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