This is Apollo, my roommate's awesome cat, wearing his lion's mane halloween costume I made for him out of orange yarn. It was hilariously half-assed. Also note the delightful He-man and lobster pillows. Claaaaaassy
Stir-fried rice is one of my very favorite things. It's fairly easy and lends itself to infinite variations. This is basically the Chinese version of next-day meatloaf sandwiches. Some of the tastiest recipes are derived from other culture's ingenious leftover solutions! For this reason, cold, day old rice is generally best to use but I've found that boil in bag or other quick-fix brown rice makes things about 10 times easier.
There are Korean versions, Indonesian versions, Thai, and even Peruvian. These are all based off the numerous original Chinese recipes for fried rice. The idea is to finely mince some veggies so they cook quickly, minimizing exposure and saturation of oil. Then you splash on some oil and stir fry the rice. No fuss, no muss. My versions tend to be closer to Indonesian or Thai than Chinese in that my most necessary inclusions are garlic, green onion and soy or fish sauce.
The following things are necessary to a good fried rice: wet seasonings such as soy or fish sauce, sesame oil, and lime or lemon juice, then you'll absolutely need your aromatics like garlic and onions (red, white, or green) but you'll also need a few accessory veggies; my personal favorites are peppers (sweet and/or hot), carrots and sometimes even peas (not often though). Other things you can add include ginger, lemongrass, bamboo shoots, celery, zucchini, spinach/bok choy type things, etc.
Alternative sauces include hoisin, sambal oelek or other chili sauces, ponzu, really any thing that lends itself to other forms of stir fry will be welcome. And then there's the egg. I usually don't find it necessary to add the egg to my fried rice but some people love it. If you want, after you cook the veggies, move them to the outer rim of the pan, add a splash of oil and crack an egg in the middle, (on med. heat) then stir the egg briskly until cooked. Move to outer edges and continue.
Here's a basic, easy version that I cook often when I have bell peppers to use up
Lyndsey's Easy Fried Rice:
2 bags of Uncle Ben's Boil in Bag rice (they claim that each bag makes 2 cups but it so doesn't)
or 2 cups cooked rice (I'm partial to brown)
1-2 TB peanut, canola or vegetable oil (divided in half)
1/3-1/2 cup bell pepper, finely minced
1/2 cup carrots, finely minced
1/2 cup onions (red or white), finely minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
hearty dash of fish sauce (opt but yummy)
2 tsp- 1 TB of soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4-1 tsp sriracha (or 1-4 TB minced serrano, jalapeno or poblano)
4 green onions, minced (opt. but tasty)
1. Assemble ingredients, make rice, chop veggies and gather everything together beforehand.
2. Heat up 1/2 of the oil on high medium-high heat and swirl it around the wok. Once a drop of water sizzles, it's ready. Add the veggies (except garlic) and stir rapidly till softened.
3. Add the garlic and stir for 30-60 seconds. Lower the heat and add your soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil and cooking oil. Turn it back up to high med. and add the rice, stirring vigorously until begins to get crispy and everything is well mixed. Add further seasonings to taste (more soy or fish sauce, sesame oil, or hot sauce) and green onions.
Other types to try are Thai pineapple fried rice, Korean kimchi bokkeumbap, classic yang-zhou Cantonese Fried Rice, and Indonesian/Malay nasi goreng.
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