Monday, May 4, 2009

Fried Rice


Just a reminder that on Wednesday Morning, I want to see "What's Outside Your Kitchen Window."
(your garden, a bird, the sunrise, or just your actual kitchen window, like I do)


Now....on to the recipe. Fried Rice! Yum. It's about the easiest Asain dish you could do...very flexible. This is my story.

This is my friend April (and her daughter Heather) who made the fried rice that I ate.



This is the table in April's house, that held the fried rice that April made, that I ate.


This is the pot that held the rice that sat on the table, that.... (now I'm confused!)




Hmmm.....it would be WAY TOO hard to do a whole blog post around "the House that Jack Built".
And besides that, April might have made the fried rice ONCE, but I made it again and took pictures of it. So, my whole story changes in the middle.
I made her recipe, but I changed a couple of things. Not because they needed changing, but because that is what I had on hand.

April is an original Friday Friend (see my profile for more info on that). She is funny and smart and a good cook.
We had a bookclub meeting at her house last week, and she did a Japanese theme. (the characters in the book were Japanese Americans )
April lived in Tokyo and had her daughter there, while her husband was in the air force many years ago. When Heather turned 21, she had to declare citizenship. Up until that point, she had dual citizenship.

I digress....... book club and fried rice.

One cannot make a pig of themselves during a bookclub. We are supposed to be intelligent, well-spoken, and perceptive. Not big old pigs stuffing our faces...which is what we all wanted to do with April's meal at book club. (we had rice and sushi and shrimp and strawberries. The book? "Snow Falling on Cedars" )

It was horrible, because we were acting all intellectual and at the same time our eyes were darting back and forth to see if anyone was watching us STUFF OUR FACES.
It was that good. Good enough we all stuffed.
The only bad part about the whole evening besides not getting enough was that she made us eat with chopsticks. I can do chopsticks with anything BUT rice. I think I caught the leader of the book talk that night, using her fingers.
It was that good, I tell ya.


We left that evening, filled with literary knowledge, but hungry for more of April's great fried rice.

I went home and the very next night, made some for our supper. And this is what I came up with.


Fried Rice

Cooked Rice
soft scrambled eggs
cooked crumbled bacon ( I substituted ham)
sweet red pepper
fresh mushrooms
celery
soy sauce
chopped green onions

peas ( this is optional... I used frozen peas)
April's instructions:
This is a simple recipe. Plan on 1 cup of cooked rice per person. 1 egg per cup of rice. I usually put in equal amounts of red pepper and mushrooms, chopped very small, half that for the celery (it has a strong flavor)

Stir fry the veggies in oil of your choice. Add in the cooked bacon or ham. Scramble the eggs, keep stirring. Fold in the rice and add soy sauce to taste (a little at a time. Once it's in....it's in). Add peas if you like them. Stir till warm.
Plate the rice and sprinkle with chopped green onions.





11 comments:

Donna-FFW said...

Love fried rice, this version looks fantastic. My fav version is actually a Rachael Ray, her special fried rice she calls it.

Krista said...

That fried rice looks awesome! I'm making fried rice later this week, but I just use the fried rice seasoning packet and follow the directions. I bet this is SO much better!

teresa said...

Mmmm, this looks so good. What a fun night, I love bookclubs!

Shelby said...

We had fried rice on Saturday! Grumpy loves it! The only think I can't do is the eggs in the rice. I have a really hard time with eggs.

Your little gathering looks like so much fun!

Sherri Murphy said...

Love fried rice- and your tablescape is AWESOME!

Netts Nook said...

Looks like my kind of feast. I like friends like that.

Karen said...

I love the way your club "eats the book" with your themes. The rice does look good... I've never made fried rice!

The Blonde Duck said...

I would be a pig at book club. So I can't join.

Lyndas recipe box said...

I love fried rice and yours looks terrific!The pictures are really great, too!

Julie said...

My hubby loves fried rice, I'll have to try this :)

Anonymous said...

My husband LOVED the fried rice at a restaurant we used to go to, and this reminds me of it. I'm going to try it.

I love your description of book club eating. Since our club is less than a year old, I thught that "we're a book club so it's not about the eating" idea would go away eventually, but apparently not! :)

In fact, I just had an idea! I have been trying to think of something original to have for club when it's here in a couple weeks. Maybe I'll make this fried rice! Perfect. Thanks. (It makes me sorry this isn't the month we read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.)

Friday Friend recipe #352

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