453 Orak Arik II (with shrimps)

A healthy and easy dish: orak arik. You have to make some effort to cut all the different vegetables, but that’s fine with me. You can, if you really do not feel up for it, buy a bag of mixed vegetables at the supermarket, but it lacks charm ;-).

This Orak Arik is made with shrimp. Earlier I made Orak Arik with minced meat. Also very tasty and above all extremely healthy.

Orak Arik II from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 366.

Ingredients

100 grams of snow peas
100 grams of cauliflower
100 grams of carrots
100 grams of leek
2 tablespoons of chopped celery
100 grams of shrimp
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of oil

spices

2 tablespoons of chopped onions
1 chopped garlic clove
2 chopped unseeded chilies
pepper
salt
nutmeg
pinch of monosodium glutamate (vetsin)

Cut all the vegetables very fine. Slice or chop the shrimp also very fine. Fry the spices in oil. Add onion, garlic and lombok (chili peppers) to it and when the onions are yellow, add the shrimps. Add the chopped vegetables and fry it together. Beat eggs with salt, pepper and nutmeg and stir as the vegetables are halfway done. Keep stirring until the egg solidifies. Mix in, just before serving, the celery and monosodium glutamate (vetsin).

Beb wants us to finely chop all the veggies. I like it this size (see photo). If you chop them up too finely the vegetables will be mushy but this Orak Arik dish should be quite crisp.

Again Beb does not tell how much nutmeg goes in. She does that with every recipe that needs nutmeg. Indonesians use nutmeg like ‘we’ use salt and pepper; add as much as you like. I use for this Orak Arik 2 teaspoons of nutmeg. Yummy.

I never use vetsin (monosodium glutamate), but if you like it, you can add some. There have been repeated studies on the effects of this flavor enhancer. Not once the effect of headaches or other physical problems were found. I do not think vetsin adds much to the taste. But if you like it, please use it. It is save.

Because you have to deseed the chili peppers, this dish is not spicy. My 5 year old likes it too.

Shrimp and vegetables are a magical combination. Trassi (shrimp paste) is widely used in Indonesian food, especially in vegetable dishes. But in this Orak Arik fresh shrimps are used, I like ;-).

Now all the vegetables are in the pan. If they are half done, I add the egg and I keep stirring until the egg solidifies.

This is it. Do not forget to taste if before serving. Have you added enough salt, pepper and nutmeg? Yes? Selamat makan!

Beb Vuyk, best known for her Groot Indonesisch Kookboek (Great Indonesian Cook Book), was much more than a great cook. She belongs to the most important Dutch-Indonesian (Indo) writers and journalists of her time. Check this out.