Mary Cooks: Fried Rice

Fried rice is actually so simple I don't think it really counts as cooking a meal. While it does involve some timing and a good idea of what goes together well, fried rice can usually be accomplished without too much fuss. All you really need is leftover rice, meat, some veg, an egg, and a little sauce.

I started with some of the tail end veg from meals past - a sliver of leek, the top of a pepper, the last clove in a bulb of garlic, a lone stalk of celery - chopped them up and sauteed them in a little oil. I used coconut oil tonight because it is light in flavor and allegedly healthy for me. I also used up the tail end of a Sunday chicken Gareth left for me, cutting it into bite-sized cubes and adding it to the pan after the veg had cooked a bit with a little more oil and some of last night's rice.

Now here's the key to fried rice - the egg. A good guideline is about one egg per person. Break it into a bowl and scramble it lightly before adding it to your pan. Let it cook for a few moments before mixing it in. Then add a little sauce. I did a repeat of last night's sauce and mixed together brown sugar, ginger, and soy sauce. Add the sauce at the end and let it cook just long enough to integrate with the rest of your ingredients.

I also had a handful of frozen peas in the freezer that I tossed in at the end with the sauce.

My end result was a generous bowl of sweet, sticky, spicy rice full of Gareth's perfect chicken. A satisfying dinner that came together quickly and easily for me and tasted good to boot - just the thing for a Thursday night.