Shrimp Fried Rice

Fred rice is one of the frequent dishes I made at home. Whenever we have left over steamed rice, I would check to see what I have in the refrigerator.  Any vegetable and meat can be used alone or combine to fry with rice.  There were times I would have no food but eggs in the refrigerator, with a quick whip on eggs and soy sauce, a simple and delicious fried rice was done in 5 minutes.  Here is one of my favorite fried rice because it has all the ingredients I love. I love frying fresh green bean with eggs and I never get bore with shrimp.

Ingredients:

3 gloves garlic, minced

1 cup shrimp, peel and halves

1 cup green bean, chopped to small pieces

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

2 eggs, whip

1 cup white rice

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

Directions:

1.  Heat pan with cooking oil.

2.  Stir fry shrimp until cook, scoop out and set aside.

3.  Add 1 tbsp oil and heat until it's hot. Stir fry garlic until fragrant.

4.  Add and stir fry green bean for 5 minutes, add salt and water

5.  Cover and cook for 3 minutes.

6.  Add cooked shrimp and pour in the egg, mix and cook until egg is done.

7.  Add in the steamed rice, soy sauce and oyster sauce, stir fry well until all incorporated well.

8   Sprnkle some black pepper and serve.

Sweet Gluten Rice (You Fan) 油飯

I have a request to write a sweet rice recipe.  Sweet rice is also known as glutinous rice.  We tend to eat sweet rice more often during the winter time as it's known to keep your body warm after consuming it. This recipe was given to me by my Taiwanese colleague 20 years ago.  I was told that the Taiwanese women usually eat this after they gave birth to a baby. It's called " You Fan油飯" in Mandarin, and it's translated to "Greasy Rice".  The one you usually eat at the dim sum restaurant is in Cantonese style, so it's not prepared in the same way.  I like the taste of the "You Fan" better and it's also our favorite to eat at home.  I have modified the recipe to better suit my taste.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup of long grain rice (original called for 2 cups of sweet rice)
1 cup of sweet rice
2 pairs of Chinese sausage
2 slices of Ginger
2 gloves of Garlic, finely chopped
4 to 5 Dried Shiitake mushrooms (Soaked  in warm water for 30 minutes), sliced when soft
10 Small Dried shrimp (soak for 5 minutes and drain the water), finely chopped
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
8 oz. Pork sirloin, sliced (marinated with sauce first, see below)

Marinated meat sauce:
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp regular soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch

Directions:

1. Wash and pour both types of rice into the rice cooker.
2. When it's done, let it cool off.
3. Slice Chinese sausage and mushrooms
4. Heat the pan first. Then add cooking oil, and stir fry gingers and garlic until fragrant but not burned.
5. Add in the dried shrimp and marinated pork until cooked.
6. Add the cooled rice, mix well with oyster,soy sauce and sesame oil.
7. Stir fry and mix everything well until the rice is covered with sauce and turned to a brown color.
8. Serve while it's hot.  Add some soy sauce if it's not salty enough.

Notes:
1. I replaced 2 cups of sweet rice with 1 cup sweet rice and 1 cup long grain rice which I feel is easier to digest as we tend to eat a lot of it.  You can adjust the white rice to whatever ratio of the sweet rice. It's really your own preference as the original recipe should be sweet rice only.

2. It's important to let the rice cooled off before you mix in with other cooked ingredients so they will be easy to stir fry and do not look mushy when done. You can add more meat and adjust oyster or soy sauce to your preference.

3.  Serve with any vegetable to help with digestion. I served this with the winter melon soup.

Smoked Salmon Fried Rice

I like to use leftover white rice to make fried rice for my kids.  Last night, I ran out of ham and found some smoked salmon in the refrigerator.  I used it to make this fried rice.

Ingredients:

1 cup of white rice (day old rice is preferred)
1 Tbsp cooking oil
2 gloves of garlic, chopped
1/2  Yellow onion, chopped
10 String beans, chopped
4 oz. Smoked salmon
2 eggs
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Some black peppers
1 stalk of green onion, chopped

Directions:

1. Heat up pan until hot, add some cooking oil.
2. Stir fry onion until fragrant.
3  Add in string beans and stir fry for 5 minutes.  Add a little water, cover and cook for couple of minutes or until cooked.
4. Add smoked salmon and cook for couple of minutes.
5. Make a well in the center of mixture, crack the eggs in and stir fry for 2 minutes then mix well with all the mixture.
6. Add in the rice, oyster sauce and soy sauce, stir and mix well with all the mixture.
7. Add some black pepper and green onion when they are done.

