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Fried Rice: Why did it take me so long to make this?

February 16, 2011 By 1 Comment

There was a whole two week span last month wherein I kept trying to make fried rice and kept failing. They key is in the preparation: rice must be cooked the day before in order to be used effectively in making fried rice and I just couldn’t manage to do that. Sad, I know. For some reason I’d always intend upon making the rice and then.. I wouldn’t. I’m not even sure I can tell you why other than the day/evening would get away from me? It’s a pretty paltry excuse but it’s all I have.

Finally, I remembered to cook some brown rice and then I let it cool and dry out so I could make fried rice the next day. Except I didn’t, because I think we ended up ordering take out. Oops. But the next night, I totally made fried rice and it was completely worth it.

Fried Rice

2 cups day old rice, white or brown [I prefer brown]
2 medium carrots, diced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons oil, divided
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
handful of bean sprouts

Heat one tablespoon of oil in your wok or large skillet. Once the oil is shimmering, add the carrots and quickly saute. Remove the carrots, leaving as much oil as possible in the wok, and add in the eggs. Quickly scramble the eggs until mostly done, then remove from pan. Remove any egg residue from the pan and add in the remaining oil.

fried rice

Once the remaining oil has been heated, add in your rice in one flat layer across the surface of the wok. Let it heat for about two minutes before turning it or attempting to stir it. After two minutes, stir and flip the rice over to fry the other side. Let this sit for another 1 – 2 minutes, then stir again. At this point, add in the soy sauce, carrots and peas to heat through. Next, add in the eggs and mix those thoroughly into the mixture. Finally, top with bean sprouts and remove from the pan.

The key to making this is to make sure the wok isn’t too crowded; if it is, you’re not frying things, you’re just really steaming them. Make sure all of your ingredients can touch the cooking surface at all times to ensure even cooking. This recipe is very much adaptable to whatever you have on hand in your kitchen: you can add in more vegetables, meat, take out the eggs – the options are endless.

Filed Under: Grains & Rice Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

There's no cream in carbonara!

February 10, 2010 By 2 Comments

Or at least, there shouldn’t be. But I wasn’t about to tell that to the waitress at the restaurant I was at last night in Boston’s North End for my work-BFFs birthday. I’m not sure what possessed me to order it anyway; I think I was dazzled by the talk of lobster, diver scallops and ‘jumbo’ shrimp [ps, they looked more like 21/25 to me!].

But that reminded me of my own carbonara dish that I had yet to post; it was incredibly good and even though I always think of carbonara being a heavy dish, this was so light and flavorful that I regret not making it sooner. It was delicioso! See? Those are my Italian roots showing.

This is slightly less than authentic, but I’m not charging you $25 to eat my not-authentic food, am I? AM I? NO! And you know why? Because nothing I cook ever comes out exactly the same. I can follow the same recipe over and over again, yet inevitably I change something. It’s like my food is as unpredictable as my moods! Hee, sorry husband!

So without further ado, I bring you: Michelle’s Langostino Carbonara!

6 oz spaghetti/linguine/fettuccine
12 oz langostino (or lobster/shrimp/etc)
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 oz of Pecorino Romano, freshly grated
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning, or to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 oz pancetta, diced
1 large carrot, julienned
10 – 12 stalks of asparagus

Preheat oven to 200 F. Once oven is heated, place bowls in there to keep warm. Bring pot of salted water to a boil; add pasta. In a small bowl, whisk together whole eggs, egg yolks, lemon pepper seasoning, and grated cheese. In a medium sized pan, heat olive oil. Once hot, add in diced pancetta and cook until fat renders. Remove pancetta to a a plate lined with paper towels; drain off all but two teaspoons of fat from the pan.

Add in the carrots and asparagus and cook until tender. Add back in the pancetta and heat through. Set aside. Once the pasta is cooked to your preference, reserve 1/3 cup of pasta water and then drain pasta. Add pasta into the pan with the veggie mixture, along with egg mixture and toss to coat. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved water. Serve immediately in warmed bowls.

Again, this is so good. I can’t say enough good things about this incredibly simple dish. Also, please note that when I say “lemon pepper seasoning” I don’t mean the crap that is powdered and bright yellow. I mean the stuff you can buy at Trader Joe’s or any other store worth its salt, that has whole black peppercorns, dried lemon peel and sea salt with a grinder on top. The lemony flavor adds so much to the dish and obviously complements the seafood and asparagus beautifully.

Filed Under: pasta, Seafood Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

I sound pretentious when I say frittata.

June 14, 2009 By 1 Comment

For my birthday (30, shh!) the husband (he’s the one that calls himself Roach — don’t ask me, he had that name before I married him) got me a cast iron pan, since I’ve wanted one forever. Upon receiving it, my first thought was “wow, this is gonna hurt when I drop it on my foot.” In a poetic twist of fate, the first cast iron pan injury was somehow smashing my fingers into it. Also? Ow.

Anyway, the first thing I made in it was bacon (of course). But this bacon! This bacon had a purpose. It’s mission? To make the base for an awesome frittata.

I’ll admit, it doesn’t look exciting. But we all know that under that dull exterior, there is bacon fat rendering and waiting for me to do this:

Those onions never knew what hit them. As a side note, it’s at this point in the cooking process that I realize: it’s time to add the spinach, and immediately following was the thought that it’s time to add the spinach and I haven’t even rinsed it yet. There will be a day, I swear, when I ready all of the ingredients in their appropriate amounts before I start cooking. I mean, it’s the reasonable thing to do, and I am nothing if not reasonable.

Er… wait. Hm. Anyway, it is my goal that I will one day be more organized while cooking (and living). Regardless, I did get the spinach in the pan and wilted with the onions still in there.

With that on low heat, I did a rough chop of the bacon to add back into the pan along with the eggs. Once all of that was in the pan, I gave it a quick stir and let it sit for about three or four minutes.

Once it had started to set slightly, I added some mild cheddar and mozzarella on top, and threw it in the oven at 425 degrees. It cooked for about 7 minutes, and came out looking like this:

Weirdly enough, our rats didn’t seem to like this very much, but I feel like that’s not really indicative of whether or not I should make it again. I mean, I’ve seen them eat Peeps with poop on it, so what do they know? We both liked it a lot, and I’m thrilled that I got to trick the husband into eating spinach (albeit by flavoring it with bacon, which may or may not negate the good intentions of the spinach). This will be made again, especially now that I have a pan that I am actually supposed to put into the oven. Yay, cast iron!

Bacon, Spinach and Cheddar Frittata:

6 eggs, beaten with 1/3 cup of milk
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cups of washed and torn spinach
6 slices of bacon
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese (I used half cheddar and half mozzarella, ’cause that’s what I had)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. Cook the bacon in a heated pan that can be transferred to the oven. Once the bacon is done, remove from the pan and add the onions. While the onions are cooking, do a rough chop of the bacon. Cook the onions until translucent and beginning to brown, then add the spinach. Let that wilt for a minute and then add the beaten eggs. Mix everything together in the pan, and then leave it alone. Please resist the urge to move anything around, and just let it cook. Give it three to four minutes, then add cheese on top of it and put it in the oven. Mine took about 7 minutes, but basically you’re looking for your desired doneness for the eggs. Take out of the oven and let it rest a few minutes, before slicing. Makes four servings.

Filed Under: breakfast, vegetables Tagged With: , , , , , , ,