Indonesian International Food

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         Last Thursday it was Ananda's turn to make food from her country. She is from Bali, Indonesia--one of my favorite places--and we were all very excited for her to make Indonesian food. After some badgering, she decided to make nasi goreng--Indonesian fried rice, and my favorite food ever! I'm not in the International Food class, but I showed up to help anyway. 

        Usually the class is quite large, but for some reason there were only a handful of us on Thursday which actually worked out really well. We started by peeling and cutting the onions, garlic, lettuce and ginger. I've never cut ginger before, but we not only had to peel it, we had to 'bruise' it, crushing it with the knife until it split open. 

        We were using an authentic recipe in Indonesian, so Ananda took charge of translating, and letting everyone know what needed to be done. When the cutting up was finished we had to crack and beat 60 eggs before we started cooking. In the large frying pan thing we scrambled the eggs until they were almost done, then took them out and added the rice, garlic, onions and lettuce. The secret ingredient to nasi goreng is sweet soy sauce--the pride and joy of Indonesia. Using both that and regular soy sauce, we fried the rice and added the eggs back in so that they could fully cook. 







        I was in the nasi goreng group, but we also made ayam kecap manis--chicken legs that were fried and then cooked in the sweet soy sauce. We had to feed around 80 people, so we made four huge batches of rice, mixing and frying--and taste testing--them until they were perfect. (Aware that we were cooking for Norwegians we didn't add any chili, but it still tasted delicious!)

 

        At the end we had a bit of extra time and there were a whole bunch of limes left over, so Bjorn and I decided to reinforce the tropical environment with some lime juice. We squeezed 15 limes, added some water and sugar and suddenly had an enormous pitcher of limeade. It was a nice treat for the people that helped cook! 

        Ananda talked a little about the food before we ate, and then we all got to dig in. It was delicious! I am so happy that I was able to be a part of cooking one of my favorite meals with my friends. Making nasi goreng was a wonderful experience, and now I know exactly how to make it! For some fun, here's me with nasi goreng in Bali in 2011, versus in Norway in 2021!


 







Comments

  1. KevinFebruary 2, 2021 at 8:26 AM

    When you come home, I'll make you delicious breakfasts and you make nasi goreng. Deal?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sonja MerzFebruary 2, 2021 at 9:52 AM

    This. Looks. Amazing!
    I wonder if I can find sweet soy sauce here?? Adding it to the grocery list now! Please invite Ananda to come to Rockport anytime she wants :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. JoyceFebruary 2, 2021 at 11:23 AM

    That looks delicious! Love your two pictures!!!! I am amazed how you can turn anything you do into such wonderful, enjoyable reading!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AudunFebruary 2, 2021 at 1:31 PM

    Should have been there to taste! Based on the list of ingredients, it must have been a success. Maybe even better with some chili😉

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Evelyn MerzFebruary 3, 2021 at 6:30 AM

      Maybe if I'm at Aurebekk for Easter we can make it!

      Delete
  5. Andrea Hansen RitchieFebruary 3, 2021 at 2:30 PM

    Looks so good!! And your pictures are so cute :)

    ReplyDelete

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