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insegnante
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| Posted: May 21 2008 at 4:01pm | IP Logged
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If anyone has some really simple, enjoyable (and not too spicy for the kids' sake) stir fry/fried rice sort of dish recipes, I would appreciate if you could post them before the supplies go bad or are used for something else  . I want to get back to this sort of meal -- I (and my husband who is the usual cook these days) have made some really good fried rice years ago but I think we forgot just how I changed the recipe from the cookbook. Oh, and what we have now is brown jasmine rice. Other than in that one good adjusted recipe brown rice never seems to come out tasting good. I think we usually used brown basmati before when we cooked rice. Any tips much appreciated.
This is what we have to work with but it would be easy to grab a few more inexpensive things:
-the brown jasmine rice
-fresh onion
-fresh garlic
-soy sauce
-boneless skinless chicken thighs
-eggs
-soy sauce
-frozen asparagus, corn, green beans, maybe broccoli
-fresh tomato
-Worcestershire sauce, if that's ever used in this kind of thing!
-canola oil, we don't really use anything else for cooking
Thanks for any ideas!
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Theresa
mommy to three boys, 3/02, 8/04, and 9/10, and a girl, 8/08
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Loren
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| Posted: May 21 2008 at 8:43pm | IP Logged
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I just throw things in the frying pan and stir it up, no recipe.  I have discovered that if you mix a bit of corn starch in your soy sauce before adding it to your rice, then let it simmer a little while, you get a thicker sauce like they have in the restaurants.
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Chari
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 12:17am | IP Logged
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We do just like Loren......I have never tried the cornstarch though........but, duh! GREAT idea! Cannot WAIT to try it.....my mouth is watering! Thanks, Loren!
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Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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stefoodie
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 12:18am | IP Logged
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I like a dash or two of sesame oil in mine, Theresa!
and freshly ground white pepper (very chinese)
I don't use tomato or Worcestershire sauce but that sounds interesting!
You can make a "seasoning mixture" with soy sauce-sesame oil-salt-white pepper-a bit of sugar, whisk it all together and use that.
I also stir-fry the veggies, egg, and or meats separately first, clean out the pan, and then put fresh oil, heat that up, add the seasoning mixture, then put the rice in and stir-stir-stir.
Yum!
Some other things I like in fried rice: chopped ham, or Chinese sausages (pre-cook first), mushrooms (either dried and reconstituted shiitakes, or fresh ones), mung bean sprouts (add at the last minute). Oooh, also pre-seasoned and pre-fried tofu cubes.
Any meat or chicken or shrimp I marinate first
chicken, chopped into 1-inch chunks or sliced thinly - soy sauce, cornstarch, shaohxing rice wine, salt, pepper
pork or beef, sliced thinly -- soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, ginger, green onions
shrimp - cornstarch, shaohxing rice wine, salt, sugar
Then I "velvet" them (cook in really high heat in really hot oil, only for a few minutes) and remove them from heat. Then proceed with the rest of the stir-frying.
One last tip -- I always use high heat!
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stef
mom to five
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insegnante
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 2:28pm | IP Logged
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Thanks!
Stef, I once wouldn't have thought of tomato for this type of dish, but at least one Thai place we've been to used it in, I think, their pad thai, and it was surprisingly good!
I have no idea what to do with Worcestershire sauce other than what recipes tell me, but it is in so many recipes (we like Recipezaar.com) that we bought some the other day. So I just threw that out there as a possibility.
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Theresa
mommy to three boys, 3/02, 8/04, and 9/10, and a girl, 8/08
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Genevieve
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 4:02pm | IP Logged
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fish sauce
ketchup
ground meat
leftover breakfast/dinner meat - bacon, sausage etc
canned baby corn, water chestnuts
frozen mixed vegetables from Bird's Eye
I think these are the more common ingredients that you can get in a mainstream grocery store
Less common ingredients from an Asian grocery store
ABC's sweet soy sauce from Indonesia
dried pork floss
fried bean curd
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Genevieve
The Good Within
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 8:25pm | IP Logged
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ok, dumb question, but because I have never fried rice before...do you use pre-cooked rice, or do you just fry uncooked rice?
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Theresa
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 8:58pm | IP Logged
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pre-cooked and COOLED is the best.. you can do it hot but you get the best texture if the rice is at least room temp before you fry it.
Stir-fry over rice.. I just stir fry the veggies with whatever sauce.. and that bit of cornstarch (you'll want to remove it from the heat as soon as it thickens or it'll keep getting thicker) gives a nice glaze sort of finish over the dish vs just juices in the bottom.
Stir-fried rice on the other hand I cook to just barely tender veggies like carrots and onion and peppers and such.. and I cook those and pull them out and cook the eggs and pull them out and when I cook the rice I try and start with room-temp to cold rice.. and hot oil and really fry the rice first.. and then add soy sauce to taste.. then add all the ingredients back in along with anything that only needed to get warm (peas for instance.. I buy frozen baby peas for this since I can't get fresh)
Also the sesame oil is excellent.. use sesame seeds as well in the dish.. and you add the oil right before you pull the dish off the heat.. don't cook in the oil.. it's a volatile oil and you lose much of the flavor if it gets very hot for long.
Don't forget things more chinese like water chestnuts and bamboo shoots and the bean sprouts and what are the peas you eat in the pod, usually buy them fresh? name is escaping me at the moment.
You might also just browse in the ethnic section of the grocery store or freezer section.. read what ingredients are included in the heat and eat things.. read descriptions on the sauces and various condiments.. get one or two to try.. I found I can use hoisin sauce quite a bit.. it's sweet and tangy so the kids will eat it(I think of it like chinese ketchup  ).. vs the hot chile I got thats sweet and hot.
Also be sure you have an oil for cooking the stir fry that can handle the high temps you should be cooking at. I use peanut oil.. but there are other healthy oils to use (coconut oil I think?) but you don't want to use olive oil for instance because high heat causes it to break down and it loses it's healthfulness.
I've been teaching myself how to cook good chinese food.. and I go through cookbooks and read recipes.. read several recipes for the same thing so that you can see variations.. see what the spices are that are used.. and the combos they are used in. It really helps when you look at what you have and what you can combine to get the right type of flavor.
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Topic: simple stir fry/fried rice type recipes
