

- 1 cup overnight cooked rice and 2 cups grated cauliflower (or use 3 cups cooked rice).

Spice paste (pounded or blended)

- 5 shallots

- 2 red chilies

- 3 cloves garlic

- a handful of ikan bilis, rinsed and drained

Vegetables/herbs

- 6 strands of long beans, finely sliced

- a handful of the following, thinly sliced :

- daun kesum

- daun selasih

- young kaffir lime leaves

Seasoning :

- 1 tbsp fish sauce

Method :

1. Heat oil in wok and saute the spice paste until fragrant and slightly dry.

2. Add rice and fish sauce. Stir fry to coat evenly with spice paste and rice is heated through.

3. Add sliced long beans, continue to stir fry briefly and switch off the flame.

4. Add the sliced herbs and stir to mix thoroughly with the rice. Serve.