Fried Rice recipes are a dime a dozen in Asia! I don’t want to call it the lazy-cooks-dinner because, for something that requires almost 0 effort, fried rice can be extremely flavourful. On a recent trip to Phuket with Dream Cruises, I was given the opportunity for a free and easy tour around Phuket Town. Of course, I went where the ingredients were. So this is my version of a Thai Fried Rice.
Food Pastes
I am a huge fan of instant pastes (and fried rice), regardless of where you buy them from. This recipe uses a Thai paste, a Thai Shrimp Paste to be specific. The paste has everything I need and look for in a fried rice. Spice, shrimp, complex saltiness brought about by the mixture of the chillies and the shrimp. While belachan pastes are very popular in Asia, Thai belachan pastes tend to carry a unique flavour. This is thanks to the use of native ingredients such as lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. While I understand that this fried rice now is branded by a particular spice paste blend, it’s really the method that I want to discuss here.
I had never dreamt that I’ll come up with a 3 ingredient fried rice, with rice being one of the ingredients. I understand fried rice, not as just comfort food, but also a great way to use up leftovers in the fridge. And just to pull it together with a sambal, then adding rice to the entire thing so you don’t have the combination (sometimes hassle) of rice and curry. At times like a weekend where I don’t feel like cooking, or a morning when I’m rushing to work and know that I’m not going to have time to nip out for lunch, this recipe comes in handy.
The three ingredients here are the rice, spice paste and egg. I simply fried the egg, added the paste and added the rice. Stirred everything together and ate it greedily. You can serve it with chopped onions, chillies and roasted nuts on the side. This will be for those days when you feel particularly fancy. Otherwise, I just eat this out of the pan. As Demi Lovato would say, #sorrynotsorry
Ingredients
- 2 Eggs, beaten
- 5 Tbsp Thai Belachan Paste
- 2 Cups Cooked Rice
Method
- In a wok, heat up 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil and fry the eggs till half cooked. This will take barely a minute if your heat is high. For stir fries, heat is usually high.
- Then, add the spice paste. If you'd like to loosen the mixture a little, you can add a few tablespoons of water to the mixture. Break up the belachan and make sure it mixes well with the eggs. Add the rice and toss everything together in the heat.
- Bring to the table piping hot and serve with some yoghurt, if you're as kooky as me about this combination.
