Fried Rice

Got a wok? Going to be home for lunch? How about fried rice? Make too much rice for dinner the night before, then put the leftovers in the fridge. Next day you're ready to go. This is a wildly adaptable dish, and frugal as all get out. Most of us are familiar with the pork fried rice from Chinese take out joints. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Whatever you have lying around can be thrown in, but some combinations work better than others. Here are a few favorites:

Chinatown $1 cart special: carrots, peas, onion, egg, soy sauce
Korean style: chopped up hot dog, kimchi, soy sauce
Southeast Asia style: pork or shrimp, onion, hot pepper, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, egg, pinch sugar (top with chopped peanuts and cilantro)
My Winter lunch: cabbage, onion, carrot, garlic, egg, soy sauce.
My wife's favorite: leftover salmon, onion, garlic, peas, green onion, soy sauce

This is a dish for using up leftovers, so protein from previous meals (pork, shrimp, chicken, fish) can be chopped up and thrown in. If you make fried rice frequently you'll find yourself making a little too much protein at dinner, and squirreling some away just for this purpose.

My preference is to really load the rice with vegetables, so the finished result is about a 2:1 rice to veggies ratio. I think of it like this: in frontier camps scurvy was common among westerners, yet rare among Chinese laborers. Why? Because the Chinese tended to eat their vegetables. I make it a point to eat mine.

If you've tried making fried rice before and it didn't work out you probably missed one or more of these critical factors:

- Wok must be hot before the oil hits it (the thinner the metal the faster it'll heat, and gas burners generally heat a wok quicker than electric)
- Use a little more oil for fried rice than a stir-fry; you want the veggies to fry, not saute
- Rice must be cold
- Once rice hits the wok it shouldn't be in there for more than 20-30 seconds
- While in wok rice must be kept moving or it will stick (it will stick a little anyways)

Method:

Heat wok. Add oil. Add veggies in order of how long they take to cook - longest (onion, cabbage, carrot, pepper) first. If using egg, push veggies to sides of wok once they're cooked, then crack egg into center. Scramble quickly, then mix into veggies. It's OK if a little bit of egg sticks to bottom of wok. If using, add chopped pieces of leftover protein. Break up cold rice and toss into wok with a splash or two of soy sauce. Keep rice moving in wok to heat rice through and mix everything together. The rice will want to stick to the wok; your job is to keep it moving fast enough so it only sticks a little. Cut the heat and get the rice out of wok immediately.

I serve the rice with a dollop of chili garlic sauce on top.

Tip: The wok is easiest to clean while it's still hot. Pour in a liter or so of water, and let sit for few minutes. Dump out most of the water and clean wok with a sponge. Do not use soap. Use your thumbnail or a scrubber (gently) to remove any stuck bits. Rinse and dry. Use a paper towel to coat inside of wok with a small amount of oil. Bring it back up to heat, then let it cool. Your wok can now be put away, and you've made sure it'll be ready to go the next time you need it.

I find fried rice fulfilling aesthetically and philosophically. It tastes good. It uses up leftovers. It costs next to nothing. It takes very little time to make. There's a strategy involved, as you scan your fridge and larder to determine just what you're going to use for today's batch. Clean up is quick. And while I'm well aware fried rice will never be considered health food, it's healthier than many other quick lunch options. Not to mention how a bowl of fried rice will keep you going for half a day, at least.

Fish in Black Bean Sauce

I love black bean sauce. I love fish. The two together are tough to beat. This is some real Chinese food you can make at home. Any white fish will work. I like flounder, so it's what I used. You could fry it or steam it. I gave it a quick fry, then made the sauce in the same pan. The actual cooking will go by pretty quickly, so do all the prep work before you start. The fermented black beans and the rice wine should be easily found in an Asian market. They're inexpensive and keep well. This will feed two or three with rice as a main dish, or more as part of a more intricate meal.

