My neighbor told me that rice cookers were on sale at the local supermarket a few weeks ago.
Rice is so easy to make that it never occurred to me to get a rice cooker. It would be one more thing taking up room.
Although I do have a Scot’s friend that swears by hers – to make the morning oats.
As I only cook for 2 a small saucepan is all I need.
Fried rice is, traditionally, made with cold, leftover white sticky rice.
I make it with freshly cooked Basmati which works just fine…. for us.
This recipe is based on one from my old ‘Time Life Foods of the World, China’ cook book.
Click here to Pin Easy Fried Rice
PrintEasy Fried Rice
Traditional Fried Rice has an egg and peas. You can add other ingredients as you like – shrimp, chicken…. If your rice is cooked ahead this goes together in under 15 minutes.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Sides
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (3.3oz, 95gr) Basmati rice
- 1 cup (8oz, 240ml) chicken broth
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2/3 cup peas
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs sherry
Instructions
- Cook rice in broth until done.
- Remove from heat and uncover to cool slightly.
- Put egg into a small bowl and lightly beat with a fork.
- Heat half of the oils in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add egg and scramble.
- Remove to a plate.
- Heat remaining oils and onion, stir-fry 1 minute.
- Add rice, soy sauce and sherry. Stir well to combine.
- Stir-fry for 3 minutes.
- Add peas and stir-fry 2 minutes longer.
- Break scrambled egg into chunks and stir into rice.
- Serve.
Notes
Green onions would be more traditional – but I can never find them. Use 4 – 6, sliced, in place of the onion.
I use frozen peas, no sauce, rinsed with hot water.
Use cider vinegar, vermouth, or white wine in place of the sherry.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 recipe
- Calories: 354
- Sugar: 5.3 g
- Sodium: 813.6 mg
- Fat: 12.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 49.1 g
- Fiber: 3.2 g
- Protein: 10.6 g
- Cholesterol: 95.5 mg
Keywords: fried rice, rice sides
No peas? Try Rice Pilaf with Spinach
Back to the rice….
I was doing some cleaning (rare) the other day and decided to watch a British cooking show to entertain myself while I worked.
The news, which is my usual choice, is not entertaining at the moment.
I digress….
On this cooking show the chef introduced a new way of cooking rice. He called it ‘the absorption method’. He added twice the volume of water to the rice and cooked it.
He looked tremendously pleased with himself for this wonderful discovery.
That’s the only way I’ve ever cooked rice. I didn’t know there was another way to cook rice.
I asked my British neighbor how she cooks it.
She looked at me like I was crazy and said ‘Put it into a big pot of boiling water, of course, same as pasta, and drain it when it’s done. How else would I cook it?’
And yet another bit that divides the Brits and the Yanks.
For the record, I always cook rice in broth – and I often sauté it in a bit of butter, like for risotto, before adding the broth.
You mean not everyone does 2-1 when they cook rice? Except for risotto of course, but really? How else do you get it nice and sticky? Come to think of it, I don’t think either of my grandmothers ever made rice. I know my mother never did. Boil and drain it… I’m cringing…
I don’t eat many carbs anymore. I’ve lost a little over 50 pounds. In part because I’ve quit eating constant carbs and in part because of the medicine I now take for my ocular migraines, but I must admit, every once in awhile, I’ll stop at a local restaurant that’s owned by a chef that was featured on Chopped who makes the most fabulous sticky rice and I’ll eat a pint smothered in soy sauce just because I have to. It calls to me.
I do make fried rice when I make beef and broccoli though. MUST have it with that! 🙂 And I make it almost the same.
The hubs is T1 diabetic, so I have to make the appropriate quantity of carbs for him and I usually make a smaller portion for me. When I lost weight a few years ago I stopped eating potatoes and using milk in coffee. Nothing else but those 2 things did the trick.
As to cooking rice like pasta – no. I like to add some flavor to it when I cook it. But the Brits do the same for vegetables – just boil and serve. lol
Oh, yes, My grandmother was a solidly British as they come. If it even resembled a veggie, it got boiled. Not that she was a bad cook. She wasn’t, and I learned a lot. Her pasties were to die for and the crust was absolutely fabulous. But yes, I understood where Shakespeare got his ‘boil, boil, toil and trouble from! LOL I try hard not to make starchy carbs. We don’t need them. I do a lot of green ones, broccoli and such, which we love, and it does help keep the weight off. Stopping them helps keep my weight off a lot, but I’m a sucker for a good mashed potato. The anti-seizure medicine I’m taking now for my ocular migraines has been a wonder though. I’ve lost 50 pounds! Another 15 and I’d be a really happy camper.
I’m honestly impressed that those who cook for diabetics can be disciplined enough to do so day after day, but I know it does become habit. My ex boss’s brother was a severely brittle diabetic who ended up having one of the first pancreas transplants in the US.
My mother boiled rice and then my ex husband taught me the absorption method. I no longer do either as I have stopped eating rice….unless I am a guest of course and then it bothers me not how it was cooked !
I just cook less rice and therefor eat less. But if I didn’t have to make the carbs for V I would likely skip it. So many other good things to eat lol