I’ve been eating this for as long as I can remember. Fried rice is a family favourite and there are a number of versions of the recipe. You can substitute the chicken for pork, beef or prawns, even a meaty fish like monkfish would work really well. Nasi is better the next day, so whilst you definitely need to season with salt, don’t over season it as the flavours mature. Some recipes drop the curry in favour of soy sauce – but when using soy sauce reduce or omit the salt completely. Instead of peas, little broccoli florets are good, as are fried mushrooms. Avoid adding anything too wet as it will make your rice soggy. 

This is a perfect dish to make the day before if feeding a big group. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 4 eggs, whisked
• 2 spring onions, washed, trimmed and sliced thinly
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp camelina, rapeseed or sunflower oil
• 200g basmati or jasmine rice, rinsed
• 1 head of broccoli or 1/2 cup frozen peas
• Salt
• Knob of butter

For the marinade:

• 1 tbsp camelina, rapeseed or sunflower oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp paprika, curry powder, ground coriander, ground turmeric and cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper and ginger

First marinade the meat, create a paste using the marinade ingredients, cover and set aside in the fridge until you are ready to cook. If cooking straight away, marinate at room temperature while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Place a large pan of water to boil, salt the water and when boiling add the rice, stir and simmer for 6 – 8 minutes.

While the rice is cooking you can make the omelette, in a hot frying pan melt the knob of butter and add the whisked eggs. The eggs will quickly solidify and you can help this along by pulling the omelette back from the rim and tipping any liquid egg to the edge. Do this at north, east, south and west by which time the omelette should be cooked, if you can flip it do so otherwise fold it and take it off the heat. Set aside for later.

You want to catch the rice just before it goes soft, drain and place the colander over the pot, with the pot lid on to steam the rice dry. 

Now add the oil to the wok and on a high temperature fry the onions until translucent.

Add the meat and stir (to avoid the spices catching on the heat) until cooked.

Add the sliced spring onion and chilli.

Now add the dry rice, a spoonful first and then in batches and mix gently to combine.Add the peas and stir through.

While the peas are cooking in the rice slice or dice the omelette and add it to the wok.Taste for seasoning. You are now ready to serve.

Note: If making this ahead you need to cool the rice down before refrigerating and when reheating it must be PIPING hot. Nasi can be frozen as long as you used fresh, not frozen meat.