Upgrade: Pork Fried Rice

It's hard to believe I posted my very first recipe on this blog ten years ago today. That makes me feel pretty old. At the time, I was one semester into graduate school, living by myself, and figuring out cooking as I went along. I look at some of those early recipes and laugh about how wordy they were despite the simplicity of the dishes. I thought the best way to celebrate this anniversary would be to "upgrade" that first post. A lot has changed since then, but plenty has stayed the same: look carefully and you'll see both the original wok and spatula still in service. After all these years, fried rice remains a staple weeknight dinner and I'm still as much of a fan as I was then. 

Fundamentally, I stand by the original recipe even though I probably never made it like that again. It was quite gratifying to learn (many years ago) that my future in-laws started making fried rice after reading that post. Instead of making the pork, they would get pork from a Chinese takeout to put in it. Although it amuses me to this day, I don't exactly disagree with the approach. To tell the truth, I rarely cook meat specifically for fried rice. Usually, I use a few pieces of lap cheong sausages or char siu from the freezer. So, let's consider this one a special occasion fried rice, fit for a ten-year blog anniversary. I switched from pork loin to the ever-versatile pork shoulder and applied the same marinade from my more recent beef chow fun recipe. These days, I rarely stir fry meat without a marinade.

In recent years, I always include some kind of vegetable in fried rice. Napa is my most commonly used choice, but I happened to have some Shanghai bok choy on hand this time. Another change from the 2012 recipe is how I cook the eggs, a technique I learned from a Kenji video. You can save a little time by pushing the rice over and cooking the eggs in the other half of the pan. I continue to serve with Worcestershire sauce, but also enjoy some Lao Gan Ma chili crisp to spice things up.

Sausage and Napa Cabbage Fried Rice

It is safe to say fried rice is central to the mission of No Free Lunch. Not only was it a staple of my family's diet from when I was young, it can also be endlessly customized. Fried rice was my first recipe here (can you tell it's the same wok?), and I've done three more of them over the years. Most recently (in 2014), I wrote about how Pei Mei's Chinese Cook Book  led to me thinking more about fried rice and what really makes it good. To me, fried rice is about using humble ingredients to get something greater than the sum of its parts. Over time, I've settled into a go-to base fried rice recipe - the one I'm sharing today. 

This recipe makes use of some classic Chinese staples: napa, sausage, egg, and green onion. The amounts given here are flexible and can be adjusted to taste. The method of slowly cooking the sausage to render the fat is similar to how bacon is cooked. If Chinese sausage is unavailable (or if it is preferred), bacon could be used. Various other ingredients can also be added, such as shrimp or black mushrooms. 

Also, happy St. Patrick's Day. While we didn't have any corned beef and cabbage, I hope you enjoy this dish that also involves preserved meat and cabbage. I did have a Guinness with it!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb. Napa Cabbage (about 1/2 head)
• 4 Chinese sausages (lap cheong)
• 4 eggs
• Dash of sesame oil
• 4 cups cooked rice
• 3 green onions
• Vegetable oil
• Kosher salt and white pepper to taste

Instructions

Slice the napa crosswise, into strips about 1/2 inch wide. Place the napa in a large bowl (I use this bowl for serving the fried rice later) and salt generously. Toss to coat. Let the napa stand for about 20 minutes. 

Take this time to prepare the remaining ingredients. Slice the sausages into thin disks. Crack the eggs into a bowl, beat with a fork, and add a dash of sesame oil and a pinch each of salt and white pepper. Chop the green onions. When ready, take a handful of napa, wrap in a dish towel, and squeeze out as much water as possible. Continue working in batches until all the napa has been squeezed out. Finely chop the napa and set aside.

Heat up a wok on medium heat. Add some oil and cook the eggs, constantly scraping the bottom. Cook until mostly solidified, but still soft. Set the eggs aside. Scrape out the wok. Still on medium heat, cook the sliced sausage. Toss frequently. The goal is to render out the fat in the sausages while not burning them. Tilt the wok to reserve the rendered fat in the wok and set the sausage aside. 

Turn the heat up to high and stir fry the napa. Depending on how fatty the sausages were, you may have to either remove some fat or add vegetable oil. Cook a few minutes, until lightly browned, and set aside. 

Add more oil to the wok, then add the rice and chopped green onion. Break up the rice as you add it to the pan. Stir fry for a few minutes, letting the rice stand briefly before tossing. Add the cooked napa, sausage, and eggs. Break up the eggs while adding them in. Cook a few more minutes, continuing to periodically toss the rice. 

Serve with condiments of your choice. As always, I recommend Worcestershire sauce, but Lao Gan Ma sauce is good if you like it spicy.

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!

Curry Fried Rice

The theme of this week is making twists on classic dishes, while keeping it simple and easy. I've already done two Chinese-style fried rice dishes here on No Free Lunch. Today, my aim is to call to mind some flavors of southeast Asia, with a good dose of curry powder and Sriracha. Fried rice is so versatile, and it's a great way to use leftover rice. I always make a big pot of rice that lasts me the week, and it's a good time saver.

