Bacon Fried Rice

When I was little, our family ate a lot of fried rice.

No wonder, there were five of us kids and my parents--7 hungry mouths to feed.

It's simple, fast, and when you add a few slices of bacon--it's very flavorful.

We always had it with a lot of vegetables mixed in, too.

Every family, or every cook, has their particular method of making fried rice.

I have friends that say they judge a Chinese restaurant by how good their fried rice is.

The great thing about fried rice--you can make it with whatever you like, or whatever you have on hand.

Bacon Fried Rice Ingredients:

4 slices bacon

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1/2 zucchini and 1 carrot, grated

shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 stalk bok choy, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger root

1 small dashi packet for flavoring

about 6 cups leftover cooked rice or freshly steamed rice

Cut the bacon into small pieces.

Put the bacon in a hot skillet and fry until crisp.

When the bacon is almost crisp, remove most of the bacon fat.

Mince garlic and ginger, chop onions, and add to the pan.

The bacon will keep cooking and get crispier.

Chop or grate the rest of the vegetables and add them to the pan.

Saute until the vegetables are wilted and hot.

Beat two eggs.

I like to add the eggs to the vegetables.

When my mom made fried rice and added the eggs, she added them after the rice was already mixed in--that way the egg coats the grains of rice.

Several years ago when I visited Japan, I sat at the counter in a restaurant, and watched the cook make gyoza and fried rice.

I love watching people cook.

That cook made fried rice by adding the egg to the vegetables, so there's little chunks of egg throughout the dish, and each rice kernel is still clean.

I decided I liked it like that, so that's how I make it now.

To flavor the fried rice, I add a packet of dashi powder, it's about 1 teaspoon.

This one is the bonito flavored dashi.

Add the dashi powder to the vegetables and mix well.

If you're making fried rice without meat, you can use the konbu dashi.

Konbu dashi is made from seaweed.

Add salt and pepper to taste, too, since this brand of dashi doesn't have added salt.

Add the beaten eggs.

Let the eggs set for about 30 seconds to a minute, and stir until cooked through.

Then add the rice.

If you're using cold rice, you can heat the rice in the microwave for 2 minutes with a sprinkling of water, or add to the vegetable mixture, add a tablespoon of water and put the lid on to let the rice steam for a few minutes.

Gently stir to combine the rice and the vegetable/egg mixture.

Use a cutting/folding motion so the grains of rice don't get mushed.

Taste and adjust flavors.

My mom says that when we were little, all us kids wanted to eat was ketchup and rice, ketchup and rice.

I remember that it got so my mom would just mix in the ketchup with the fried rice and serve it that way!

I don't think any of us eat it that way anymore, but I have a friend that still needs ketchup with his fried rice.

Ketchup, optional.

If you want to add ketchup, or oyster sauce, you can add a tablespoon or two at this point.

Itadakimasu!

***

We had a baby shower over the weekend for my new nephew.

Here he is with one of his grandmas.

Maria's mother is visiting from Chicago!

My new nephew has grown so much, and his face has changed!

I didn't get many photos of him, but I will be taking some of him with his Grandma and Big Sister soon!

That's my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law making flower arrangements for the baby shower.

I picked two buckets of flowers from around my yard--they made simple, beautiful centerpieces in mason jars.

I didn't get any pictures of them, and thought about running back to my brother-in-law's house where the shower was, but then I thought--

I could pick more flowers from my yard and make one here!

Occasionally I have flashes of brilliance!

Here's what we made using hydrangeas, sweet peas, oregano and parsley that's going to seed.

There were some roses in there, too.

Last year, when my daughter got married, I became just a tad obsessed with English roses--so I planted a couple of bushes in the front yard.

That's the yellow rose on the right.

So simple, and so pretty!

Uh-oh.

Looks like my new nephew is a mouth breather, like some of his cousins.

He was born that way.

(Same DNA...)

****

Bacon Fried Rice

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1/2 zucchini and 1 carrot, grated

shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 stalk bok choy, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger root

1 small dashi packet for flavoring

about 6 cups leftover cooked rice or freshly steamed rice

Slice bacon into small pieces and cook until almost crisp. Remove most of the bacon fat, add onions, garlic and ginger. Chop/grate the rest of the vegetables and add to the pan.

When the vegetables are hot and wilting, add a dashi packet (or 1 teaspoon) of dashi powder, salt and pepper, and mix well. Beat two eggs and add to the mixture, letting them set for 30 seconds or 1 minute, then stir until eggs are cooked.

