Taking the easy way out…

Yes, it’s fried rice again!

Well, I had some leftover rice in the fridge and also some of the sambal belacan (belacan + chilies + calamansi lime juice) that I had pounded as well. I would probably have to peel and slice a shallot and a couple of cloves of garlic for use but I found some of that sambal that my missus had pounded in the fridge and decided to take the easy way out and use that instead. She probably had prepared a bit too much for frying the midin (wild jungle fern) the previous day and had put away the extra for future use. Usually, for frying vegetables, hers would comprise some shallots, udang kering (dried prawns), belacan (dried prawn paste) and chilies.

First, I fried some ikan bilis (dried anchovies) in a bit of oil…

You need to fry them first before putting in the finer pounded ingredients as they are bigger and if you put them in later or altogether, by the time the ikan bilis is browned, the other ingredients would have ended up burnt already.

When the anchovies had changed into a darker shade of colour, I put in the pounded ingredients…

…and stirred them well so that the ingredients would dissolve in the oil.  Keep doing so till the anchovies have turned golden brown before you put in the rice…

I also added some sliced chilies for colour and that extra kick.

I heard before that for frying rice, it would be best to use leftover rice that had  been kept overnight and one would have to take it out of the fridge and loosen the grains by hand. However, I have found that it would be  quite unnecessary and one would get the rice stuck to one’s fingers and would need to wash them all off (and in the process, clog the kitchen sink with the grains of rice that have come off your hand). I just dumped everything into the wok and used the ladle to loosen the grains. Do not be distressed if it is lumpy at first – keep working on it and eventually, you will get the grains all nicely separated.

I mixed the rice thoroughly with the ingredients and then I pushed the rice aside and broke an egg into the wok…

After breaking the yolk, I mixed the egg well with the rice. You can add two eggs, if you so desire.There is no need to add salt as there would be enough of that in the belacan and the anchovies. You may add a pinch of msg to enhance the flavour if you wish. I did.

Keep on stirring everything together for a while and then, your fried rice is ready to be served…

I would say that it was very nice, fragrant and flavourful and absolutely satisfying – my belacan fried rice. It was so very nice that the following morning, I decided to fry this again, exactly the same way except that this time around, I threw in some curry leaves and that certainly did wonders to further enhance the already very delightful taste…

Come to think of it, most likely, it would be nice to fry mihun this same way. Perhaps I can give it a try one of these days…