So, what do you do when a loved one asks for Fried Cantonese Rice and you’re too tired? but of course, you take a shower, and go on to make the best Fried Cantonese Rice* you’ve ever made!
What I used:
400g of Basmati Rice
200g of chicken breast, but you can use whatever meat strikes your fancy, I guess
2 whole eggs
2 small onions (1 more if you have time to chop it finely)
2 cloves of garlic
a generous amount of peas (frozen in my case)
some mushrooms (I used portobello, but your choice)
sesame seeds
cooking fat (we’ll see)
soy sauce, sweet
Chop coarsely the onions and garlic and throw everything in a shredder (food processing unit, as you want to call it). Heat an appropriate quantity of cooking fat in a large, large skillet (for my standards that would be a 34). For the first batch I used sunflower oil, but honestly, the thing is so packed in Omega-6 I’d rather warn you to steer away from it. I used lard in the revision. Technically this is my own made-up replacement for sesame oil, so you want a fairly neutral base for the sesame seeds to impart their flavor.
With heat on medium-high, throw in the shredded onions, garlic cloves and sesame seeds. Stir until golden. Cut the meat into squares, when the onions and stuff are done, pile them on a side of the skillet, and move that side away from the heat (this is also where a large skillet comes useful), then, place the meat in the skillet and cook it, keep stirring!, til browned. In the meanwhile you’ll have beaten up the eggs, so now pile the meat up to the side with the onions, and do the eggs. Keep scrambling the eggs with a plastic fork until lightly browned too.
Ok now you’re ready to add peas and 'shrooms. Leave it cooking, and stir!, until the peas are almost done (note, if you’re using fresh shrooms you’ll need to add it at an earlier stage to make sure they’re fully cooked through; a similar consideration applies to peas as well). Add 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, then the rice, lower the heat, mix until everything looks well amalgamated.
It’s better if you don’t cook the rice fully through, as you will want to heat it up to temperature in the skillet, so it’s ready to serve. You can also leave it to cool down, and serve it at room temperature, it’s great.
If you don’t have/don’t want meat, you can replace it with one more egg. Just keep in mind that, to make good scrambled eggs, it’s the surface area that counts!
(It is my highly non-Chinese understanding that FCR is actually one of those made from left-overs meals, so you have some degree of freedom in your choice of ingredients.)
Yours truly,
Cooking is <3
*not truly Cantonese, not even fried, actually.
