Reviewing Malay Taste - Nasi Goreng paste

I got chatting on Facebook the other day to the very lovely Jack from Hungry Communic-ations, about Nem Viet and their range of Vietnamese food products.  During the conversation he mentioned that Nem Viet has two sister product ranges, being Malay Taste and Thai Taste and I have to admit, that I dropped huge hints about maybe reviewing some of the products on the blog.

Well, this is the first of said reviews.  *chuckle*  With many thanks to Jack for taking me up on my ever-so-slightly embarrassingly overkeen offer.

As soon as I saw a Nasi Goreng paste was in the box, I knew what we'd be sampling first.  My dedication to a good Nasi Goreng is well documented on this blog and in the spirit of same, let me just direct you to my own home-made version which you'll find here.

Even though there is a perfectly reasonable Nasi Goreng recipe on the side of the jar, I am so keen on the stuff that I couldn't bear it not to carry some of the flavours that I know it should.  Hence, I followed my own recipe, but instead of using red Thai chilli paste, I used the Malay Taste Nasi Goreng paste.

Now, ordinarily, I don't use either oyster sauce or tomato paste in my Nasi Goreng but they are in the Malay Taste paste so I was interested to see how it would shape up with these two new flavours.

I added dark soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and fish sauce to the Nasi Goreng paste which helped to ensure that the flavours that I remembered so well were there.  However, I wasn't keen on the addition of tomato paste to the Malay Taste Nasi Goreng paste.  I felt that it was something of a Westernised copout.  I definitely missed the Thai lemongrass flavours and to add that in and either no tomato paste or just a little, would have improved the product no end.

Still, for all that, I liked it.  No, I really did!  If I was to give my own home-made Nasi Goreng marks out of 10, it would be a 10 (naturally).  The Malay Taste Nasi Goreng would come in at a good 8.5 by comparison.  Just lost a couple of points for the tomato paste and no lemongrass.

The chilli flavour is really good.  It doesn't knock your head off, just builds to a nice heat and keeps on a steady course instead of constantly increasing until you can't stand it any more, as lots of them do.  I like the oyster sauce addition, it gives it a deeper flavour profile than just fish sauce would have.

If I had have gone to someone's house for dinner and they'd have served Malay Taste Nasi Goreng, I wouldn't be disappointed.  It's different to mine, but it's still Nasi Goreng and that definitely floats my boat.

You can find out where to buy Malay Taste products from their website, on the "Where to buy" page.  One of the outlets is Amazon UK, so you've no excuse not to try them!  Currently there is just the Nasi Goreng kit available at around £2.50 for the one (you have to buy 6 in one go, so maybe get some for all the family or add the neighbours in!).

I'm very much looking forward to trying the other products now!

Indonesian fried rice with Mackerel

Well, our week's menu planning went right out of the window as of Wednesday evening.  I had bought ten chicken breasts so that I'd be all ready for two of the dishes booked onto the menu and could put one set of three and a single one into the freezer for next week.

However, hubby needed collecting from town with his newly acquired stereo - it was way too big to juggle all the way home on the bus - which broke into the time I would have been cooking the Paprika Chicken, before putting it in the oven.  So, we had sandwiches and some hastily purchased cake, instead.  A kind of high tea.

The stereo has proven to be a little gem, by the way - and a complete bargain.

Thursday evening, after a hugely busy day at work when I dealt with all the invoices for May (received so far, anyway) in the one day - never done that before! - I was absolutely wiped out when I came home and very definitely not in any fit state to make dinner.  I'll have to remember that when I'm pushing myself to get all the invoices done, in future!  ~slaps own forehead~

So, Thursday became a fish & chips day - and my menu planning was thrown into complete disarray.

However, bearing in mind that when Asda delivered the shopping on Tuesday, they forgot to deliver all of Friday's ingredients (and the pie for Monday!), I moved the Indonesian Fried Rice with Mackerel to Friday and bumped the Chicken Jalfrezi and Paprika Chicken to next week.

When Son & heir realised that it was Smoked Mackerel that we were going to have with the rice, he wasn't impressed.  So, because I'm a kind and thoughtful Mum, I defrosted the one lone chicken breast for him.  ~takes a curtsey~

I marinated it in a little sesame oil, some oyster sauce, soy sauce and honey, then put it in the oven at 200deg for 20-25 minutes.  He ate the lot and declared it yummy, so that was that job done.

This is very definitely one of those dishes that requires you to commit to a mise en place (or getting everything chopped and prepared before you start cooking).  I'd have totally lost the relatively small plot, had I have been trying to chop stuff as I went along.  Once you've got everything chopped and ready, then it's just an easy matter of picking it up, throwing it in and mixing as it cooks.  Of course, it makes a bit more washing up - which dear Hubby did for me.  Bless him!

As ever, I added a few ingredients and did away with one ingredient from the original recipe.  It just made it nicer from our point of view - plus it used up a few leftover veggies, which these fried rice dishes are so good at!

The ingredient I did away with, was some sliced and halved cucumbers which were used as garnish.  In truth, I forgot to slice them and in actuality I'm sure they would have been nice, so I've left them in the recipe as detailed below.  It's up to you whether you would like to include them, if you have a go at this.

I've also just eaten the leftovers for lunch, the day after.  I can confirm that it is even nicer the next day - so if you've got time on your hands and space in the fridge, it is probably worth doing it that way!

INDONESIAN FRIED RICE WITH MACKEREL  (serves 4)
From BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
pinch of caster sugar
800g cooked basmati rice
bunch spring onions, sliced
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
140g frozen peas
2 tbsp soy sauce (approx - you may need a little more)
4 smoked mackerel fillets, bones removed and flaked into chunks
half a cucumber, sliced into half moon shapes.


