Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

Recipe - Veggie Fried Rice

This is one of our family favourites, easy and quick to cook after a bit of preparation and it can use up all sorts of home produced veggies. It can be a meal in itself or a great accompaniment to other meat or vegetarian dishes. We use a traditional mild steel wok to make our fried rice, heated by our wood fired heater in winter, a rocket stove when it is not winter, or LPG when I am feeling lazy.

Recipe

1 ½ cups of long grain rice and water for cooking
5 eggs
25mm ginger root (peeled)
1 decent sized onion (diced)
2 tablespoons of oil (x2)
1 -2 cups of diced home produced veggies (eg peas or beans cut 6mm long, corn kernels, carrot, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, bok choi, etc.)
Spring onion or onion tops if you grow them (cut into 6mm sections)
20ml soy sauce (roughly).

Method

1. Cooking the rice

It is a good idea to do this at least a couple of hours before you want to eat your fried rice. Cook it and then put it in the fridge to cool and dry for a couple of hours and when you come fry it, it won’t clag together (technical term used by chefs).

Put 2 litres of water into a pot with a close fitting lid. Add salt if desired (I usually don’t bother) and bring water to the boil. With the water boiling add the rice and then give it a good stir to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pot. Put the lid onto the pot and return it to the boil. Once it re-boils turn off the heat and let the pot sit unmolested for 12 minutes. Once the rice is cooked, drain it out into a colander and then rinse with running water until it runs clear. Let it drain in the colander for 10 to 15 minutes then upend it onto an appropriate size plate and store it in the fridge for at least 2 hours to dry.

2. Cooking the egg

Do this just before you are going to make the fried rice.

I generally use 5 eggs for just Linda and I but if you were making fried rice for a larger number of people (ie with more rice etc) I usually go with one egg per person and one for the wok!

Pot your eggs into a cup or bowl and stir around with a fork until the mixture is more-or-less homogenous. Preheat the wok and add in 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is getting hot add in the eggs and let them cook to firm up a bit, but keep an eye on the bottom to make sure the eggs do not burn. Using your wok tool (charn) break up the egg mix and cut it into smaller lumps, keep it moving around the hot wok until most bits are browned but not burned. Remove from the wok and place in a bowl to one side.

3. Cooking the rest

1. Heat the wok and put in two tablespoons of oil, stir fry the onion and ginger for 3 minutes or until the onion is transparent.

2. Throw in the diced veggies and stir fry for a further 5 minutes or until any hard vegetables (eg carrot) are cooked but still crisp.

3. Add the cooked egg and stir fry for a couple of minutes to heat through.

4. Add the rice and stir fry until the rice is hot, add the soy sauce. (add more soy sauce to your taste)

5. Serve hot.

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