Chinese/Japanese cooking: Fried Rice,Omelet and Rice,Chicken rice,and Rice pan cake
Many people like Chinese food. I like Chinese food so does my husband. I make Chinese dish a lot at home. It is quick and easy and you can make your Chinese food at your kitchen.
I see many Chinese fast-food styled places in the mall in USA. The dish taste okay,but it tends to be greasy,chewy meat or bland dish and not as good. If you like to go to Chinese restaurant in USA,I recommend “PF Chang restaurant”. Their dish is good.
Easiest Chinese dish you can make at home with a few ingredients will be “Fried Rice”.It can be versatile and you can make your version of Fried Rice. You can use up whatever veggies you have in the fridge and left-over meat ( shouldn’t be the one heavily sauced) and probably suitable dish you can make on weekends before grocery shopping day.
My “Humble Fried Rice” require very simple ingredients. Cooked Jasmin Rice or cooked Kokuho Rose Rice,1 raw egg,and a bottle of soy sauce (The soy sauce I use is called ” Extra fancy whole bean soy sauce” from Kikkoman Japan:it is imported from Japan and is sold at Asian stores. It is big plastic bottle.).Those are all you need.
1.Heat skillet with Extra virgin olive oil,and when it gets hot, cook diced vegetables of your choice;onion, peppers, shanghai bok choy etc..
2. make an empty circle in the skillet by pushing all the cooked vegetables to the side and, crack 1 egg in there,stir it up and when egg is cooked, add cooked and cooled Jasmin/kokuho rose rice in the skillet and break the rice block and cook.
3. Pour some soy sauce and sake and you are ready to eat! It takes just 15-20 minutes.
This is my base recipe.I use whatever vegetables/meat I have on hand.It is usually good quick and easy recipe as well as good one to use up leftover steak from restaurant.
Today, I had onion,green and red peppers,kale,celery and cooked frozen shrimpb(divined and tail off),so I made shrimp Fried Rice with those vegetable.
First thing I did was cook my favorite brand rice “kokuho rose rice” (you can get the brand rice at local store in Asian ail),and cooled it off.
Second,I put oil into skillet and put finely chopped veg and cook to soften and cracked egg.Then, stir around and when egg is about to cook thoroughly,I put cooked rice and break the lumps of rice and heat through and put shrimp (Since I used frozen cooked shrimp today,I did not need cooking time for shrimp.All I needed was heat them through),and pour my favorite Kikkoman Japan’s “Extra fancy whole bean soy sauce” and sake to my taste.It took me 20 min to finish. It is tasty and quick and easy.
In Japan, if you omit Egg,shrimp and soy sauce from this recipe,and if you replace them with chicken and ketchup,there is a dish called “Chicken Rice”.It is basically ketchup rice with vegetables and chicken.
So.. you prep the rice beforehand,cool it down and put oil to skillet,cook veg and chicken and put cooked rice then when everything heated through,just pour ketchup. You are done making “Chicken rice”.
If you made Omelet on other skillet and put that omelet onto this chicken rice,you have made “Omelet and Rice”. Omelet and rice is my childhood favorite and,I still love this dish.
My husband does not like ketchup at all,so when I crave for Omelet and rice,I make everything same up to tossing cooked rice and heat through.When rice is heated through,I divide the rice,veg and chicken mixture into 2 pans and,I make plain Fried rice with Fried Rice powder and finish his stuff off with drop of sesame oil in one skillet.Then,in other skillet,I pour ketchup and make real “chicken rice”. After that,I plate up by topping the rice with omelet that has salt & pepper.
Here is a thing. When I was a kid,my mother called me to kitchen,handed out the ketchup bottle to draw face on my omelet and rice. It is fun. Sometime I made it look like dog face,sometimes,I made it look like girl face.. I still have fun drawing face on my omelet and rice.
IF you made too much of rice. You can freeze them in freezer.My mother kept leftover rice in freezer and microwaved it when needed.
OR.. my father used to make rice pan cake on weekends.It is easy to make.
All you need is cooked plain rice,flour,sugar, and 1 raw Egg.
He did not measure anything I think.Just put flour,egg into bowl and add about 2-3 table spoon of sugar,and add water and make it feel like pan cake butter and added cooked plain rice to it and break all lumps of rice and mix well and pour it to skillet and cook through and done. It is especially tasty when outside gets cooked to a little crispy side.
This entry remind me of my childhood memory a little in Japan.
Enjoy your version of Fried rice, my version of Fried rice and other dishes explained above and let us know how your cooking experience went.
