Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Fried rice - at least it's not boiled rice

Has anyone ever researched 'rice dishes of the world'? After all, rice is the staple food of most of the world's population.  I must admit that I have an ambivalence towards plain white rice - growing up, we had boiled rice with most meals and its sticky white boringness really bored me to tears.  Even now, I rarely have plain rice except when it's needed to mop up the sauce from a tastier main dish. 

Reaching into some long-lost Asian roots, fried rice is something that I prepare when I don't have much time to make dinner - or when I haven't thought about what to make.  I like how you can throw in pretty much anything, and I love how the addition of several tasty sauces can transform that white boringness into yummy brown deliciousness.


Fried Rice with fried egg
Serves 2
Ingredients
8 green (uncooked) prawns, peeled, deveined and quartered
2 tblsp  plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
50 g shoulder ham or Chinese sausage or BBQ pork, chopped
4 shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 mins, finely chopped
2 cups cooked rice (admission: I use packaged, pre-cooked jasmine rice)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp white sugar
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 eggs
spring onions, finely sliced

Method
1. Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok over med-high heat, until very hot. Add the prawns and stir until just cooked. Remove from the wok and set aside.
2. Reheat the wok and add heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil until very hot. Add the garlic and ginger and stirfry for 30 seconds.
3. Add the meat and mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Then add the rice and prawns to the wok.
4. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce and sesame oil together in a cup, then add to the wok. Stir until rice is coated with the sauce.  Pour the rice into a bowl and wipe out the wok with paper towel.
5. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in the wok until hot, then break an egg into the wok and cook until the white is set.  Repeat with the other egg.
6. To serve, divide the rice between two bowls and top with a fried egg and some spring onions.

Ingredients, including ham, shiitake mushrooms, prawns and egg.
.  Here, popping a fried egg on the rice makes it like Indonesian nasi goreng (another popular rice dish!).

17 comments:

  1. I love fried rice but rarely make it, too lazy. :-) But white rice doesn't have to be "sticky white boringness"; I alternate between the different varieties (long grain, jasmine, basmati, jasmati, etc.) and it's much more interesting.

    Love the fried egg on top of your fried rice; it's definitely something I'd do, except have two! LOL

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  2. My Bel, my Bel! Hey! This fried rice dish looks delicious, and I'm with you on the white rice thing. I like to make it a bit more interesting and healthful too. This looks just that way, and next time I make rice I'm totally going to throw a fried egg on it. Yum, Lady;)!

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  3. I rarely ever make fried rice because I never seem to have any cooked rice on hand! Such a tragedy. Maybe I'll boil some up tonight while I'm studying just so I can make this tomorrow. Sounds like a plan!

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  4. Oh! Fried rice with fried egg, looks so yummie, specially with the egg yolk running into the rice...

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  5. lol. I love my rice, from fried rice to plain rice :)) but i think fried rice is more addictive. great recipe!

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  6. Bel I really like this version of fried rice! I especially like the combination of flavours. I usually use bacon, peas and corn because I've always got some in the freezer! I too add an egg although i tend to lightly scramble it at the end after just pushing the other ingredients to the side - I like the idea of a whole egg with runny yolk on top though so I think I'll try it that way next time!

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  7. One of the best home cooked meals ever! Nothing beats fried rice and fried egg especially if it is runny.

    Though I think I have OCD when it comes to this dish,I need to eat with Maggi soy sauce!

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  8. Any fried rice with a fried egg on top gets my vote. And me, I add a dollap of chilli sauce! ;)

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  9. Too much leftover rice at home always meant Mum would make fried rice with char-siu, scrambled egg and peas. My childhood pleasure? Mixing bottled tomato sauce into it!

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  10. Yum! You've got lots of yummy little "bits" there which are my favourite part! This looks great! :D

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  11. Fried rice is my all time favourite comfort food! Yours with seafood and sunny side up looks terrific!

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  12. haha....I don't like plain rice either- usually for dinner I only have a really small bit of rice :) Fried rice however, I can eat a lot of- yours looks so good, especially with that egg on top!

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  13. Hi there Bel! this is almost identical to the fried rice I've been making every Monday night. Its so delicious and easy. except I haven't used shitake mushrooms in mine. Perhaps I will add it in the next batch I'm making. thanks for sharing :)

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  14. I never cook fried rice, but I know my partner would love it every now and then! I should try your recipe :-)

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  15. love this looks yummo, love it how the ingredient to rice ratio is 9-1

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  16. Fried rice is usually what happens to leftover regular rice in this household, especially when mum's cooked too much of it and it gets old. I do absolutely love fried rice and find that I eat way much more than needed to fill me up.

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  17. Ha, your words ring sooooo true. I hated boiled rice with a vengeance as a kid, and yet had it shoved at me three meals a day. Love fried rice though and that yolky fried egg on yours just tops it off, even boiled rice is growing on me again.

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