Let me just start out by saying that I love Mark Bittman’s blog: Bitten (http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/). He is so common-sensical that I feel like I could make anything he does and that is what a good food writer and chef should be able to do–inspire! I found this ginger fried rice on his blog today and knew it was right up my alley. You are supposed to use day-old rice and mine was freshly cooked but after hours of conference calls for work, I figured it was dry enough to eat at my late-night dinner (it’s almost midnight–eek!). Add in some stir fried veggies and it is (eating it now) a delicious dinner!
Ginger Fried Rice–From Mark Bittman’s blog, “Bitten”
Serves 4
- 1/2 cup peanut oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons minced ginger
- Salt
- 2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and dried
- 4 cups day-old cooked rice, preferably jasmine, at room temperature
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce.
- In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp and brown. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and salt lightly.
- Reduce heat under skillet to medium-low and add 2 tablespoons oil and leeks. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender but not browned. Season lightly with salt.
- Raise heat to medium and add rice. Cook, stirring well, until heated through. Season to taste with salt.
- In a nonstick skillet, fry eggs in remaining oil, sunny-side-up, until edges are set but yolk is still runny.
- Divide rice among four dishes. Top each with an egg and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Sprinkle crisped garlic and ginger over everything and serve.
AURA’S PEARLS OF WISDOM: When crisping the garlic and ginger. Don’t turn away from it. Not even to take a work phone call! You will burn it in a heartbeat. Believe me, I know. This dish is best made when you have a few minutes to devote to each step…and your phone on silent.
I served mine with some carrot, sugar peas, and red bell pepper sauteed in a wok and splashed with soy sauce. For some reason, the Meijer I went to for the sugar snap peas sells really stringy peas and I had to spend a lot of time de-stringing them and still, some of them were stringy. The last time I got sugar snap peas, they weren’t stringy at all. The time before that, stringy. I wonder how I can figure out how to find the good ones consistently. Any ideas?
