Well, fried rice of course! I'm surprised at the number of people who don't make fried rice at home since it's a quick and easy dish and a great way to deal with leftover rice and random veggies.
I had a red pepper on its last leg, a quarter head of cabbage some celery, onion and garlic. I sauted them in a healthy dose of canola oil with a touch of sesame oil for flavor...
After sauteing just a bit (I like my veggies pretty crunchy) I added in some sugar snap peas from the garden. There are two keys to fried rice - plenty of oil and cold rice. The best rice for fried rice has been in the fridge for at least a day. This gives it time to "dry". In making the fried rice all you're doing is warming the rice a bit. Over warming or using freshly made rice will result in a sticky mess.
Toss the rice with the veggies and heat through. I added a hand full of peanuts for texture and a healthy dose of soy sauce for flavor. Sometimes I leave out the soy sauce - just depends on my mood. We also had a chicken breast in the fridge which we'd thawed and not used a day or two prior so we grilled it up and tossed in as well. Normally we make our fried rice without meat and add the traditional egg. I'm not a fan of meat and eggs at the same time though.
Sriracha'ed up and ready to eat!
Fried rice is a staple in our house, especially as a way to incorporate those tasty bits and bobs of leftovers that are too good to waste (2 roast peppers! 1 skewer of sate') but not enough for a meal. It's gotten to the point where the Scientist uses "fried rice" as a reference to any dish that has the potential to combine lots of varied ingredients. e.g. Fritatta is like Italian "fried rice" Burritos are like Mexican "fried rice" If he were growing up in the 50's the cassarole would be his reference point, but somehow growing up in the multi-cultural food era, he chose Fried Rice as his metaphor for adding value to leftovers!
ReplyDeleteThat looks delicious! And, when you do it, it looks easy! LOL!
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