Note:

You can cook with any vegetable like carrots, peas, tomatoes.  I personally like to use fresh string beans, or green beans.  Marinated beef is also a good option in this recipe.

Braised Pork Rice （ Lu Rou Fan ）

My friend Teresa is a great cook and she often look at recipes and cook something complicated.   I like to ask her for recipes since I don't like to go through recipe books nor do I have the patience to take the time to go through the long process of making a dish.  This is a dish that's fairly easy to prepare in huge quantities ahead of time and is well loved by all of us. It's just like spaghetti: the older it gets, the better it tastes.    She told me the most important ingredients to use in this dish are the 5 spices and the shallots.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Pork (Pork that has at least 50% fat is preferred)
6 Shiitake mushrooms (soak in cold water for few hours)
3 to 4 Shallots
2 gloves of garlic
1 and 1/2 Tbsp 5 spices (see Note below for description of spices)

1. Cut out the pork skin if any, cut the pork in tiny pieces.(marinate with some soy sauce and sugar)
2. Soak the shiitake mushrooms and dice into small pieces.
3. Chopped the garlic and  shallots
4. Heat pan on high,add the pork and keep stirring until all fat comes out.
5. Scoop out the pork and put aside.
6. Using the same pan (which still has some oil in it), add the shallots and stir fry until fragrant.
7. Add in the mushrooms and stir fry
8. Add in some soy sauce, rock sugar and 5 spices (1 tbsp)
9. Add a little water just enough to cover the pork.
10. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
11. To make boiled eggs, add eggs into cold water and cook for 12 to 15 minutes.
12. Remove the eggshell and add in to the pork while it's still simmeingr.
13. Turn the eggs in the pot occassionally so the eggs are covered by the sauce and will evenly brown.
14. The dish is done after 30 minutes.
15. Serve egg and some pork mixture over rice.

Note:
1. This dish tastes well with fatty pork, you can remove the excess fat when it's done stir frying.
2. The 5 spices consists of fennel,anise,cinnamon, gloves, and ginger. It's supposed to be added in before ready to be served.  You can find a bottle of this blend of spices in any Chinese grocery store.

Chinese Sausage Claypot Rice - 煲仔飯

The weather is getting colder as we enter the winter season.  It's usually the time to eat claypot food to keep us warm. On the day that we went to San Francisco, we stopped over at Chinatown to buy a Chinese claypot and a Chinese chopping knife. The place we bought them from is called Wok Shop on Grand street. I bought this mid-sized claypot：The owner told us to do the following steps before the initial use to help protect the claypot so that it won't crack so easily:
1. Soak the clay pot in cold water for at least one hour.
2. Put a coat of cooking oil  (just a little) outside the claypot.
3. Add some cold water and let it boil on top of the stove for approximate 15 minutes so that the oil can seal the claypot.

I immediately started using the claypot that evening.  I had never made rice from claypot before, and I was afraid the rice would either burn or get soggy. So, I used some common sense and cooked the food and rice in the claypot. As a result, I was successful in making a delicious Chinese sausage rice meal from the claypot. Here are the steps before I forget them:

Ingredients:
2 cups of long grain rice
2 slices of ginger
2 pairs of Chinese sausage (uncut)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cooking oil
4 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 oz. meat  (optional)


Cooking Steps:

1. 2 cups of rice, wash and pour into electric rice cooker first.
2. Pour enough cold water into the rice cooker until the reaching the water level for 2 cups. If you do not have an electric rice cooker, pour 1 and 3/4cupscold water into the washed rice.
3. Pour all the rice and water from the rice cooker into the claypot, that's the method to ensure we have the correct measurement of water for 2 cups.
4. Cover the claypot cook with high until boil, add in gingers,  Chinese sausages or any meat that you like to add.
5. Cover again and turn the heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes.
6. In another saucer pan, heat a tablespoon of oil in low heat,add 4 tablespoons of dark soysauce and a teaspoon of sugar and mix well, then pour into a small saucer bowl。
7. When the rice are cooked, pour the sauce from the saucer bowl into the claypot and mix well then it's ready to be served hot.

Tip:(1)：If you add meat, it should be marinated first with half teaspoon of each of soy sauce, sugar,sesame oil, and cornstarch. It's best not to add too much meat, for the meat juice will make the rice too soggy. The more meat you put in, the more time you need to cook the rice.

Tip:(2)  To get perfectly cooked rice, only use long grain rice and never open the lid when you are cooking the food.  Don't add too much water, for the rice should come out moist, but not soggy.