Method :


1.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok.  Tip in the eggs (I used each egg individually) and swirl to coat the base of the pan.  Cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook the other side until set.  Remove and roughly chop into ribbons, then place to keep warm.

2.  Add the mackerel to the warm place (under the grill, is good) to gently take on some heat.


3.  Add the curry paste to the pan with the sugar and fry for 1 minute.  Add the onions and mushrooms and stir to coat in the paste.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, before adding the cooked rice and folding gently to mix everything in and heat everything through well.


4.  Add the soy sauce, the omelette ribbons and mackerel.  Fold them through, gently.


5.  Serve, adding the cucumber sprinkled over the top.

The menu plan for 24 - 30 May 2011

Coming along! Our Gooseberry bush.

It suddenly occurred to me to include the date in the title to these menu plan posts.  At least, that way, if I ever want to analyse how I'm doing on the "cooking seasonally" front then I've got half of the information!

I'd been looking at recipes in the low fat and "healthy" range, but it occurred to me that "low GI" is another category of healthy meal that it would be worth investigating.  Not least because of hubby's mild diabetes.  If we can keep it at the "mild" stage, then that'd be fantastic.

The weather doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind whether we're in summer or still in spring, at the moment.  However, with summer in its infancy, it's a foregone conclusion that we're heading into a time of salads and a lighter style of eating.  Personally, I'd love to eat the Mediterranean way - lots of fish, lamb, lovely vegetables and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Gorgeous!  However, it's not that easy to do when you're having to balance your meals around everyone's likes and dislikes.

Jonty sunbathing on a warm day

Still, I figure that if I try everything in lots of different orders, eventually I'll hit on a repertoire of styles that suit everyone!

So, this week's menu looks like :

Tuesday : Pasta with Bacon, Goat's Cheese & Savoy Cabbage

Wednesday : Paprika chicken with Jacket Potatoes

Thursday : Indonesian fried rice with smoked Mackerel

Friday : Chicken Jalfrezi with rice

Saturday : Health in a Bowl with Ciabatta

Sunday : Dinner with my parents

Monday : Pie, new potatoes and vegetables.

Beginning with Tuesday, this Pasta dish really is the epitome of simple.  Just fry off the bacon, drain all but a teaspoon of the bacon fat (into the fat cup again) and cook the red onion.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta to which you add shredded cabbage in the last couple of minutes.  Melt a creamy goat's cheese in with the bacon & onions, let it down with a little of the pasta water and combine.  Add loads of parmesan to the plate and tuck in.  Does it get any more simple than that?  I don't think so!

Wednesday was originally meant to be the Paprika Chicken, however as I write this it is Wednesday evening and the chicken dish got bumped owing to the fact that I was needed to drive into town and collect hubby and his new stereo (brilliant bargain!) at exactly the time I would normally have been cooking.  ~gallic shrug~  What can you do, eh?  Couldn't leave the poor chap to juggle it all the way home on the bus!

In the end, we had a sort of mini high tea.  Ham sandwiches and a swiftly purchased box of cakes.  Son & heir definitely approved - that's his sort of dinner!

So tomorrow, Thursday, is the Indonesian fried rice with smoked mackerel.  It is another really simple dish to prepare - I'm pretty sure that the longest thing involved in it is picking the bones out of the middle of the mackerel!  This is one of the low GI meals, so it will be interesting to see how well received it is and whether it manages to keep us full for long.

Friday was to have been another low GI dish - Chicken Jalfrezi.  However, as Asda forgot to send me all the ingredients for it, I'm tempted to make this one into the bumped Paprika chicken - as I've got all the ingredients just waiting to go for that!  It'd save us having to shop for the Jalfrezi until next week, anyway.

Saturday brings about the return of Health in a Bowl.  Unfortunately it got bumped from last week for a very similar reason to the Paprika chicken.  I was supposed to be driving to collect a telescope for Son & heir's use, but unfortunately the chap decided not to sell in the end and we didn't go.  Shame really, because I had intentions of taking a quick spin around the New Forest to see some foals, plus Son & heir would have had fun looking at the stars - and I'd have been able to make the Health in a Bowl.  Hubby thinks I'm stark raving mad to even consider this dish, as he reckons it will contain everything that Son & heir dislikes in a meal.  For me, I reckon that if you combine ingredients in the right way, then you've every chance of a recipe turning out to be delicious.

Now I've seen Anthony Worrall-Thompson making his Health in a Bowl on t.v. and it intrigued me then.  It looked absolutely bursting with flavour and so very good for you, that as a Mum trying to feed her brood (and "brood" includes hubby) healthily, it is just too much of a temptation.  Of course, there's every possibility that the way in which the ingredients are combined for this dish, isn't the way that either hubby or son & heir enjoy having said ingredients presented - but as I said at the beginning, I'll try anything once!

Sunday is easy for me, as we've been invited over to my parents' for the day.  Hey, as they live in the New Forest, I might get that spin around, looking for foals after all!  I'll just lay in some nice sandwich fillings for when we come home.

Monday, even though it is a Bank Holiday, is a work day for me but hubby will be at home for Son & heir, who is on holiday that week.  Hence a nice easy pie with vegetables (as yet undecided) and new potatoes.  Fingers crossed we can get hold of some Jersey Royals still with their dirt on - as they seem to be the ones with the best flavour!  I know the season for Jerseys is almost over, but knowing how the supermarkets delay seasons, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So there you have it.  Even before I've managed to blog the week's meal plan, it's gone awry - but I'll keep on trying to make the best of what I've got before me!