Saturday, March 17, 2012

Fried rice

Here's a favorite in the Lewis household -- fried rice.

Start with brown rice. In this case I made 12 cups (12 cups water, six cups rice, boil on low temp until done) because we like leftovers.


While the rice was cooking, I fetched some of last year's bacon bits I had canned up in the pantry (though I ended up only using two jars).


We like a bit of scrambled eggs in our fried rice, so I used four.


When the rice finished cooking, I blasted the temperature and added a bit of oil and a generous amount of soy sauce. I added it to the same pot because I didn't really have anything bigger. A wok would work better, but ya make do with what ya have.


Adding the eggs...


...and the bacon...


...and added a jar of mixed veggies.


Stir frequently and keep the heat high. Like quiche, you can add anything you like to fried rice.


Separately I chopped up some onions. I love tons of onion in my fried rice but onions make Older Daughter gag, so I keep them apart.


And the pièce de résistance, Mongolian fire oil. I don't add this to the big pot of rice, but instead let everyone add it for himself since we all have different tolerances for this spicy addition.


Fried rice is a good filling meal by itself, though I know others make it as a side dish.

14 comments:

  1. I LOVE fried rice!

    The only thing I do differently is leave out the bacon since, you know, I'm one of THEM....a Semi-vegetarian...I still eat eggs and some fish or foul a couple times a week, just no pork or beef or venison at all. Not a big deal. I'm pretty covert about it. People usually never even notice.

    I'm making fried rice for supper tomorrow! Mmmm. Yours looks really good. Was this your weekly "meal-made-only-from-preps?"

    Just Me

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  2. No black spots...new camera?

    Just Me

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    Replies
    1. Nope, same camera, you'll see the spots if you look closely. But I used Older Daughter's camera this evening to take some nice sunset shots which were too pretty to mess up with black dots.

      - Patrice

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  3. Mmmm, we love fried rice too. Comfort food.

    It seems to work better with leftover rice, or at least rice made several hours ahead of time. We usually make ours with bits of cooked leftover chicken. Oh, and green onions. Lots of green onions. And fresh ginger.

    Patrice, do you WANT a wok? I would be happy to watch the summer garage sales for you. I have a lovely steel one that I got for a dollar about 20 years ago at some sale or another and it's nicely seasoned now.

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    Replies
    1. You're very kind! But no, I usually don't need a wok and I can always keep an eye out for one at thrift stores. Thank you anyway!

      - Patrice

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  4. Sounds delicious - brown rice gives such a "richer" flavour in my opinion (but I know it doesn't keep anywhere near as long as white rice). I'm curious as to how you bottled the mixed vegies - using pre-mixed vegies and transferring them to bottles or chopping/mixing them from scratch?? Mixed vegies are so versatile and to pull out just one bottle is so convenient.

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    1. For a couple of years we were the "cleanup family" for the local Second Harvest distribution. If they had leftover food and no one wanted it, they called us. One time we got about thirty pounds of frozen mixed veggies, and you can bet I canned it all up!

      - Patrice

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  5. I would love to hear how you home canned bacon bits! Our upright freezer died, and I found some bacon in there. I would love to home can some bacon bits. We love bacon in all forms. I am cooking a ton of frozen foods to can in the next couple of days. I am not throwing out all that food!

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    Replies
    1. (wince) Ouch, rotten luck on the freezer...

      I have two posts on canning bacon. For canning slices of bacon, see this:

      http://www.rural-revolution.com/2011/01/canning-bacon.html

      For canning bacon bits, see this:

      http://www.rural-revolution.com/2011/09/canning-bacon-bits.html

      Good luck with the freezer.

      - Patrice

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  6. fried rice. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. you take after me on soy sauce. i buy the same size bottle of kikkoman. as for the mongolian fire oil i don't think i have any but will get some. as for me and fried rice and the amount you made there would not be any left-over. i love fried rice and lots of soy sauce either as a side dish or main dish.
    for anyone else reading these comments, rice just like pasta, can be made 1000 plus different ways. just add whatever you want.

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  7. fried rice is one dish that i learned how to do while living on okinawa japan...we always use leftover rice (usually a massive quantity cause we like it), and of course you have the right idea of throwing it all together...i use a really large deep skillet to cook in and have found the nonstick skillet to be a help. and yes, ya gotta have lots of soy sauce :)

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  8. oooo. Mongolian Fire Oil - I haven't had that in a long, long time. Now I must add it to the grocery list... thank you Patrice!

    Xa Lynn

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  9. Made the recipe tonight! It was great! I printed it, too. Thanks!
    --K in OK <><
    PS. I made your Bailey's Irish Cream recipe, it was great, too! I didn't see on your blog that you made it for this past Christmas though. Just wondering.

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  10. Moo too! I made this fried rice last night! My teenage sons gobbled it up. So good! Thanks for showing me how to make it.

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