a belated day 17 recipe idea

Ooops! This week, I promised myself I’d keep all three dates I’d made to catch up with old friends. In keeping one of those last night, I got home realllly late and forgot-on-purpose to blog (well, I remembered once I was in bed, at which point it was after midnight anyway). So this is technically yesterday’s post.

One of my favourite quick and easy meals is fried rice. I’ve modified a recipe I once found in a Donna Hay magazine (I think the name of the recipe was something like “Pea and chilli fried rice”).

What goes in it:

• Cooked jasmine rice. If I’m being careful with my eating, I usually measure out four cups of cooked rice, which makes about eight serves.
• Snow peas – about 300g trimmed and cut into halves or thirds.
• Sugar snap peas – about 300g trimmed and cut into halves or thirds.
• Kernels from two cobs of corn (frozen is fine but fresh corn off the cob really makes this taste amazing).
• About eight stems of shallots, finely sliced.
• Three eggs, lightly beaten and cooked as an omelet – cook til just cooked in quite a large frypan so the omelet is quite thin, then roll it up and slice it).
• Heaped teaspoon of jarred chopped garlic (because this is a *quick* recipe – I substitute for fresh if I have time).
• Three quarters of a teaspoon of jarred chopped chilli (ditto on substituting for fresh if I have time).
• Small amount of peanut oil.
• Soy sauce (I use Tamari because it’s gluten free – otherwise a mix of regular soy sauce and a dash of kecap manis is perfect). Can’t give you a quantity for this – I just tip and mix, tip and mix til the colour of the rice is about right.
• Two chicken breasts, marinated in sweet chilli sauce and pan fried. Cut into 1cm pieces when cooked. Alternatively, use the meat from a BBQ chicken.

The make-age:

1. So, I cut up the vegies in advance and cook both the rice and the chicken the night before. If you cook the rice the night before, it’s best to lay it out on a bread board or baking tray in the fridge so that it doesn’t clump together.
2. Heat a tablespoon or so of peanut oil in a wok. Stir fry the garlic, chilli, snow peas and sugar snap peas for a couple of minutes. Add the corn and cook for another couple of minutes.
3. Add in the rice and stir to combine.
4. Add in soy sauce – a couple of tablespoons I guess – then mix it through and check the colour. I usually leave about a teaspoon of soy sauce to add later.
5. Stir fry until the rice is warmed through, then add the chicken and the last teaspoon or so of soy sauce.
6. Stir fry until the chicken is warmed through, then add in the egg and shallots. Stir fry for another few minutes.
7. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

I usually get about eight meals out of this, and it’s really filling and healthy. If I’m starving I’ll bulk it up with more veg. If you’re in a super-hurry, leave out the fresh vegies and throw in a packet of frozen peas and corn.