Vegetable Fried Rice. No meat, but that doesn’t make me a bad person.

Posted by Michael on Oct 6, 2010 in Recipes | 0 comments

Asian cuisine has been a huge passion of mine lately.

When you’re trying to eat more vegetables, less fatty meats and still want to have some interesting, vibrant food, the Orient is where it’s at, yo.

Thai, Chinese and Japanese dishes have been huge inspirations for my suppers lately and thankfully, my daughter seems to love it all too.

Here’s a quick favourite, a vegetable fried rice, the best possible thing you can do with leftover rice.   I’ll start with how to cook rice, then we’ll get into the leftovers.

White rice

Oh, you think you know how to cook rice already, eh smart guy? Well, give this method a go and see if this works even better than your pricey rice-cooker.  The nice thing with this recipe is you really don’t need to measure anything, just eyeball it.  Remember, measuring kills kittens.

1 tablespoon or so of salt

1 tablespoon vinegar

water

2 cups regular long grain white rice

Fill a good sized soup pot nearly to the top with water.  Add the salt and vinegar and bring to a boil.   Add the rice, give it a quick stir and reduce heat to low.  Let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on it for heaven’s sake and make sure there’s a little action in the water but it’s not a rolling boil.  Like you’re so damn busy you can’t watch a pot for 15 minutes.   When 15 minutes is up, drain the rice in a fine strainer.  Pour an inch of water back in the bottom of the pot and place back on the heat at medium.  Put the collander on the pot over (not touching) the water and put a lid on top.  Let that just steam for at least 10 minutes and your rice is ready.   Seal leftover rice in a glass bowl or tupperware in the fridge.

Vegetable Fried Rice

I just used what I happened to have on hand as far as vegetables, but there’s a whole range of stuff that would work in this.  Just think of any vegetable you’ve ever put into a Chinese stir-fry – that’ll work here.  Here’s what I hand on hand on this particular day:

vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

half a green bell pepper

1 small stalk of celery, chopped

1/4 cup cooked green peas

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

soy sauce

Sake (optional, a little chicken stock might also be nice)

2 cups (or more or less, remember the kittens) pre-cooked and cooled white rice

Good pinch of sugar

1 egg

Heat a wok over high heat for several minutes until you get kind of nervous about how much it’s smoking.   Add a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil, then the onion, bell pepper and celery.  Stir fry for a minute or so then add the garlic.  Stir fry for a moment then add the soy sauce and sake or chicken stock.  Fry until the liquid is nearly gone.  You don’t want any excessive moisture here as it’ll make the rice mushy and sticky.  Add the rice and give it a good stir every 20 seconds or so for four or five minutes.   You’re just trying to heat the rice through and perhaps brown it a bit against the hot wok. Add the sugar and mix that in as well.   Push the rice off to one side, add a little bit more oil and crack in an egg.  Let it set for a few seconds then mix it into the rice thoroughly.   Turn into a serving dish and ram into face.   Duh.  Licious.