fried rice

leah | 04.06.2020

we had so many leftovers to get through yesterday: dal, chili, shrimp and grits, pizza, a whole-ass CHEESE PLATE. we also have so many dessert-type things in the house since walker's parents brought us donuts and sent us a cookie delivery. so yeah, couldn't really justify cooking yesterday. for lunch today, i had a slice of pizza and a bloody mary, which is, y'know, a choice.

every individual day feels like it goes on forever, but damn, it's almost been 4 weeks already? anyway, it's time to eat a vegetable or two.

recipe:
it's just fried rice, you don't need a recipe.

method:

• cook some rice, preferably yesterday but today works too. use a little less water than usual. 1 standard cup of uncooked rice makes a decent amount that fits in my 12 inch cast iron pan. once it's cooked, spread it on a plate to let it cool faster and evaporate as much water as possible. dry is better here.
• prep some vegetables while the rice cooks and cools. we used 1 beet, a handful of diced frozen carrots, a handful of frozen peas, 3-4 cabbage leaves julienned, a handful of chopped kimchi. you can mince some garlic and ginger too, but i just use garlic and ginger paste, the kind from the indian market.
• cook the vegetables that need to be cooked. i microwaved the carrots and beets for 4-5 min in the microwave until they were cooked but not soft. i charred the cabbage in a hot skillet with some oil until it got a few burnt spots. this is for FLAVOR. you can leave the peas and kimchi alone. set the vegetables aside.
• i'm always annoyed by the egg sticking when i cook it with the rice so i just scramble them separately in a nonstick pan and set aside. the eggs look better if you season them with sriracha before cooking, really boosts the yellow.
• heat up 2-3 tbsp oil in a pan. when it's hot, add the rice and break up the clumps. i try to get a little bit of crispiness on the rice but it doesn't always work. oh well.
• i put in the garlic and ginger at this point and cook it with the rice until it's not raw anymore.
• add some seasoning, i did soy sauce and oyster sauce this time. put all the other stuff back in the pan and just heat through. you can season after putting the stuff in, i don't know why i do it this way.
• stir in a little bit of sesame oil then serve.

NOTE: i usually fry the kimchi for a few seconds while i pre-cook all the other vegetables and this time i skipped that step. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! the leftovers got so weird probably because the kimchi kept fermenting.