Fried Rice!

[rax]

I haven't shared a recipe here in a while, so here's the fried rice I've been making in variations for the last while. I started making friend rice a couple of years ago as a thing to do with extra rice and such, and then when I lost a lot of my diet because of picking up a nighshade allergy, it became a bit more of a go-to for me. After recently visiting Beatrix (bossgoji ), whose fried rice is seriously hardcore awesome, I've been tweaking her recipe and learning how to make it well and make it with the things I like to eat. I can successfully feed this to my omnivorous housemates unless I put natto in it (they'll even tolerate tempeh!) and postrodent liked it so much he asked for the recipe. Therefore, here you go:

FRIED RICE, YO.

(warning: I don't measure ingredients. If that bothers you, you may want different recipes from mine. Sorry! I'm compulsive about a lot of things, and weirdly one of them is not measuring ingredients, rather than getting precise quantities.)

Rice: I usually use jasmine rice because that's what I get 25lb bags of. It's best to have day-old rice --- I make fried rice when I've had leftover rice in the rice cooker for a day or two, but if you don't have a Neuro Fuzzy you should buy one right now you can just store leftover rice in the fridge for a day.

Sauce:

• a splash of lime juice (lemon also works)
• a larger splash of rice wine vinegar
• some soy sauce
• one or two diced cloves of garlic
• some grated or diced ginger (powder works in a pinch but isn't as good)
• maybe a spoonful of sugar --- this is important, it helps things caramelize
• something to thicken it a bit: Bea uses store-bought "stir fry sauce;" this worked really well. Unfortunately, her random store stir fry sauce was safe for me to eat, but the ones near me aren't. I've tried corn starch, peanut butter, and nothing, and my favorite was honestly nothing, although the peanut butter seemed like it would be really cool if I had a slightly different flavor mixture, so I may try it again. I kind of want to try tahini, too.

You can make the sauce in advance, or you can try to put it together while you are frying the other things and almost forget the sugar and dump it in at the last minute without stirring and then most of it will stick to the bowl but then you can pull it up with your finger and lick it up so it's not a total loss. But make the sauce in advance, it's easier. Or have a minion do it! <3

So for me, the base of basically any food made in a skillet is going to be some combination of garlic, scallions, and onion in oil. I usually throw in spices (here: a touch of cinnamon and cumin), and the type of oil you use really does matter. Interestingly, and I picked this up from Bea, for fried rice I've been using a mixture of sesame oil and olive oil. I'm not sure why, but it works.

Once the garlic is starting to brown, I throw in other things that want to cook for a whilish. This most recent batch was seitan [0] and a chopped-up carrot; Trader Joe's has this great broccoli/carrot slaw that is cheap and convenient, or you can just use fresh broccoli, or really most vegetables work. I've also used tofu and tempeh for protein sources and those are tasty too; soft tofu is actually really nice if you miss the texture of egg in fried rice from before you were vegan even though you mostly didn't like egg and it kind of made you sick. Hypothetically. ANYWAY. You put stuff in like you are making a stirfry and, uh, I think sautee is the technical term.

Then, once it's mostly but not entirely done, you take it all out, re-oil the skillet, and throw in the rice. Stir it around in the oil and cook it for a minute, and then if there are precooked things you want to add, toss them in for a minute or two --- I put in natto [1] or frozen peas here. Then you add in the sauce and the other stuff! Here's the part I have trouble with: Don't stir it for a few minutes. You have to let it caramelize and crisp up a bit on the bottom. I have so much trouble with stirring it too much, because it's sizzling and that means I should stir it! But no! It means you should let it go. Go clean some dishes. Realphabetize the spice rack because your housemates screwed up cinnamon and coriander. Go look at the internet even (but set a timer for three minutes so you don't get wrapped up in an argument about Deleuze and forget you are cooking). And then, once you stir, let it sit again. For another two or three minutes. And then one more time.

Then eat it! Because oh man it's really tasty.

[0] For seitan I use a modified nightshade-free version of the Seitan O'Greatness recipe. You probably just want to google "seitan o'greatness" and use one of those, because I think it's better with nightshades, but one of these days I will post a Rachel-safe seitan recipe for folks who care.

[1] I LOVE NATTO. I am not sure whether it is a vegan dietary deficiency thing --- I've read conflicting things about that --- or if I just love natto. But man. Natto. Sometimes I feel sort of weirdly body awful, and then I eat natto, and then I feel better. I dunno if it's psychosomatic, but I totally recommend it if you have similar issues ever. Also Selene (one of my cats) likes it. So it must be good!