1lb flounder fillets (or any white fish)
5-7 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled, mashed and chopped
15-20 Chinese fermented black beans, soaked in 1/4 cup Chinese rice wine
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 hot pepper, chopped (or more to taste)
pinch sugar
dash soy sauce
cornstarch dissolved in water (to thicken)
oil for frying

Fry flounder quickly in a little more oil than you need. The fillets tend to be thin, so they will cook in about two minutes. Get them onto a warm plate before they fall apart in the pan. Keep the heat on the pan. Add ginger, garlic, hot pepper and scallions and fry, adding more oil if needed to keep from burning. After another two minutes add black beans with rice wine, sugar and a small dash of soy sauce. When the liquid comes to a boil stir in the cornstarch and water slowly until sauce is as thick as gravy. Pour sauce over the flounder and serve immediately with white rice and a vegetable.

Chinese Red Cooked Pork and Lamb Ragu: Two Reasons to Get Over Your Inhibitions and Consider Buying a Pressure Cooker

Red Cooked Pork

Red cooked pork is an indulgent bit of Chinese home cooking: braised belly served with rice and (hopefully) a vegetable of some sort. This unctuous dish has two big strikes against it for the modern home cook: long cooking time and outrageously high fat content. I wanted to find a way to enjoy the flavor of this classic without either of the drawbacks - a dish I could prepare off the cuff and enjoy often without coming to resemble the source of the meat itself. Replacing the pork belly with shoulder meat was a good start. Shoulder still has enough fat content to yield a good result. The dish lost some richness, but remained delicious. The next step was replacing a long braise in a clay pot with half an hour in a pressure cooker. I wouldn’t use a pressure cooker for belly (which takes to braising so well), but it worked well with the very adaptable shoulder meat. I ended up with an incredibly easy dish that can be prepared in less than 40 minutes, yet never fails to impress guests. If a pressure cooker isn’t in the cards for you, this recipe works equally well gently simmered for over an hour until the meat is fork tender. By cutting the cooking time down substantially, the pressure cooker allows you to throw this together casually on a weeknight.

(Serves 3-4 with rice and a green vegetable)

1 lb pork shoulder meat, trimmed and cut in cubes

3 scallions, trimmed and cut into 2” lengths

3 cloves garlic, peeled

2” piece fresh ginger, peeled

1 stick cinnamon

2 whole star anise

4 cups water

1/3 cup soy sauce

½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

¼ cup white vinegar

2 heaping Tbs brown sugar

Place all ingredients in pressure cooker and cook at pressure for half an hour. (If you’re not using a pressure cooker simmer covered for over an hour until fork tender). Strain the meat out of the liquid and place in serving bowl. Drizzle some of the cooking liquid over the meat (it’s also good on your rice).

Lamb Ragu

I first encountered this sauce at Max in the East Village, where the waiter boasted that it had been simmering all day. Right away I loved it, and set about recreating it in my own kitchen over the next few weeks. Although it was a favorite of mine I rarely made it at home, because I have little desire to baby-sit a pot on the stove for several hours. I’m all for slow food, but that’s too damned slow! 45 minutes in the pressure cooker gives a great result with an added bonus: lamb shank works just as well as stew meat, cutting the cost of the dish while adding a nice texture to the result. Since the pressure cooker does not evaporate nearly as much water as hours of simmering, my last step is to stir in a tablespoon or two of tomato paste to reach the desired thickness. This ragu is equally good over pasta and polenta. Only use fresh rosemary for this dish.

(Makes enough to sauce a pound of pasta. Leftover sauce freezes well.)

1 large, meaty lamb shank (or 2 smaller ones)

2 onions, chopped

3-6 cloves garlic, chopped

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

2-3 carrots, grated

1 large bay leaf

15.5 oz can tomatoes (whole, broken up by hand with juice or crushed)

½ cup white wine

10” sprig fresh rosemary (or equivalent smaller sprigs)

2 Tbs tomato paste

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying

Season shank with salt and pepper, and brown in small amount of oil in the bottom of pressure cooker. Add onions with a little more salt and pepper (and little more oil, if necessary) and sauté until nearly transparent. Add garlic, carrot and crushed red pepper. Deglaze with white wine. Add tomatoes and bay leaf. Bring up to pressure and cook for 45 minutes. The meat will be falling off the bone. Remove bone, and break the meat up into the ragu. Bring to a simmer over gentle heat (NOT under pressure), adding the rosemary. When the first leaf falls off the sprig (about ten minutes) remove the rosemary sprig, and fish out any leaves that have fallen into the sauce. Stir in tomato paste to thicken. Taste and reason. Use to sauce pasta or spoon over polenta.