Add warm rice and stir gently until uniformly mixed, or if adding leftover cold rice, add rice with 1 tablespoon water, put the lid on the pot and let the rice steam for a few minutes until hot.

Curry Rice

 

When I was little, we didn't eat Japanese Curry Rice. The Fujimotos introduced me to it. My mom said she didn't eat it much as a kid, so she didn't cook it. Only after she took a cooking class when I was a teenager, did she make curry.

The recipe she brought home from cooking class was India curry, bright yellow in color and with a thin gravy. Mom said she doesn't like the 'thick, pasty curry' that is the Japanese style, but she likes the milder curry, like Thai curry. Maybe that's why I make mine a combination of the two.

If you follow the directions on any of the packages below, you'll get a very aromatic, pungent, thick gravy curry. It would be more the style you'd get at The Curry House.

Mine is a little less curry-assaulting to the palate, more mild, with a thinner gravy. And lots more vegetables.

Ingredients:

Vermont Curry, Mild or Hot

(Vermont is my favorite, although S&B Golden Curry is good, too!)

Chicken, Pork, or any other Meat

 2 Onions

4 Carrots

1/4 Head Cabbage

2 Potatoes

1/2 Cup Peas

Cornstarch for Thickening

Baby Bok Choy as a Side Dish

The first thing you want to do is cut up the meat. Today I'm making it with chicken. It's good with pork, too.

Cut it up into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

Peel the carrots, potatoes & onions.

(My dad grew the carrots and the cabbage. Thanks, Dad, for keeping us well fed!)

I like to chop the veggies into soup, rather than stew, size.

The cabbage adds a nice, fuller-bodied, flavor.

Start with a hot pan and add the chicken.

I generally don't add extra oil.

(I know, it goes against what you see on the Food Network, but you don't need that extra fat.)

I put the chicken in and wait a few minutes for the chicken to sear, release its juices, and come away from the bottom of the pan. But since I'm using mostly the breast, there's not a lot of fat in the meat, so I added a little bit of water, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

After a minute or so, you can stir the meat.

Add water to cover.

When the water boils, the fat will gather in the center.

Skim the scum & fat with a wire sieve.

Or a spoon works just fine too.

(If you're vegetarian, you'll want to start here.)

Add the vegetables and add more water to cover if necessary.

In case you're confused, I'm making two pots.

One with chicken & mild curry. (I'm giving some to my mother-in-law today so she doesn't have to cook. She doesn't like to cook.)

One vegetarian & with hot curry.

The Vermont Hot Curry is my favorite.

The S&B Golden Curry is good too. You can find that one at Vons.

 This is what's in the package.

When you turn it over, it's sectioned into 6. Bend the package and break into 6 pieces.

Easy open here at the corner.

Put all 6 pieces into the pot.

The blocks of curry roux will melt. Let it sit there, simmering, for a few minutes, then stir until curry is dissolved.

When the curry roux is dissolved into the broth, let it boil for about 10 minutes, then taste the broth.

Put a little into a small dish and sip from there. That's the way they do it in Japan. (I know because that's the way my mother-in-law tastes the aji (seasoning).

If it's too strong for your taste, add some water.

If you like it with a stronger curry taste, you can add another section or two of the curry roux squares. (That is--if you bought extra!)

Since I add more volume than the recipe on the box calls for, the curry needs some thickening to give it a gravy consistency.

Put about a heaping teaspoonful of cornstarch into a small bowl.

(I'm adding more since I've got two pots going...)

Add a little bit of water and make a slurry.

It might feel like glue at first, but keep stirring.

Check the mixture. Skim off the bubbly stuff. That's fat.

The curry roux is made with fat. When it comes to the surface, you want to skim that off.

(Does it might seem like I'm paranoid about fat? Honest, I'm not!)

When the mixture is boiling, add the cornstarch & water in a drizzle, stirring constantly. You will immediately feel the liquid thicken.

Add a little at a time so you don't over-thicken it.

Add the frozen peas and let it boil gently for a few minutes so the cornstarch cooks.

Then, it's done!

Serve over rice.

***

On the side, today I'm serving the curry with some steamed baby bok choy.

Let it soak in a pan of water for a few minutes to get the sand out.

Drain. Then I like to cut them in half.

Steam, with a little bit of water at the bottom of the pan, and the lid on, for a few minutes until they're tender but still bright green.

The baby bok choy is like spinach. It shrinks a lot!

Here's my vegetarian curry with baby bok choy on the side.

Yum!

Thanks to The Pioneer Woman for the timely photography tips and inspiration!