Comments

[hebinekohime]

I can safely say that I've never craved natto. I am curious about trying it someday, though~

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

Did you ever try rushthatspeaks's carrot rice? Very simple to make, and quite delicious. And I believe totally safe for you, assuming you substitute margarine for butter.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I have not, but I sure like carrots and I sure like rice!

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

They probably know the details of how to make it better than I, but IIRC it's something like add one shaved carrot per cup of cooked rice then add butter (margarine) and salt to taste.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

That's exactly right.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

tiamat360 has the recipe pretty much exactly. The things I would also mention: grate uncooked carrot on the very smallest holes of the grater, so you get incredibly fine shreds; mix the carrot with the rice while the rice is still hot and they will become a synergistic substance. Butter/margarine is optional, but I don't think salt is, it's just not the same without. Herbs that go reasonably if you feel like it include savory and basil, though I would suggest only one small dash of only one herb/spice because it's meant to be simple comfort food. I haven't done it myself but people tell me cinnamon goes. Cumin doesn't even though you think it should.

Also did I ever give you my mustard green beans recipe?

[kelkyag]

Ooooh. Cinnamon carrot rice. Yes. I must try this. Thank you.

[rax.livejournal.com]

No, I would love to see that recipe as well!

mustard soy green beans

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Okay, so all the measurements for this are approximate because I don't measure.

1 lb. bag frozen chopped green beans. Yes, I mean frozen. Or you can freeze fresh ones.
4 cloves garlic or to taste, peeled and chopped fine (more is more but if you're overwhelming the mustard that's a problem)
vegetable oil
dark soy sauce or good tamari
Dijon or other coarse strong mustard
mirin
cooking sake or Shao Hsing wine
sesame oil
lemon juice

Heat a splash of oil over medium heat and stir-fry the garlic until golden but not burned. Pour in a good splash of soy sauce-- my metric is 'slightly more than you think looks reasonable', maybe three or four tablespoons. A good dollop of mustard, a small dash of mirin, and stir. Taste to check the balance between the soy and the mustard-- at this point the flavor should be too strong. Adjust things until you have a flavor you would like if it weren't too strong. Bring to a boil.

Pour in beans, frozen and undefrosted, and put a lid on the pot immediately. The beans are steaming in their own ice. Steam twenty to twenty-five minutes, stirring every five to seven, until the beans show signs of soaking up sauce and are heated through. Take off the lid, pour in a splash of cooking sake, and stir violently for about a minute.

Scrape the pan into a heat-proof bowl, drizzle with sesame oil (lightly!) and lemon juice (more), and stir thoroughly. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least overnight. To serve, remove beans and chunks of garlic with a slotted spoon from the liquid. There will be a lot of liquid. You can pour maybe a third to a half of the liquid over the beans and either discard the rest or use it as a marinade for something else, or you can reduce it down to sauce consistency, but if you do that you need to cool it down thoroughly before you use it because this dish tastes good at room temperature or cold and isn't great hot.

The great thing with this is that it scales up well and it keeps basically forever and it even freezes okay (though not brilliantly), so if you decide you like it you can make like four or five pounds and just have it there. Also a very good contribution to potlucks and a Thing I Put In Bento. Possible things to play with adding: ginger, Szechuan pepper. I haven't tried either but they seem logical.

[identityfail.livejournal.com]

this sounds difficult and complicated so i will probably not do it but i loved reading it and you should probz write a recipe book and i will read it delightedly and repeatedly but then continue cooking nothing except things that involve only throwing frozen veggies into a pan and whimsically adding various spices until my raised-on-indian-food tastebuds are like, "i suppose this will do, i guess, at least it only took like five minutes."

[rax.livejournal.com]

It's not that hard! It's a little trickier than five-minute food though. I'd show you, but you're all the way over there!

Also I should totally write up more recipes. It's fun!

[identityfail.livejournal.com]

Yes! Maybe I will apply to the Arizona grad program though and then we could hang out and you could teach me to make delicious vegan food and everything would be fabulous minus the being in grad school part but it would be okay because I would just spend my time fanboying (autocorrect wants that to be "fancying," but no, that's a [slightly] different thing) over susan. shrug.

[rax.livejournal.com]

DOOOOOOOOOO ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

(or not, but it would be pretty awesome)

[identityfail.livejournal.com]

update: I SORT OF MADE THIS. with store-bought seitan and other cheating and skipping things i didn't have and stuff but still. woo.

the problem with me cooking things is i don't actually know if things turn out well since i kind of think ALL THE FOOD tastes good always. hmm.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Thanks much! I have made/helped make this weird-ass recipe (http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/recipes/recipe-combo11.html) twice this week, for the feeding of my low-glycemic diets. I look forward to making real fried rice in the near future, and I'll probably try for some sort of cunning synthesis of the two recipes as well.

