Poor Man's Fried Rice

Hopping on the food train again, whilst I promised some other saving ideas. Frankly, if you did it properly, you've already stuffed yourself with a couple of days worth of risotto goodness, and are craving something else. if not, you have a stomach with a much larger attention span than mine tends to have.

The recipe below yields a reasonable amount of really, really cheap fried rice. about 4 "dinner" serves or about 6ish "I'll have this with something else" side sized portions.

Recipe – Poor Man’s Fried Rice

½ Cup Frozen Peas $ 2.24 / 500gm
2 Carrots $ 0.65
Corn (frozen or fresh) $ Depending – frozen about 2.70
2 Rashers of Bacon $2.80 / 250 gm
1 Tsp Ginger $24.95/kg (10 gm is adequate)
Small amount of Oyster Sauce $3.91
3 Shallots / 1 small onion $0.25
3 Cups Rice (Dried, see note below.) $1.79/kg
1 Egg $3.91 / dozen
5 Tbsp Soy Sauce $ see post (Getting Started)
Splash of Canola Oil
1 Clove Garlic


Note – YOUR RICE MUST BE DRY!!!

Now, there’s a couple of options for the rice here. If you use fresh, moist cooked rice, you will have really soggy, gross fried rice. If you are fortunate enough to have a rice cooker, this is pretty easy. Simply cook your 2 cups of rice, and leave it on the keep warm setting for about half an hour. This will dry it out almost enough for it not to be gluggy.

The other option is to use leftover rice from the night before that has been in the fridge, or rice you’ve prepared about 2 hours before, pressed into reasonably flat trays and left uncovered in the fridge. In terms of effort, I’m a BIG fan of option 1.

Instructions

1. Prepare your egg – I like lightly beat the raw egg with a fork, and make sort of a pancake by putting it in a lightly oiled frying pan, and flipping over as it appears to ‘dry’. Wait to cool slightly, perhaps during step 2.

2. You’ll need a moderately sized Frying pan for this one. Add a splash of Canola oil and heat. Add crushed Garlic, grated Ginger and finely chopped Onion or Shallots and cook on a low temperature until fragrant.

3. Move those aromatics to the side of pan, slice bacon into small pieces. Place in fry pan and cook until slightly crispy (or however you like the bacon in your fried rice. If you want saggy bacon, that’s up to you). Slice egg into bite-size pieces, add to the mess in the pan.

4. Slice carrots into small circles, add with corn and peas to pan. Fry until almost cooked. (If your peas and corn are frozen, or you have frozen vege mix, about 3 mins in the microwave covered with water will soften them significantly, or about 8 minutes being cooked)

5. Add Soy Sauce, a SMALL (about a capful) amount of oyster sauce, and your rice. Stir like crazy, so that sauce has spread equally over everything. If your kitchen does not smell like awesome, you have done something incredibly wrong.

6. Serve! Fried rice el poor man is ready. This makes about 3 “Main” sized serves, or about 6 entrée sized serves.

NOTE: If you’re feeling a bit more gourmet about things, there’s always room for experimentation. I’m trying to provide the best possible price food which will still make you feel like you’ve eaten a meal rather than a bowl of noodles or a cheeseburger. We find Broccoli makes an awesome addition for bulking it out.