rice

i just read this nytimes article and it reminded me of my love for the rice cooker. back when i lived in NY, i relied on my rice cooker and used it constantly. i did not get too creative with it, the way the people in this article do (making bibimbap, risotto, etc. in their rice cookers), but i did cook a lot of rice and make a lot of good things with it. one of my favorite ways to eat rice is fried rice.

liz's totally made up fried rice

note: i have no idea on amounts here, i just put in whatever i have.

cooked rice (a lot)
peas
baby carrots, cut into thin slices or rounds
onions, minced or sliced into thin strips
garlic, minced
fresh ginger, minced or cut into thin strips
shrimp, deveined and peeled
chinese sausage, preferably all pork (one of my favorite foods EVER! you can get my favorite brand, kam yen jan, at CAM), cut into thin slices
soy sauce
1 or 2 eggs
sesame oil
peanut or canola or sunflower oil
various asian sauces (i mess around with hoisin sauce, 5 spice powder or sauce, soy vay, sriracha, fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice wine vinegar, black bean sauce, fresh lime juice, etc.)

put some non-sesame oil in a pan. cook the slices of chinese sausage until they start to get brown. remove from pan and put on a paper towel to soak up oil. then put shrimp in the pan and more oil if necessary. cook for a few min until opaque. put on the paper towel. put the egg in the pan and scramble it. put on a plate.

add some sesame oil to the pan. cook onions for a minute. add garlic. cook for a minute. add ginger and carrots. cook for a couple minutes. add a little soy sauce. then add rice. cook for a few minutes and then start going crazy with sauces. just add whatever the hell you feel like. add more if you want. but not too much, you don't want it to get too saucy. the rice should be dry by the time you are done cooking.

keep mixing the rice so it all blends together. when it starts to look and taste good, add in the shrimp. cook it a minute or two longer. you can get it crusty on the bottom if you want. at the last minute, add the chinese sausage and the egg. mix in. serve.

i wait to add the chinese sausage because i like it crispy on the outside. if you add it too early, the rice steams it and it gets all soft. it still tastes good though.

you can get totally creative with this recipe and use any veggies, meats, or sauces you want. mine never tastes exactly the same. also, you can do rice noodles instead of rice and get a char kway teow type thing going. if you want to do that, i woudl recommend wide flat rice noodles. you would just cook the noodles according to the package directions and then add them, slightly uncooked, to the meat and veggies and finish off their cooking in the pan with the sauces.

back to rice cookers. i left my rice cooker in NY when i left because i did not have room to bring that much stuff with me to cincinnati. but i am thinking i should get one again. a note on rice cookers: there are many options, but there are two basic styles. one has a removable glass lid, the other has a plastic lid that kind of lifts up on a hinge. the plastic kind is better. i don't know why but it just does a much better job in my opinion. also you can be more flexible with amounts in that kind of a rice cooker. the glass one in my experience gets pissed if you try to do more or less rice than it tells you to.

i really want to try some of the recipes mentioned in the article. especially bibimbap... i basically crave that stuff constantly but almost never make it to riverside.