Fried rice. It's one of the most universal dishes in the world. You can put endless ingredients into it. Peppers, carrots, peas, onions, garlic, prawns, just about anything can be put into fried rice. Whether or not it's good is another thing. There's no way I could cover all the different types of fried rice in this article, so I'll be making what I call my "Lazy Friday is a hungry Friday" version.
You may ask yourself what you'd need for fried rice. Well, you don't need a fancy $40 wok or some fancy Asian like Stachey or myself. What you do need is a little bit of caution as doing something wrong can easily result in a burn, which I've received before. So before we begin be CAUTIOUS. If you're not old enough to be cooking on your own make sure you're cooking your rice with an adult.
Ingredients:
Rice (Seriously, no sarcasm this time. You'll need 2 cups of cold pre-cooked rice, it's recommended the rice is cooked the day before)
Canola oil
A $39 wok (Honestly, ANY sort of wok works great and is recommended. Pans are fine if you enjoy "chasing your food" around the pan, as smaller ingredients tend to jump around.)
Canola oil
1/2 cup of onions
1/4 cup of red, green or yellow peppers (or 3/4 cup of all three mixed together)
3 eggs
1/2 cup of small prawns (shrimp), deveined and shelled
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
Before cooking:
First, finely chop any peppers you're using. Next, take your hands and break any clumps in the cold rice with your fingers (Please have clean hands, please). Now get your eggs ready. Mix a dash of milk and the 3 eggs together with some pepper together and whisk lightly with a fork in a separate container from your wok or pan.
Cooking your rice:
Alright, let's get started. Add enough canola oil to coat the surface of your wok or pan (don't overdo it) and heat it on the stove until the surface of the pan/wok is just starting to smoke on a high heat. Next, take your wok off the heat (seriously, take it off the heat or you will likely be burned) and add the peppers, onion, and prawns and move the dish back to the high heat. Add the salt and pepper and sir around for 30 seconds.
Now comes our most important step. Add the rice to the dish and stir for another minute. Then add your soy sauce and stir for an additional minute. Now push all of your fried rice to the side of the pan/wok and add your egg mixture and proceed to scramble it until cooked. Don't worry about getting rice in your egg, you're eating it all together anyway. Take your rice off of the heat and mix the egg around in your rice and serve.
Afterward:
There are endless ways to make fried rice, try experimenting a little. There are also variations in other ingredients you can use, such as oyster or fish sauce instead of soy, or even peanut oil instead of canola. I personally enjoy rice with some sort of basil added and oyster sauce instead of soy, but hey, you may not.
Even if you don't enjoy cooking, at least TRY to make something out of your comfort zone. America is one of the most diverse countries on the planet, and it pains me to see how intimidated we are by food from other cultures.
If you're interested in this series, feel free to post in the BBS about your own favorite recipes. My next article will be moving away from rice dishes for a bit in order to spice things up a little with . . . firecrackers! The ingredients will be a little less common, so I'm going to tell you what they are beforehand so you'll have a week or so to get them.
Large raw Jumbo shrimp (12-20) heads and shells removed
Red curry paste
Thai fish sauce (Amazing stuff)
Small won ton wrappers, equal to the number of shrimp you buy
Fine egg noodles, also according to the number of shrimp
Peanut oil, for deep frying (Do NOT EVER try deep frying without at least one other adult present, whether you're an adult or not. If you're careless you could easily start a fire)
This is Jadenman, reppin team diversity. As always, have a good day.
Author's Note: If you're familiar with satire you'd know I love sarcasm, so don't be too serious folks.
