Indian dishes are fiendishly difficult and complicated. The biggest challenge, really, is to gather all the spices that are required. Sometimes, we have to make do with what we can find. Anyway, I’ve decided to try an original Indian tomato rice which is probably the inspiration for nasi goreng Indian style.

Here are the spices I managed to find at a store near me. Mustard seeds, fennel, coriander. I think I’m supposed to have cardamom and cumin as well, but I couldn’t find them at such short notice.

Anyway, I fried the spices till they popped. A unique fragrance of Indian cooking fills the kitchen.

Next, I put in the green chillies, cashew nuts and onions.

Some tumeric and garam masala.

Finally, the tomatoes, tomato puree, green peas, salt and light soy sauce. Let the mixture simmer till the tomatoes go soft and mushy.

And it’s done. You can make a lot of this and keep them in the fridge. The final step is mixing the rice with this rich gravy.

It can go well with any kind of rice, but naturally, basmati rice is preferred. As a guide, cook basmati rice with 3 times the amount of water. That will give you nice, fluffy and super long grained rice.

And the rice looks like this after tossing with the tomato gravy and with a bit of coriander leaves on top. It tastes wonderful and is well worth the effort.

© Chan Joon Yee