LEFTOVERS FRIED RICE
I’ve been putting the “lazy” in Lazy Lady Farmer for the past couple of days, and have been putting off doing a grocery run for as long as humanly possible. I’ve said it before - some may think that laziness is a flaw, but I find that a frequent consequence of my sloth-like tendencies is forced creativity/scavenging in the kitchen, which usually leads to something pretty delicious. Tonight, laziness wins again. (Sloth, a deadly sin? I think not.)
Fried rice is the perfect dish for a scavenger, because you can toss almost any leftover ingredient in there, and it’ll work. We had a heap of leftover rice in the fridge from a day or two ago, because there is always leftover rice. Mainly because The Roommate insists on “making more this time”, every time, as if there is some impending rice drought in our kitchen even though EVERY TIME it never gets finished. (It doesn’t get wasted - worst case scenario, chicken food!) If my sin is sloth, his is definitely gluttony.
After some more scrounging, I managed to amass some leftover bacon, several frozen prawns, eschallots, garlic (or course), spring onions that were on their way out, choi sum from the garden, and now that our juvenile chickens have recently started laying, a BUNCH of mini eggs. (At half the size of a normal egg, they’re almost too cute to eat but they are without a doubt the best eggs I have ever eaten.)
The single most important thing about any fried rice is…the rice. Don’t roll your eyes at me - what I mean is, it has to be yesterday’s rice. At least. Fried rice only works if you use cold, day-old rice. It’s drier, the grains can be easily separated, and it’s the reason fried rice isn’t mushy, gluggy fried congee, basically. Speaking of gluggy rice, I was recently traumatized by a video that a friend sent me of a TV chef RINSING COOKED RICE and then DRAINING IT. No. No no no no no. I couldn’t even summon the words to express my horror when I watched it. PLEASE do not cook your rice this way. If you take anything at all from this post, let it be that.
So the rice is important. Once everything is chopped up (except the prawns) and the bacon cooked off, the rest of the dish comes together pretty quickly, so make sure you have your sauces ready or nearby. The eschallots, chilli and garlic (a healthy 8 cloves tonight) go into the wok first on medium high heat, with a bit of oil. I’d like to pause here and just pay tribute to the wok, and to what an amazing, versatile piece of cookware it is. I love it. I love it more than any other piece of cookware I have. Everything cooks so quickly in a wok, the flavours are always more intense, and I can cook almost anything in it. Curries, stir fries, pasta sauces, steam stuff, deep fry stuff…I love it, I love it, I love it - and I promise it’s not just because I’m Asian.
By the way, look at the garlic to prawn ratio in the above photo. Pretty good, right? After the prawns are cooked, add half the rice - this will get coated in the beautiful, garlicky oil and stay nice and dry. Push the rice and prawns to one side of the wok and crack your eggs into the empty side (our 6 mini eggs are probably the equivalent to 3 regular eggs). Swirl the egg around for a bit, and when it starts to cook, mix it in with the rice and prawns.
Then it’s simply a matter of adding in the greens, the rest of the rice, folding everything over until the greens are cooked, then adding the Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir everything together, sprinkle in the spring onions…you’ve just made fried rice! Even though there is a recipe for this dish, it’s completely open to substitutions since that’s the principle of this fried rice - it’s made of whatever you have lying around, want to use up, or whatever’s soon to meet its maker. It’s a great, versatile dish that helps to minimize food waste. Make leftover fried rice, save the planet.
Ingredients:
3 cups cold, day-old cooked rice
3 eggs
4 pieces bacon, diced and cooked
6-8 raw prawns, tails on and deveined
Small bunch choi sum (or other Asian green) leaves, thinly sliced
2 large eschallots (or 1/2 small onion), minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
3 Thai birds-eye chillies, minced (optional)
3 spring onions, sliced
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Mirin
Method:
1. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add in eschallots and stir for 1 minute, then add in garlic and chilli, cooking for 30 seconds.
2. Add the prawns to the wok, and cook for 1-2 minutes until the prawns are just cooked through. Add in half the rice and combine well.
3. Push the rice and prawns to one side of the wok, then break the eggs into the empty side. Swirl them to a scramble, and when it’s halfway cooked mix it in with the rice and prawns.
4. Toss in the greens and cook until just wilted, then add the remaining rice. Mix well, the add in the cooking wine, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Continue cooking, turning over frequently until the liquid has all been absorbed. You can add some sesame oil if you’d like, and season with salt to taste.
5. Sprinkle with spring onions, then serve while hot.