more asian delights - nasi jenganan

Nasi which is rice in Malay is an integral part of Asian society. Whether eaten by hand, with chopsticks or with a spoon every Asian needs their rice and the best part is that is not just plain white rice there is a variety of rice dishes like fried rice and that too comes in a variety. We Asians love our rice and eat it sometimes three times a day sometimes twice a day. And as heavy as it may sound to some, we occasionally have rice for breakfast and this can be seen in the nasi lemak (coconut rice), nasi rawan (rice with black spicy gravy), nasi jenganan (rice with peanut sauce) and so on and so forth. But even though its been dubbed a breakfast dish we have these dishes sometimes for lunch and dinner.

We have stalls here at the market or malls where they sell these dishes. There is one near where I live that serves really good nasi jenganan. Their portions are huge and if I bought them for breakfast it would usually keep me full till later in the evening which is always a good thing. This is one of my mother’s favorite dishes too. The best part of stall bought nasi jenganan is how the dish is packed. Its usually packed in brown paper with a think plastic lining(this is specifically made to pack food) and wrapped up too look like a parcel with sealed off with a rubber band. So you get all the flavors blending in and it makes for some great eating. Anyways not all stalls make good nasi jenganan and sometimes home made nasi jenganan is always the best and that was it was for me today for lunch and dinner nasi jenganan.

Nasi jenganan is a dish of the Malay community here though everyone loves it. Rice with peanut sauce may not sound appealing but once you’ve tried it you would want more. What is nasi jenganan? It is basically plain white rice with peanut sauce. Sounds simple enough well not really. The peanut sauce is no ordinary sauce not the ones you have with skewered meat. It’s a special sauce with finely ground nuts and chillies and spicies. I don’t have a definite recipe for it because we usually buy our pre made sauce from a relative who makes an amazing peanut sauce. The recipe has been handed down from her grandmother to her mother and now to her. My mom would usually buy like 1o packets from her and then keep it because if on a lazy day you don’t feel like cooking just mix the paste to water and you get yummy peanut sauce. Its cheap it’s fast and it’s fabulous.

the jenganan gravy or peanut sauce

Nasi jenganan is usually served with side dishes. We use blanhched vegetables like bean sprouts, cabbage, kangkung(water spinach) and long beans. If anyones wondering what kangkung is here is a picture and for the curious lots you can read more about kangkung here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangkung

kangkung or water spinach

These vegetables are blanched in boiling water for a few seconds but you don’t want to over do it because you need to retain the crunch of some of these vegetables. When we make this dish at home we usually serve the vegetables this way …

clockwise - bean sprouts,kangkung,cabbage & long beans

We also have hardboiled eggs and begedil (potato cakes with cumin,fried onions,white pepper, scallions, ginger garlic paste and a touch of nutmeg) . Another two sides that this dish cant do without is the tempeh (fermented soybeans and the tauhu(beancurd). The tempeh is another favorite especially when fried till its crispy but not to the point of a potato chip. Before we fry them we dip them in salt water for a few seconds before frying. In order to fry the tempeh right, the heat has to be really small and the frying process usually takes a while so patience is required here. More information on tempeh and its production can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh and more reading of the beancurd can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu

uncooked tempeh uncooked beancurd

When all these dishes have been fried they look like this ..

clockwise- beancurd, begedil & tempeh

When you have everything you just pile it on a plate of rice and pour the peanut gravy over how much you put depends on how spicy or tasty you want your meal to me. We usually put everything on the dining table and everyone picks whatever they want though sometimes my mother likes to arrange all the vegetables on a plate and top it off with the eggs and tofu and leave the tempeh and begedil on the side. Whichever way its eaten rest assured its good stuff. And sometimes too when were not in the mood for rice, this can be eaten as a salad – seeing that it does have the components of a salad dish - put everything together pour on gravy and voila you have salad with peanut gravy yumm ...

That was a little trip to the world of the nasi jenganan one of many interesting and delicious Asian fare. As educational as it was for myself writing about nasi jenganan I still wonder what the word jenganan means .. *grin* where it originated from and who invented this wonderful dish .. the mystery remains ..