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Occasionally, I find myself in times when the busy pace of life means that I've eaten more meals prepared by strangers than those cooking on my own stove and the carefully chosen produce in my crisper drawers wilts and turns black long before I have a chance to get to it.
Last week was one of those times when, between the stomach flu, a busy week at work and a couple of evenings out with friends, I hardly cooked at all. By the time Friday night rolled around, Scott and I found ourselves sprawled out in the living room, staring blankly at each other, hungry and exhausted. We didn't want to go out and I didn't feel like cooking anything particularly ambitious. I wandered into the kitchen and took stock of my resources.
One pound of chicken breast. A cup and a half of leftover brown rice. Half a dozen flaccid asparagus spears. A third a red onion and some broccoli. Heating up my biggest cast iron skillet, I roughly chopped the onion and started to brown it in a little grapeseed oil over medium high heat. Next in was some smashed garlic and about an inch of peeled and minced ginger.
In a separate skillet, I cooked the chicken so that I'd be able to prevent it from getting overcooked. The rice went into the big pan, along with the broccoli and a couple of handfuls of frozen peas, dug out from the depths of the freezer. I added a little water as things were starting to stick and some soy sauce. At the last minute I decided to go full-on homemade Chinese food and scrambled up a couple of eggs to add as well.
What started as a chore became an act of cooking that ended up being totally satisfying, delicious and cleaned out the fridge effectively as well. And, we didn't have to leave home or fork over $25 in order to eat dinner.
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4-28-2008 @5:17PM geeky said... I make my fried rice all in one pan. Add a few drops of sesame oil while cooking to make it extra awesome.
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4-28-2008 @5:46PM Ric said... To make it really authentic, most would say you need a big dollop of fish sauce or oyster sauce. I keep oyster sauce around just for fried rice. Oh, and I concur on the sesame oil too.
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4-28-2008 @6:48PM Big John said... Fried rice is one of my favorite things, but I've never had the guts to try at home. On Thursday I move out of this dinky studio and into a real apartment -- I can't wait to try this out!
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4-28-2008 @10:55PM RobynT said... Depends on what kind of authentic you are talking about. I like kim chee in mine. sausage or bacon are also good. and carrots for color.
And don't forget to put in the rice cold! Otherwise it comes out mushy.
http://halfassfoodie.blogspot.com
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4-29-2008 @3:12PM patleeman said... The great thing about fried rice is that you can put anything into it as long as you have leftover rice. You can do the same thing for Lo Mein, just cook up some noodles (I enjoy using spaghetti), cook the meats and vegetables, throw in the cooked noodles and season to taste, usually with soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. I like putting a teaspoon of XO sauce to give it a bit of a smoky bbq flavor, and lots of pepper.
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