Leftover Chef Lane

Thor and I made it out to the grocery store today, and he only slipped once, and I only lost control of the car once in an empty parking lot, so we were successful in our quest to obtain Soy Sauce. That means I cooked Fried Rice.

To make my Leftover Fried Rice, you will need: Rice. Soy Sauce. Olive Oil. Salt. 3 large eggs. 1/2cup finely chopped carrots. 1/4 cup finely chopped onions. 1.5 cooked pork chops, cut into thin, small strips.

I hear that the drier your rice is, the better your fried rice will be, but I never think about it until I want to make it, so I just deal with the level of wetness as it comes. I did remember to make my rice early in the afternoon, so it was much drier than I am normally working with. I used Jasmine rice because that’s what I have. I’m no purist, obvs. I also hear that shorter grain rice is better.

I had half a bag of baby carrots left from last night’s dinner, so after cutting them all into rounds, I remember I have a small food processor. I used that to chop them down into wee little pieces. Harder for Thor to dodge them that way. I also chopped up the remains of my onion.

All of that went into the skillet, over a medium-low heat, with a tbs of olive oil, and the fatty remnants of the pork chops leftover from last night. I thought that would give my carrots and onions a nice flavor. It did.

When I was happy with the tenderness of the veg, I removed the fatty bits and added the pork chops, cut into thin, fine pieces. I cooked that for about another minute.

I only have the one skillet, so when I finished with the pork and veg, I moved it to a plate, then went to work on my eggs. In a bowl, I scramble up my raw egg with about a tsp of salt. I put about a half tbs of oil in the skillet (after washing and drying it), and scramble my eggs over a medium heat. I like my eggs to be dry and chopped into small pieces, so while the eggs are cooking, I use a spatula to flip them and chop them. No wet goo in my eggs. No.

When those are finished, they go into the plate with the pork and veg. You all know what scrambled eggs look like, right? Good. I forgot to take a picture of those.

I washed out my skillet again, added a tbs of oil and heated it, then scooped in about 3 cups of white rice. Use whatever color you like.

I let the heat suffuse the rice, then I pour in my soy sauce. You’ve got to do this to taste. I turn my rice from white to light brown.

Then, you fry the rice. I like to pack mine down, let it fry, listening to the sizzle. When the sizzle is slowing, I use a spatula to flip a chunk, working my way around until it is all flipped. I repeat the sizzle listen. Then, I mix it up to get the middle bits, until I am satisfied all my rice has been properly heated.

At that point, I add in the pork and veg, and eggs. Then, I stir in a little more soy sauce, cook until all the ingredients are the same temperature, and serve.

Thor ate about a full cup of it. He was not happy about the carrots, but he couldn’t avoid them, so he ate them. Judging from the way he tucked in, he really liked the dish.