Ingredients

• 1 tbs curry powder
• 1/2 big vidalia onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 carrots
• 1/3 pound ground sirloin
• 1/3 pound ground pork
• 5 cups cooked white rice
• 1/2 tbs Sriracha sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Canola oil

Instructions

Dice the onion. Remove stem and seeds from the pepper and dice. Peel and chop carrots. Heat wok with some canola oil on medium-high. Add the curry powder and swirl it around the wok a bit. Add the vegetables, and stir fry until nicely softened and coated with the curry oil. Mix salt and pepper into the meat. Add to the wok with the vegetables. Turn up the heat a bit. Break up the meat with your scraper, and cook this until the meat is well-browned. 

Remember that rice at least a day old will give you the best results for fried rice, as it doesn't stick together as much. Thoroughly break up the rice with your fingers, so that there aren't any clumps. Add the rice and Sriracha to the wok. Mix everything together, then let it sit on the heat for a few minutes. Check your email and come back and scrape the stuck rice, turn, and let sit again. Scrape one more time and serve.

Yangzhou Fried Rice (揚州炒飯)

With a large stockpile of char siu now on hand, we now have one of the most recognizable Chinese dishes - Yangzhou fried rice. This is a far cry from the simple fried rice which was the first recipe on No Free Lunch. Often served as the last savory course of a Chinese banquet, Yangzhou fried rice is characterized by shrimp, egg, and char siu, along with vegetables. As with all my fried rice, this also features the indispensable Worcestershire sauce.

Ingredients

• 5-6 cups cooked, day-old rice
• 8-10 marinated shrimp (see below)
• 6-8 strips Char Siu
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 3 large eggs
• 1 bunch green onions
• 10 splashes Worcestershire
• 5 splashes soy sauce
• 3 splashes sesame oil
• Vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper

Shrimp

• 8-10 large, raw shrimp
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• 5 splashes soy sauce
• 1/3 lemon

Instructions

Prepare the shrimp first. If using frozen, defrost with cold running water. Remove shells. Next, de-vein the shrimp. To do this, slice each shrimp down the top, all the way from the head to the tail, then remove the vein. Note that some will have more to get out than others.

Place the shrimp in a bowl. Dust with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Splash the soy sauce over them, and squeeze in a bit of lemon juice. Let sit for 15 minutes. Heat a bit of vegetable oil in a wok on high. Sear the shrimp on both sides, a few minutes each. Set aside.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat. Add salt and pepper. Cook the eggs in the wok on medium-high heat. Cook until there is no more liquid, but the eggs are still soft. Set aside with the cooked shrimp.

Slice the whole bunch of green onions crosswise into small discs. Cut the char siu into bite sized pieces. With a little vegetable oil, stir fry both until hot. Add the rice. Sitting in the refrigerator, the rice will likely have formed into chunks. Break these up as you add them into the wok; the looser, the better. Add the peas. You do not have to defrost them ahead of time; the heat from the wok and rice will thaw them. Add Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Toss to mix everything together. Let the whole thing sit on relatively high heat for a few minutes. Cover if you like.

Once this is done, add the shrimp and eggs. Break up the eggs a little and toss the rice. Let sit for a few more minutes, and serve.

Pork Fried Rice

For my first recipe, here's an old favorite. This is a very adaptable, basic fried rice that you can really add whatever you like to. Fried rice is a great way to use your leftover rice. It's usually said that day-old rice is the best for frying. You'll notice the amounts of each ingredient are somewhat vague - with fried rice, exact proportions are not important. It's all up to your preference.

Ingredients

• 2-3 pieces sliced pork loin
• 3 large eggs
• 1 bunch green onions (about 8)
• 3-4 cups cooked rice
• Vegetable oil
• Worcestershire sauce
• Soy sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

First, we'll prepare all our ingredients. Chop the green onions into small pieces and set aside. Cut up to the point where they start getting white and firm. Next, cut the pork into cubes, and dust with salt and pepper. You can use other seasonings here, too, whatever you like. I added a bit of garlic powder. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork. You can add a little salt and pepper to the egg now if you prefer.

I use a steel wok for cooking fried rice, but if you don't have one, a large regular frying pan will do. However, you have to be careful since they are shallower. Heat your wok to medium-high and cook the scrambled eggs until they solidify, but don't overcook them. They should still be pretty soft when you take them out. Set aside.

Turn up the heat and add a small amount of vegetable oil to the wok and drop in the pork cubes. Turn them every so often to get cook evenly. Add a few drops of soy sauce if you like. Once the pork is brown on all sides, add the chopped green onions and a bit more oil. 

Now it's time to add the rice. If it's been sitting in the refrigerator, it's most likely clumped up. Don't be shy with this. Dig in and break it up with your fingers as you transfer it into the wok. The more you can break it up, the better. At this stage, I add a few splashes of soy sauce and some generous splashes of Worcestershire sauce. The Worcestershire is the Wai family secret ingredient. Don't tell anyone you know about it. I also give it a few squirts of Sriracha chili sauce for a little heat. Mix the rice each time you add something in. Once you've done all this, add the egg back in, break it up a little, and mix in.

We want the whole thing to cook a little, and get brown on the bottom. This means you need to let it sit on the heat for a while and resist the temptation to flip the rice. Don't let it burn, though. After a few minutes, you're done! This recipe will feed two people.

Serve and enjoy. I've been eating this stuff my whole life, and I like to have a glass of milk with my bowl of fried rice, but your favorite lager would be fine, too.