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View ProfilesPublished April 13, 2020 at 8:00 a.m.
When our two sons first started cooking for themselves, they’d often text or call me for advice. I came up with two basic recipe methods that were inexpensive, flexible and quick. One was a Mexican-style rice and bean casserole, and the other a boilerplate for Asian stir-fry or fried rice.
The bonus is that both meals can swallow up all manner of bits and bobs that tend to get lost in the back of the fridge. Cutting food waste is always a good idea. These days it’s an even better one.
This fried rice was inspired by writer and chef Tamar Adler’s recipe for Thai fried rice in her book An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace (Scribner, 2011). I love the funk of fish sauce, but soy sauce works fine if you're not a fan (like my boys) or don’t have it on hand.
Once you’ve got everything chopped, the fried rice is super quick to pull together — so quick, in fact, you’ll want the ingredients laid out ready to go before you turn on the stove.
The only thing that you need to plan ahead is having cold cooked rice, the kind you might have left over from Asian takeout. Or, if you’re making rice for another meal, cook extra. You can store it in the fridge for a few days, or even freeze and then thaw it.
Do not even think about making this dish with freshly cooked rice. It will be a dismal failure. As Adler writes, “Thank heavens for the occasional, calculable superiority of old things.”
The vegetables can be pretty much anything you have on hand. I especially like to use stems or leaves that might normally get tossed. Thinly slice kale stems or broccoli stems, or the inner stalks and leaves of celery; ribbon up radish or beet greens. (If those greens are a little limp, soak them in cool water for an hour or so and you'll be amazed by how they come back to life.)
I’ve made this with finely diced ham, chicken, smoked tofu — even leftover fried calamari. You can scramble a couple eggs into the rice after it’s crisped up, but my favorite way to finish it off is with a runny-yolked fried egg, a shower of chopped green herbs and something crunchy. Roasted peanuts are perfect, but crushed potato chips are also a surprisingly great option.
Adler does not include potato chips in her recipe, but I think she might agree that using up those bits stuck at the bottom of the bag is the epitome of cooking with economy and grace.
Makes 2 servings (can be multiplied, but fry rice in batches so it gets crispy)
Ingredients
Directions
Tags: Home on the Range, Cooking, Home on the Range, Recipes, Recipes, Home on the Range, fried rice, food waste, Web Only
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