Not My Dad's Rice, But Good Fried Rice Nonetheless

Simple fried rice is the easiest solution when you have leftover white rice - and the quickest dinner!  Fried rice can be made with a variety of ingredients - chinese sausage, shrimp, leeks, peas, corn, leftover pork/chicken or whatever you have leftover in the fridge.

For the actual rice, I find that jasmine rice doesn't work well. I like my rice a tad sticky and typically use a more glutinous rice variety - Kokohuo japanese rice, which you can find in almost every asian grocery store. Looks like they also sell on Amazon, but at an ridiculous price. You can most likely buy for 20-25 in an asian grocery store and it will last for months.

This is a simple vegetarian fried rice with scallions and corn. Serve with some green veggies and it's an easy weekday dinner. Ready for the prep and cooking time? 15-20 minutes max!  Just make sure to prepare/chop all your ingredients before you start cooking since it'll be ready before you know it.

Step three is where you can add in your varied ingredients. If you want to use chinese sausage or meat, cook them first for a few minutes to ensure they are fully cooked/heated through before adding in the veggies since those will cook much faster.  You don't want perfectly cooked meat but overcooked/burned veggies! Increase or decrease the amount of soy sauce you add based on your ingredients. For instance, if you use salty chinese sausage, cut down on the soy sauce. If you use blanced chicken, add a little more.

Vegetarian Fried Rice
Serves 3-4 (pendng how many bowls of rice each person consumes! ;))

3 cups of cooked rice (I used one day old rice)
1 cup of corn (Frozen is fine)
5-6 stalks of green onions, chopped
2 eggs
S&P
1/3 cup soy sauce
Dash of seasame oil
*You can also add in a little bit of fish sauce for varied flavoring. If you do so, cut back significantly on the soy sauce to ensure you don't have an over-salted dish.

1. Prepare all your ingredients because once you start cooking, the process goes very quickly. No time to chop this or chop that in between steps. Chop your green onions/scallions into slivers. I used the entire stalk - waste not!  Next, whisk the two eggs together until nice and fluffy. Make sure your corn is out of the freezer. As for the rice, since I typically use one day old rice, I re-heat the rice in the microwave until nice and hot.

 

2. Heat your pan to medium and add a dash of oil. Quickly scramble the eggs with a tiny dash of salt. Then remove the cooked eggs into a bowl. I like to cook them just a little bit under as it will cook a little more when you add back to the rice.

3. In the same pan, add a little more olive oil.  Then add in the scallion and the corn.  Add a dash of salt to the mixture. Don't skip this step!  This will be the way you ensure the saltiness is incorporated througout the finished rice dish.  Let this cook for a few minutes until the corn is fully heated and cooked. 

4. Turn your heat down to low. Add the hot white rice on top of the mixture and using a flat rice scooper or a flat spatula, start mixing and incorporating the green onion and corn throughout the rice.

5. Add back in the eggs . Slowly add the soy sauce  a bit at a time to ensure you don't put too much at once. Taste and then add more if you need. Next, add a brief dash of seasame oil. Mix to incorporate well. Again, take a quick taste. If you need more soy sauce, add more. I err on adding more soy sauce vs. salt at this point. I like to add in a dash of pepper at the very end to round the flavors out. Serve immediately!

Crab Fried Rice

You can see the seafood theme from these past few posts.  My sister taught me this dish when she was still living up in Ohio living in her cute little apartment.  Us Tso sisters, we like - scratch - love to eat.  Seriously, a good portion of our conversations revolve around food.  The night we made this, we cooked a huge pot hoping for leftovers the next day for lunch.  We should have known better  because within 20 minutes, the entire pot of crab fried rice - GONE.  No, we didnt just have one bowl, not just two bowls, but we each had three bowls.  Not sure what got into us that night but man, we had a nice little pot belly that night and I would change it for anything!

As for the crab, it's a option of whether you use the canned crab meat (gasp, I know...) or the fresh lump crab from the seafood section.  If I could afford the fresh lump crab every time I make this dish, I would but alas, with a working PR girl budget, I must work with the canned crab.  It's okay, just use two cans and it is still pretty good.

Also, make your rice several hours before so it's not too sticky when you mix together or you can even use day old rice which sometimes works better!  Additionally, don't nix the cucumber slices.  It makes a huge difference - having a bit of crisp cucumber is so refreshing and complements the rice so well.

