Veg fried rice is so nice ~ Ham Pie Sandwiches

24 January 2013

Veg fried rice is so nice

vegetable fried rice

Today I was ready to sit down and write a blog post when I discovered that Blogger is having issues with their editor in Chrome. After several hours of frustration, I discovered that hey, if you use your problem-solving skills and try things in a different browser like a competent user, sometimes they work! ZOMG EXCITE. Ahem. Yes. How was your afternoon?

So! Who wants to hear about fried rice?

This is a dinner for the nights when you want nearly instant food and have some leftover rice (or whatever grain), as assortment of veg, and a few eggs in the fridge. It can take nearly any vegetable you throw at it and remain delicious. In this case, I had carrots, onions, broccoli, and cabbage: perfect.

Needless to say, this isn't authentic. It's just good and easy and fast. You will also notice that it looks like a giant mess, and not just because I took the pictures well after dark. That's ok, though; the worst-looking food usually tastes the best, and this is no exception.

Vegetable fried rice

peanut oil/flavorless oil of your choice
onion
green onion
ginger if you have any
a optional hot pepper
assorted veg: carrots, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, bean sprouts, mushrooms, etc.
eggs
leftover cooked rice or other appropriate grain
soy sauce, sriracha, sesame oil

Chop up all your vegetables and have all your other ingredients out and ready before you start cooking. Fried rice can go very quickly over high heat.

Okay. Start by warming a slug of peanut oil on medium-high heat in a wide saute pan or wok.

Throw in your chopped onion, the whites of green onion, ginger, and hot pepper. (If you don't have any fresh ginger, add a bit of ground ginger with the eggs later.) Fry quickly and vigorously, stirring or tossing frequently, for two to three minutes.

Add any vegetables that need longer cooking time. In my case, this meant broccoli and carrots. Continue to stir-fry for a few minutes, and then add the more tender vegetables. I was using a massive amount of shredded cabbage: RECOMMENDED. I love cabbage, and it's so underused. More cabbage for everyone. Continue cooking until your tender veg is mostly wilted.

Add the rice, season with a bit of soy sauce and sriracha, and stir to combine. Give it a minute to warm up and mingle with the veg. While you're waiting, crack your eggs into a separate bowl, add ground ginger if needed, and whip with a fork until combined.

Turn the heat down to medium and add the eggs to the pan. Stir immediately and thoroughly, so the egg is distributed well throughout the veg and rice. Keep stirring as the egg cooks.

When the egg is done to your liking, turn off the heat and stir in a few drops of sesame oil. Serve your fried rice as instantly as possible, with a garnish of green onion greens. I added some more sriracha and gomasio, because I like heat and the sesame seeds add a nice toasty crunch.

Hooray! Dinner!

You wouldn't think fried rice would be great left over, but it turns out to be pretty good if you warm it up on the stovetop. Who knew?

What are you guys conjuring up from leftovers?

11 comments:

Michelle said...

So which browser did you switch to?

Fried rice is so dang easy. I don't know why I don't make it more. Probably because I hardly ever have leftover grains to use. Looks great. Ugly, but great.

Catherine Weber said...

I love fried rice, and I always forget about it! A great clean-out-the-crisper meal.

Monet said...

Fried rice is so easy and so very good. We need to remember to make it more often. Thank you for sharing!

Caz said...

Never made fried rice myself but you make it sound so easy and I'm always on the look out for quick week night dinners. Thanks for the inspiration!

Eileen said...

Glad to see I'm not the only fried rice aficionado in the room! Yes, it's definitely a great way to get all the bits and bobs of odd veg out of the crisper. :)

The browser is Safari, unfortunately. (I hate Safari.)

Jes said...

Veg fried rice is one of my faves--so simple and awesome for a quick dinner. Lots of sriracha on top of course!

Kat said...

I got used to Safari even though I didn't like it at first - when one of the other browsers started randomly crashing on me.

Needless to say I love fried rice, and this is a really good weekday recipe. Sriracha is definitely a necesssary ingredient.

Shut Up and Cook said...

One of my New Years resolutions is to waste less food, so recipes like this are right up my alley lately. Now I just need some leftover rice!

Joanne said...

This is such a great way to turn leftovers into something delicious! And I'm glad you figured out the blogger problem...I hate it when things go wrong, inexplicably.

Lou said...

Yum yum, I'm a huge fan of fried rice.... such a great "just-add-everything" meal where you can use up tired veggies!

I love having fried rice with a peanut satay sauce drizzled all over the top.... my Mum used to make this when we were kids.

And everything is better with hot sauce, indeed ;)

Erin @ The Speckled Palate said...

Ah! I've done the SAME THING with browsers before... and then created major stumbling blocks for myself because I just wasn't thinking. Glad I'm not the only one.

This fried rice looks delightful, and it makes me happy that you used so many things in it! We don't have leftover grains often, but the next time we do, I'll have to give this a shot!