Fried Rice – Homestyle

I expect this post will get a fair amount of comments because a lot of people I know probably make fried rice at home.  It’s fine… this is My Family’s “recipe”… well, at least what I remember as a kid.  As for the ingredients – they vary depending on whether or not I Planned to make fried rice, what I have on hand, what I was trying to do, and if I am trying to get rid of stuff in the fridge.  As my Heart said “It’s a bit like Bubble & Squeak, isn’t it?” and, Yes, it can be.

Vegetables almost always include chopped carrots and onions.  Sometimes green pepper (like tonight) but sometimes red pepper.  I’ve also used celery, green onions, and I almost threw in some cabbage I have from the fish tacos the other night.

Also green peas – we Always put in a handful of peas.  For the meat, tonight was crisp chopped bacon (that is a pound of bacon in the bowl, I only used about 1/3 or so of the bowl and threw the rest in a ziplock bag in the freezer – it is amazing how handy it is having cooked chopped bacon in the freezer!). Of course, you can use all sorts of different meats – whatever you have leftover works.  I’ve used ham, chicken, pork… it’s up to you. And two eggs.

Cooked the chopped pepper, carrots, and onion in about 1 Tbsp of butter and canola oil until soft but not browned.

Next the cooked rice.  This is Asian short grain “sticky rice”.  I put it in the rice cooker two hours before I was going to make dinner so that it would have time to cook, “dry out” and cool a bit.  Fried rice is best with leftover rice.

OK… so the seasoning ingredients – low sodium soy sauce, ginger (I have used fresh ginger but I wanted to be a little purist tonight because it’s the first time I’ve made fried rice for my Heart), and Ketchup – Yes… I Know…  Ketchup.  So this recipe comes from my childhood.  Whenever my brother made fried rice, he always put ketchup in it.  Our mother died when I was 5 years old and he was 14 so he took care of me a lot and that meant cooking for me too.  So my Dad always said it was like Omu Rice (we called it OmRice but I think the “U” just got lost in the translation somewhere) and, come to find out, it is very much a comfort food in Japan and is especially popular with children.  My mom probably made it for my brother and that’s how he learned to make fried rice.

Finally the bacon and peas are tossed in

Make a “well” in the center, put in a pat of butter and then the scrambled eggs.  Scramble the egg IN the well until cooked and then Toss with the rice.  I have to admit, I missed my wok for this part – it was difficult to scramble the egg properly in a flat bottomed pan.