Every Friday my hubby’s office group gets together to order lunch which the company pays for. It’s a great morale booster – can you imagine looking forward to a paid lunch every Friday? It would be a definite perk for me!
Anyway, so this past Friday the boys ordered in some Chinese. There was loads of plain steamed rice leftover. My husband and I grew up with the “starving child in Africa” story – he actually knew some such kids – so he brought over the rice.
Cold Chinese rice is perfect for only one thing – fried rice. My fridge is usually chock-full of veggies so out came: onions, ginger, garlic, shredded carrots, zucchini, red peppers, mushrooms, all cut to the same size. I yanked out a couple of eggs and a bunch of frozen shrimp. The trick in making good (not necessarily authentic!) fried rice is to:
- Have cooked, cold short-grain rice on hand
- Use plenty of oil to ensure the rice doesn’t stick (I also always use both regular vegetable and sesame oil for flavour)
- Fry it in stages
- The wok must be hot! and large enough to move stuff around briskly in…
- Stock cubes are essential to flavouring, along with soya sauce, hot sauce/chilli sauce and ginger/garlic
Stage 1: I stir-fried all the veggies in hot oil tempered with garlic, ginger and onions. Zucchini and peppers first, mushrooms last. I didn’t add peas (didn’t feel like) or green onions (didn’t have any) although they would make good additions. Must crumble 1/2 the stock cube here along with soya sauce and hot sauce. Totally rounds out the flavour. I removed the veggies to another dish.
Stage 2: Heated up some oil(s), added in some ginger/garlic, crumbled 1/4 stock cube and stir-fried my eggs and prawns until cooked through. Removed them to the veggie dish.
Stage 3: Fried the cold rice in some oil(s), crumbled in the remaining 1/4 stock cube and heated the rice through. Added in the veggies, eggs and prawn mixture and stir-fried till well mixed. Finished with shredded cilantro leaves.
A yummy kitchen-sink rice dish.