[rax.livejournal.com]

That's weird, but kind of awesome!

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Things I have successfully used as stir-fry thickeners which you might find interesting: rice flour (regular, not the glutinous kind), arrowroot powder.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Oh, and a thing I use in stir-fry that has changed my life: Yu Hsiang black vinegar, the kind they have at Chinese restaurants. You can also make dumpling dipping sauces with that and ginger.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I have some of that, and it hasn't changed my life yet, but I will have to play with it more. I can definitely see it working really well in dipping sauces...

[weirdquark]

We had some mysterious leafy thing that we got in our farm share that had a strong, bitter flavor. No idea what it was, but I mixed up a salad with it, some sesame oil, the Chinese black vinegar, mustard, and some garlic. I could have eaten that all day.

[jackbishop.livejournal.com]

Two questions, neither of which actually relate directly to fried rice:

(1) Do you know how a Sanyo ECJ-M100S compares to a Zoji Neuro Fuzzy? I have a Zoji CD-WBC30 in the office for tea that I love to bits, but a Neuro Fuzzy seems like a terifying and terrifyingly expensive beast, and the Sanyo seems like a product with similar functionality at well less than half the price.

(2) Do you buy natto or make your own? I've never had natto and now I am curious. Every other account I've seen online is of how vile it is, but, hey, I like lots of stuff other people find vile.

[rax.livejournal.com]

(1) I do not! I had a housemate with the Neuro Fuzzy and when she left I basically said "Welp, I guess I am getting a Neuro Fuzzy." I consider it a reasonable investment --- although the Amazon reviews on the Sanyo are promising. I don't think it was around when I bought.

(2) I buy natto (and it is hard to find natto with no fish in it, and also no hot pepper in the flavoring). Most people I tell to have their first natto experience being something mild and homemade. Knowing your taste, just get natto wherever. :P I find that cooking cheap natto even just for a few minutes really cuts down on the metallic note, which is the only part I don't like. I'm curious to see if you like it when you try it, o fellow enjoyer of food other people hate. (Also, have you noticed that the American-released "Zwack" liqueur is annoyingly cloying? Do you know anywhere in the US to get Real Unicum?)

[jackbishop.livejournal.com]

I'm more agreeable to fish and hot pepper, so I guess at some point I must try storebought natto.

On the Unicum thing: several years back, Zwack released a new formulation called "Unicum Next" that was supposed to appeal to a younger demographic -- it's terrible but not terrible enough to get disconinued. And then when they licensed in America, for some reason they decided to market the disgusting Next line rather than the tasty classic line. So that's why American Zwack (apparently the name Unicum didn't play too well with focus groups) is disgusting.

My last bottle or two came from actually going to Hungary and picking one up, but that's not really viable as a regular solution. BevMo used to carry imported Unicum, but it seems like it's been completely displaced by the horrible Next crap. There are rumors that Canada has the real stuff, so if you can figure out a way to get it shipped...

[bossgoji.livejournal.com]

You may pay tribute to me for your future deliciousness at your earliest convenience.

[rax.livejournal.com]

You just wanted an excuse to use that icon. <3

[schrodi-kitten.livejournal.com]

Why must people post about delicious foods when my tummy is the hurting?

And why did I read all about the delicious foods and now want them regardless?

THIS ISN'T RIGHT AT ALL ;_;

(sounds super yummy though)

(oww)

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Huh. Maybe it's time for me to have my great reckoning with natto. :)

[rax.livejournal.com]

If you find yourself in San Francisco with any level of frequency, I would first try the homemade Natto at Minako at 17th and Mission. Barring that, find a local natto-liker and ask them where they think is best in your area. Quality varies widely and if the first bit you taste is awful-metallic-ugh then you are not gonna want to try more even if it is better.

Besides, you like Marmite, you'll probably be fine. ;)

[anacoluthon.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask this earlier and forgot! Do you dig nutritional yeast at all? I get weird cravings for it and I know it has B vitamins out the wazoo and is a great Crazy Vegan Food Item. I sometimes feel like my relationship with it is like yours with natto.

I have still not had any other than the sushi at Minako, but Enne and I did get some the last time we were there and it was still tasty. I'm just afraid that any other natto I have won't be as good.