Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Easy Peasy Garlic Fried Rice

When I was in UIUC, I had an american friend named Jennifer Cassidy. We had a lot of classes together, and we were about the same height (she's considered short, and so was I). On some days, I would hang out at her place in between classes (coz her apartment was only 2 blocks or so away from the ME building) and we would grab some lunch. She really liked Fried Rice, and since I was the only asian she knows, she would ask me to fry up some for her.
During that time, I wasn't so good at cooking fried rice coz I didnt have lots of experience (yet). I remember the first one turning out okay, but a little sticky. Actually most of my attempts didnt turn out like the ones sold at the chinese restaurants or the ones my mom makes. They all turned out a little too sticky. It took me awhile to figure out that to make the best fried rice, you'd have to use last night's cooked rice, coz then it would have dried up abit.

Anyways.

A few days ago I ran out of shallots, so I decided to make fried rice with only garlic. Hey hey it turned out yummeh :) Reminded me of the garlic fried rice that you could order at the japanese restaurants. My kids loved it so much, they asked me to make it for lunch, 3 days in a row. I stopped making it coz my husband finally bought some shallots.

I'm going to give you the basic recipe, which results in plain, white fried rice, but you can jazz it up with soy sauce or chilli sauce or whatever seasonings you prefer, and play around with the vegetables. The ones I used were whatever I had in my fridge.

Easy Peasy Garlic Fried Rice

Ingredients
2 cups cooked rice (preferrably last night's)
as much garlic as you like, roughly chopped (I used half a head)
one carrot , cut into tiny cubes
one celery stick sliced into tiny chunks
1/4 red and yellow pepper diced small
1/8 cabbage sliced into thin strips like for coleslaw
4 tablespoons cooking oil (I use sunflower)
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat up oil over medium heat in a pan/wok that is big enough.
Saute garlic till half cooked
Add in the vegetables, fry till garlic is roasted and fragrant
Add in the rice and cabbages, stir to mix well.
Season with salt and pepper, taste till to your liking
Push rice aside in the pan/wok, break eggs and scramble till fully cooked.
Mix well into rice.
Serve warm.


Sorry, no pictures this time. My camera's lens is a little wonked up. Perhaps it caught wind of my desire to purchase a new camera.

As usual, suggestions for variation:
To pre-season your rice, cook it in stock, or use leftover chicken rice or briyani.
You can add color by adding soy sauce (brown), chilli or tomato sauce (red), a pinch of tumeric (yellow).
You can add taste by using the things mentioned above, or ground up (or not) ikan bilis, anchovies (saute it together with the garlic), broken up ikan masin (salted fish).
Of course you can add meat. Saute them together with the vegetables. make sure they are fully cooked before adding the rice.
Cikgu Munah, my mom in law, would ground birds eye chillies together with the garlic. Spicy as hell, but yummeh!

It took about 10-15 minutes to cook up everything, not including preparation. I think this could easily be made for the lunchbox if you cook the rice and chop up the vegetables the night before *winks at aliya*.

Happy trying and tell me how you made yours and how it turned out! :)

10 comments:

  1. Lisa, I've read an article that for health reasons, shallots and garlic are not a good combination (onion is okay though. i don't know why, the article say so.. hehee). So, this recipe would be a great alternative to those health conscious out there :)

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  2. neeza, eh ye ke? but why ya? There are so many malay recipes that use the combination of garlic and shallots.. sedap lak tu.. heh heh

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  3. I think, frm the Western medical aspect, they never seems to try shallots. could be a reason or not..

    My nasi never seems to be frm last nite, but i do certainly make them more dry just for nasi goreng.For a chinese twist, yes the garlic and dash of sesame oil with ikan asin and scrambled egg. wow

    My failproof indo style is always the (secret revealed) ABC Kicap.Fry sliced onions then add processed onions, garlic, garlic. Lots of dashes of Kicap, Egg and Kerupuk as accompaniment. Anything else, add whats in your fridge.

    Nasi goreng to me has always been clearin out the fridge.

    Now this entry, make me hungry..

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  4. Swahili - yes I use ABC kicap as well... the green, Manis Sedang one to be exact :)
    If I werent cooking for kids, add a bit of fresh red chillies sliced at an angle.. yum yum!

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  5. hello...sounds so sedap....i always like my fried rice with lotsa garlic...a dash of cili padi....and a lot of prawns...no other meat...prawns make the fried rice tenm times better...

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  6. entahlah kenapa. that's why melayu senang kena penyakit kot.. hehehee.. frankly, pernah i terbaca tapi i tak ingat sangat. something to do with the different kind of ion... cam tu laa... :)

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  7. Kak Elisa, I'm salivating already (as usual, after each Easy Peasy recipe u post up here!)...help! Dahlah orang tgh pantang nasi..and fried rice is only my very fave type of food!

    so does experience make u make u cook the rice better? because mine always turns out sticky! even after so-falled 'fermenting' them for a nite or so in the fridge :-(

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  8. Anonymous1:50 PM

    Salam kak Elisa,
    Ambo lama doh baca blog kak...tapi dok komen, sebab segan la..dok reti inggerih.
    ambo tahu kak asal dari gganung..bila nok balik? ambo ada kedai makan kat paka, dekat ngan petronas nuh. tomyam ambo sedap. nanti jemput la datang ke kedai ambo.
    Nama restoran tu Tomyam Simply Best.


    salam,
    Zahrah / Mek Jaroh

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  9. eddy - prawn/shrimp fried rice is the best!

    neeza - hm.. interesting.
    I would think it's better to eat food of different ions so that it becomes neutralized, and our body is not full off one type of ions? (nanti jadi positive/negatively charged pulak, camner?) ha ha
    entahler.. tee hee.
    Tawakalullah ajelah ya :)

    MDR - try cooking the rice a little dry so that It's not so sticky in the first place.

    MekJaroh - hoh! memang cadang nok balik tranungh pong cuti bulang tujuh kekgi. Kalu teringat, kita begheti makang nasik dennung, deh?
    Komeng lah dalang bahasa menda pung. Asal buleh pahang sudohhh :)

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  10. heheheee though I've read about it, I tak sangat kisah pun. campur bantai aje sometimes... dah resepi melayu gitu, nak buat camne kan. Kalau ada choice, ikut. kalau takde nak buat camne. Nanti tak sedap la pulak :)

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