Crab Fried Rice

Recipe from my sister

1 pint fresh lump crab or 2 cans of crab

3 tbspn veg. oil (do not use olive oil - it actually messes up the taste)

4-5 cloves of garlic chopped

1 green onion chopped

2 eggs

3 tsp fish sauce (i really like the flavor of fish sauce and its saltiness, but add less if you don't)

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp light soy sauce

12 slices cucumber

2 cups rice (cook the rice several hours before so it's not steaming hot or sticky. You can use day old rice and quickly heat up in microwave before you add to the pan)

1. Beat the eggs and quickly scramble in the pan with a little bit of oil. Once done, take the eggs out and set aside.  In the same pan, add the rest of the oil and brown the garlic.  I put my heat on medium high so the garlic doesn't burn in 10 seconds.

2. Once they are lightly brown, add the rice, crab meat, eggs.  Give it a quick toss. 

3. Then add in the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar.  Cook for about 4-5 minutes.

4. Sprinkle with green onion and serve with slices of cucumber! 

"So good I Wish My Mouth Was Bigger" Dad's Special Fried Rice

Ahhhhh, everyone dies over my dad's special fried rice. Seriously, no one makes it like him. He's got some special leprechaun skill that makes everyone go a tad ridiculous over his fried rice. When I say tad ridiculous, I mean folks get very excited, gather in the kitchen and watch his every move - just waiting until he exclaims - let's eat! And we can't eat just one or two bowls...no, we got back for thirds and usually, the entire pot is gone. Case in point - Ross. Dad left him an entire pan for him to eat the next few days and a few weeks later, I found out that he actually ate the entire thing in one sitting.... I know its Ross but still, this stuff is like crack and is just that good. I can probably eat about three bowls of this stuff myself. So, what's so special about it?

He uses a special veggie - garlic onion/leek. These are not green scallions. I've only ever seen this in asian grocery stores and only in the winter time. Here's a picture of what these suckers look like. They are thicker than normal leeks and green scallions and the bulbs are much firmer with a slight purple hue through it. The stalk is thicker and more flavorful.

So this awesomeness is also by the process of how he cooks it. Beware, I've tried to emulate his process and really, can't get it the same as him. Like I said, he's got a secret leprechaun skill that no one else has. Here's my super cute dad cooking lunch for us!

Dad's Special Fried Rice

need: a small bowl for soy sauce, plate for eggs/sausage after initial cook, large pot/pan to cook the rice

4 cups of rice (better if it's a day old)

*Also, when I say 4 cups, it's the chinese cup that you use to measure your uncooked rice before you put in the rice cooker. I think this comes out to a lot more rice when cooked....

4 eggs beaten

2 or 3 links of chinese sausage (you can omit this if you don't want meat but this flavor adds quite a bit to the dish)

3 stalks of garlic onion/leek (cut the white section into diagonal slices roughly 1/8 inch thick and the green section into 1/2 inch length)

1/2 lb of shrimp cut into small pieces (so each shrimp, cut into three pieces)

S&P

Soy sauce (amount really depends on how salty you like. I prefer adding more soy sauce versus salt)

Canola/Veg oil (do not use olive oil)

1. Cook your rice if you don't have rice from yesterday. If from yesterday, warm in microwave for roughly 3 minutes. Using a spoon, mix up the rice so it's not in big chunks.

2. Heat up a large ot and add some oil. Beat your eggs and quickly scramble them in the pot. *If you have green scallions, you can add them here too if you'd like. Take out the egg and put on a plate for use later.

3. In the same pot, cook the chinese sausage until almost done. Again, take it out and put on the same plate as the eggs.

4. Cook the shrimp next until almost done. Take out and add to egg and sausage plate.

5. Add some more oil into the pot and add in the garlic onion/leeks and cook until very fragrant. Make sure to stir constantly. Add some salt to the leeks.

7. Add the warm rice to the leeks and mix to incorporate well.

8. Add in the eggs, sausage and shrimp. Mix well. (Note, you can always add other veggies or meat. Just do the same process of cooking each separately and then incorporating everything in the end)

9. Pour soy sauce into a bowl and then drizzle the soy sauce over the rice. This helps you control how much you put into the rice. Add some, taste and then add more if you liek. Also add in a dash of salt (if needed) and lots of pepper. Make sure to taste everytime you add more.

10. Let it cook for a little more. I like when the rice at the bottom of the pot gets a little crunchy :)

11. Done! Serve and make sure you have enough for seconds, thirds....