When last I made fried rice, I was using up some leftover marinated steak and some overly stocky/mushy leftover rice.
Well… I’ve kinda perfected my rice cooking method(s), for basmati as well as long grain varieties, and now had some perfectly fine plain rice leftover to deal with.
It was time for another stab at fried rice; but this time, as a veggie side dish to go with Korean Short Ribs and a simple Asian-Style Salad.
INGREDIENTS
•Canola oil
•2-12 to 3 cups cooked, cold rice
•8 oz sliced ‘shrooms
•2 onions, diced (I used 1 sweet and 1 red)
•1 bell pepper, diced
•Salt and pepper
•3 scallions, sliced
– white bits separated from the green
•2 eggs, lightly beaten
•3 cups cold cooked rice
•Water
•Low sodium soy sauce
•Sherry (I used Amontillado)
Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, then add the ‘shrooms and sauté for three or four minutes, until they are lightly browned and beginning to release their liquid.
Add the onion, pepper, and white bits of the scallion to the ‘shrooms in the pan, season with salt and pepper, then conitinue to sauté for another three minutes, until the onion is tender and the pepper more or less cooked.
Turn the ‘shrooms and veggies out into a large bowl or platter.
Heat another bit of oil to the pan, then add the eggs. Season with a bit more salt and pepper and cook just until the eggs are mostly set. Turn the eggs out on top of the ‘shroom and veggie mixture.
Heat one last bit of oil in the pan – scraping the bottom a bit is things are a bit crusty – then add the rice.
Season with a last bit more salt and pepper, then stir fry the rice to coat evenly with the oil and let cook for two minutes more to develop a few crispity bits.
We like crispity bits.
Turn the rice out on top of the ‘shrooms, veggies, eggs and keep warm.
Deglaze the pan by adding about 1/2 cup water and a good splash each soy sauce and (good) sherry to the hot pan over medium-high heat, scraping up all the rest of those tasty crispity bits.
This is how stuff will look when you begin to deglaze the pan…
and this is how it will look when you’re done; all that crud you were thinking you’d need to scrub off the bottom of the pan during clean up has now been transferred into a very nice sauce to pour over your rice, eggs, and veggies.
Simmer a bit after scraping all that stuff up to reduce the liquid a bit, then pour over the rice, eggs, and veggies in their bowl or platter.
Toss to combine everything nicely and serve; or, cover loosely and stash in a warm spot until the rest of dinner is good to go.
Nice rice.
I thought mine just needed a dab of Plum Sauce, tho’ Rich also added a bit more low-sodium soy sauce to his – which is about what we do with take-away fried rice, so I consider this to be a job well done.
Tho’ next time… asparagus, I think.