Nasi campur as served in Java pairs steamed white rice with a changing assortment of small side dishes — fried chicken, tempeh, egg, vegetables and sambal — chosen by the cook or the vendor of the day.
Nasi campur, literally 'mixed rice' in Indonesian and Malay, is a composed plate built around a mound of steamed white rice (nasi putih) surrounded by a selection of smaller side dishes. The combination is never fixed: what lands on the plate depends on what a given household or food stall has prepared that day.
In Java, the dish is a fixture of warungs, night markets and home kitchens alike, eaten at any time from breakfast to a late dinner. Versions of nasi campur are reported across Southeast Asia — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand — and among Dutch communities with historic ties to Indonesia; a related mixed-plate dish called chanpurū is cooked in Okinawa.
Preparing it means cooking several dishes in parallel rather than one recipe from start to finish: rice is steamed separately; chicken or beef is fried, stewed in sweet soy sauce, or simmered in a spiced coconut sauce; a portion of tempeh or tofu is fried until firm; an egg is boiled or fried; vegetables are blanched and dressed; and a fresh or cooked sambal is pounded from chillies, garlic and shallots. Krupuk crackers and fried shallots finish the plate.
The Javanese version leans on the island's fondness for kecap manis, a thick sweet soy sauce that colours and rounds out the meats, alongside a sambal pitched at a moderate, everyday heat rather than an aggressive one. Neighbouring regions and countries build their own nasi campur around different staple side dishes and sambals; on AllGastronomy each of these versions is recorded on its own page, with none set above the others.
Preparation
1
Rinse the rice and steam it until fluffy, then keep it warm.
2
Season the chicken thighs and fry them until deeply golden, then slice.
3
Fry the tempeh slices in hot oil until firm and lightly crisp.
4
Boil the eggs, peel them, and halve them.
5
Blanch the long beans and toss them with a little oil and salt.
6
Pound the chillies, garlic and a pinch of salt into a coarse sambal.
7
Mound the rice on each plate and arrange the chicken, tempeh, egg and beans around it.
8
Drizzle the kecap manis over the meat, scatter the fried shallots, and serve with the sambal and krupuk.
