No-waste Fried Rice Bowl
The one most frequently cooked dish in my kitchen–a fried rice bowl–is like snowflakes: always wonderful, but no two batches are alike. In order to pull this out of your sleeve as an emergency instant dinner, you must merely have done the groundwork of putting away leftover rice, a day to a week before. The rest of the ingredients are either kitchen staples (oil or fat, fish sauce), or the products of a fridge-cleaning expedition (a scrap of pork chop, a leek, a quarter of a cabbage) or, in season, of a stroll in the garden (green onions, a single cucumber, a fistful of cilantro).

Ingredients:

  • 3-5 tablespoons fat (lard, bacon fat, duck fat, vegetable oil, or any combination you find around) random bits of cooked or raw meat (as little as ¼ cup shredded, or maybe a leftover chicken wing or ribs from a pork roast or a chunk of dry-cured sausage), optional
  • 3-6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3-4 cups cold cooked jasmine rice
  • 1-2 cups shredded vegetables (any greens, leeks or spring onions, green or red pepper)
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce

Optional add-ons:

Hot sauce, sliced radish or cucumber, a fried egg, shredded scallions, a squeeze of lime, fresh cilantro or basil.

No-waste Fried Rice Bowl

No-waste Fried Rice Bowl

Have all the ingredients ready to go.

 

No-waste Fried Rice Bowl

Heat a well-seasoned wok over highest heat for a minute. Add the fat and swirl to coat. If you are going for the meat option, add the bits to the wok and move them around to sear a bit. (If you’re using any raw meat, cook it through at this point.)

 

No-waste Fried Rice Bowl

Toss in the garlic, stir it once, then quickly add the rice, breaking it up with your stirring tool. Turn it in the fat and continue to cook it very briskly so as to begin to sear every grain.

 

No-waste Fried Rice Bowl

Use your judgment to add substantial vegetables (kale) sooner than tender ones (spinach). Continue stir-frying until all is well seared together. (We like it almost beginning to burn—super chewy and delicious!)

 

No-waste Fried Rice Bowl

Grind on plentiful black pepper. Stir some more, then add a couple big jots of fish sauce. Stir, taste for salt (more fish sauce, if needed), turn out into large bowls.  Slide a quickly- fried egg on top, and garnish as desired. We always put lime quarters, and the bottles of fish sauce and Sriracha sauce on the table, along with a couple of cold ones.

 

Serves 2.

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Recipe by Paula Marcoux