Fried rice is not just easy food, it’s comfort food for Asians. A hot wok, yesterday’s cooked rice and a bunch of spices; voila!
Fried Rice is hardly a challenging dish; there are many ways of making your own bowl of fried rice and it’s difficult to go wrong! As a basic principle, fried rice is usually made with rice cooked the day before. You may have run out of curry, or soup, but you can always give the rice another life by frying it in a hot wok!
Thai Inspiration
I find that the Thais make a damn good with this dish. They have many alternatives, including the dark soy variety (featured here), the Tom Yam kind, and even the plain chilli paste kind. During my trip to Phuket with Dream Cruises, I stopped by a supermarket (as one does) and picked up spice pastes that I then used to make a three ingredient fried rice. It’s that simple to make Thai Fried Rice!
In this recipe, I have used a combination of soya, oyster and fish sauces to create a dark and inviting meal. It’s similar to the kind that my mum used to make when I was a child; there was always soya sauce in the house. We also used this seasoning called ‘Maggi Seasoning’ which can now be found more widely in Malaysia than Singapore.
Indian Fusion
In the kitchen, I can normally not leave well-enough alone. I mean, isn’t that how you grow? So I took inspiration from my Ayam Kam Heong recipe and added some curry powder to the soya sauce mixture. I used regular Baba’s Fish Curry powder; you can use the meat one if you prefer the slightly nuttier taste of that combination of spices.
Rice
There are many ways to get this rice right. Primarily for this dish, day-old rice is used and it’s usually white rice. I am so addicted to the idea of making this though, that I sometimes find myself cooking a fresh pot of rice just so that I can toss it with other ingredients! The concept behind using day-old rice is more than just reducing food wastage. Day-old rice tends to be drier than the freshly cooked alternative, which is a highly desirable quality needed to make fried rice.
If you’re like me and into this business of cooking rice just to make fried rice, then reduce the water quantity by a fraction of 1/16. This will help produce a drier version of rice that can be easily used for any fried rice. Fully cooked rice will just go mushy in the wok.
Easy Fried Rice for Weeknights
Course: MainCuisine: AsianDifficulty: Easy2
servings10
minutes10
minutes
Fried rice is not just easy food, it’s comfort food for Asians. A hot wok, yesterday’s cooked rice and a bunch of spices; voila!
You’ll need;
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Medium Red Onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Cloves Garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 Egg, beaten
1 Can Tuna Flakes in Water, drained
100g Green Peas (frozen is just fine)
Rice, made from 160g of uncooked rice- For the Sauce
2 Tbsp Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce (this isn’t too much, have faith)
1 Tbsp Curry Powder
You’ll need to;
Make the Curry Soya sauce by combining all ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside till later.
In a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil and then the onions. Cook until onions are translucent and soft. Then, add the garlic and fry for a further minute.
To this, add the drained tuna flakes and green peas. Cook and mix evenly; this will take about 2 minutes. Move the contents of the pan to one side within the pan, and add the beaten egg to the side that was cleared. Cook the egg well, about 1 minute, before mixing all ingredients together again.
Turn the heat up. Then, add the rice, followed by the sauce you made earlier. Stir through evenly to ensure the rice is coated well.
Take off the heat when the rice is evenly coloured in a dark, black hue. Serve warm.