Emerald Fried Rice

I have been making fried rice for a long time. Not only was it my first-ever blog post, it was one of the first dishes I taught myself how to make. So why are we here now, looking at the fourth fried rice recipe on No Free Lunch? Not long ago, I realized my fried rice was getting increasingly complex, usually incorporating lots of soy sauce, mustard, hot sauce, and Worcestershire into the cooking process. When I looked at Pei-Mei's standard fried rice recipe, it had none of that. Just rice, vegetables, ham, egg, and regular old vegetable oil. This prompted a back-to-basics approach one night that had excellent results.

Today's dish is based on Pei-Mei's second fried rice recipe, "emerald fried rice." This does something I had never considered -- adding lots of cabbage to the dish. This was immediately appealing to me. I buy cabbage frequently, for use in fish tacos, potsticker filling, "tongue depressors," and more, but I always end up throwing some away. Emerald fried rice is the answer to all your leftover rice and cabbage woes. After years of making and eating fried rice, new ideas continue to surprise and excite me -- this recipe was quite a hit!

Ingredients

• 1 lb green cabbage
• 1/2 Tbs salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and de-veined (equivalent of 10 U-15 shrimp)
• 5 Tbs green onions, finely chopped
• 5-6 cups cooked rice
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

Chop up the cabbage into small pieces and combine with 1/2 Tbs salt in a large bowl. Toss to coat and let stand for 15 minutes. This will draw water out of the cabbage. 

Cabbage after the first chopping

Next, squeeze the water out. I used paper towels to do this. Finally, chop the cabbage again and set aside.

Cabbage after the second chopping

Beat the eggs and lightly season with salt and pepper. Heat a bit of oil in a wok or large frying pan on high heat. Cook the eggs and set aside. Add more oil to the pan and stir fry the cabbage for about 1 minute. Set the cabbage aside. If using larger shrimp, chop these into smaller pieces. Toss with a bit of salt and pepper, add more oil and fry these briefly, until just cooked through. Be careful not to overcook.

This blog clearly needed another picture of rice frying

Put more oil to the pan and add the green onions and rice. Stir fry until heated through and salt to taste. Add the cabbage, eggs, and shrimp. Toss a few times to combine and serve immediately.

Notes

This recipe is essentially a 1.5 times scale-up of Pei-Mei's original, though with some changes. I have  also increased the proportions of both egg and green onion and used shrimp instead of ham. I am confident this dish will work just fine with whatever protein you like.

As a final note, I want to mention that Pei-Mei's instructions on the cabbage simply say to pickle the cabbage in the salt. I was really not familiar with this technique and found little on the internet. The closest thing I could find was a Japanese dish called tsukemono. I think what I did was correct, but if anyone knows otherwise, let me know in the comments!