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One of my fond childhood memories I have is having our late night supper. Many street food vendors start their business late at night, usually after dinner hour. I miss seeing street vendors lining up the side walk. It might be late at night, but there were still crowds. One of my favorite Indonesian street food is this nasi prang/nasi perang. I never really know the exact spelling for this. People call it both ways. If you ask me to translate it into English, I call it mini spiced rice. Why mini ? because of it’s obvious tiny portion. From my understanding is that it is meant for as snack, not to replace a meal. Though, technically if you eat 5 of this, you are probably good to.
For this post, I just call it nasi prang to make our lives easier. Nasi prang usually is served with side dishes such as egg omellete, small fried fish with sambal, anchovies and peanuts, red sambal. I made egg omelette,anchovies and peanuts, red sambal, and jalapeno stir-fry (my own invention lol) to accompany nasi prang. The rice is cooked in coconut milk and fragrant spices and herbs. My husband never had nasi prang before and he was beyond delighted to have this. He said he wouldn’t mind eating this every day, but he needed 8 packs of this nasi prang LOL!
Nasi Prang Medan (Mini spiced rice)
Ingredients
For the rice:
- 2 ½ cups coconut milk
- 1 stalk lemon grass bruised to release flavor
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg or mace
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 2 bay leaves daun salam
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups long-grain rice
- Banana leaves for wrapping
Omelette:
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1 stalk green onion finely chopped
- Small pinch of salt
- 1 shallot peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 Tbsp oil
Dried anchovies with peanuts:
- 1 Tbsp oil
- ⅓ cup good quality dried anchovies
- ½ cup dry unsalted roasted peanuts
- Pinch of sugar
Jalapeno :
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- 1 shallot peeled and thinly sliced
- 1-2 large jalapeno thinly sliced at an angle
Red sambal:
- 1 cup long red chili
- 4 shallots
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Preparing the rice:
- Put the coconut milk with lemon grass, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaves and salt into a large saucepan with a well-fitting lid, and bring slowly to the boil, uncovered
- Stir in the rice and return to a boil, then turn heat very low, cover and steam for 20 minutes. Uncover, fork the rice lightly from around sides of pan, mixing in any coconut milk that has not been absorbed, and cover with lid for 5 more minutes
Preparing the omelette:
- Mix the beaten eggs with green onion and pinch of salt. Set aside. Preheat non-stick skillet with cooking oil. Add in shallot and cook until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Pour in the egg mixture into the middle of the pan and then swirl the pan around to let the egg mixture cover the pan. Let it cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes, flip over and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and then sliced into 8-10 small pieces
Preparing the anchovies with peanuts:
- Preheat the same skillet with cooking oil. Add in anchovies and pan fry until crispy, add in the peanuts and continue to stir for another minute. Careful not to let the anchovies and the peanuts burnt. Add a pinch of sugar and give it one last stir. Remove from heat
Preparing the jalapeno:
- Wipe the skillet you use to cook the anchovies and peanuts clean with paper towel. Preheat 1 Tbsp of cooking oil. Add in sliced shallots and stir-fry until soft and fragrant. Add in the jalapeno slices and cook until the jalapeno is soft, about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat
Preparing the red sambal:
- Place the chili and shallots in food processor. You may double or triple the recipes too. Process into a paste. Wipe the skillet clean and then preheat 2 Tbsp cooking oil. Add in the chili paste and stir fry for about 5 minutes and add some salt to taste
When ready to assemble:
- Prepare about 8-10 pieces of 10 x 10 inch of banana leaves. Wipe both sides clean with damp cloth. Place about 1/2 cup of rice in the middle of the leaf. Top with the omelette, anchovies with peanuts, jalapeno, and red sambal on the side
- You can either wrap it like a parcel as shown in photo or do the traditional wrap. Gather the side near you and the opposite side up so they meet on top and then push both left and right sides in (almost look like a ship at this point). Then fold both left and right to the front and secure with toothpick. This is how most food is wrapped using banana leaves in Indonesia
and in case you are wondering why there is a soup spoon, well, my mom likes to eat her rice with soup spoon LOL! She said it’s easier to scoop 🙂 or maybe you can scoop more!!
2 comments
I’ve never heard of nasi prang before, but it looks and sounds delicious! Such a perfect little snack!
This is similar to nasi lemak, nasi gurih and nasi gurih. First time to come across nasi perang. Its popularity is like rendang…once tasted, one is converted.