Tag Archives: Cooking

Sriracha Fried Rice

Who isn’t a sucker for an easy weeknight meal? *silence thunders back* Right. Some evenings there’s just no energy available with which to crimp little ravioli packets that end up in the trash, or measure out what feels like a million and a half spices for a complexly flavored Etouffée stew. Sometimes I don’t want to cook–I just want to eat.

(By the way, you should totally make that stew–but maybe over the weekend.)

On nights like that, this is the kind of recipe I flee to for help. In fact, last Monday night when The Sickness was starting to descend on my head, sinus, and throat, I said You’re my only hope, Sriracha Fried Rice! And the Sriracha Fried Rice came through for me. The flavors in this little tossed-together dish are simple but good. Based on this original (again found via Tasty Kitchen, the fount that never stops giving), a bowl of this hits the ‘comfort food’ buttons in my soul. It’s not a show-stopper, but it’s a satisfying, homey meal that makes my stomach smile.

When I make fried rice, normally I incorporate the eggs into the dish, frying up an omelet and then breaking it up into the rice. However, this variation with fried eggs on top has me charmed. I’m never one to turn down a perfectly over-easy egg with a beautiful, sunny, runny yolk.

One two three hit it!

Ingredients

 (Serves 2)

4 TBS peanut oil, plus 1 to fry the eggs

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 cup cabbage, chopped or shredded

1 splash Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)

1 pinch sugar

2 TBS soy sauce

3 TBS sriracha

4 cups cooked, cold rice

½ tsp salt, to taste

¼ black pepper, to taste

1 tsp sesame oil

3 green onions, diced

4 eggs (2 per person)

So the mincing of the garlic, the chopping of the onion, and the chopping of the cabbage I simply leave to your imagination. Bam! Here’s the assembly, ready to go.

Don’t you love it when ingredients magically get prepped? I know I do. (Thanks baby.)

And now! Heat the 4 TBS peanut oil in a large (12’’) cast iron skillet or wok over high heat. When hot, add the garlic and fry for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly so that it doesn’t burn.

Add the chopped onion and continue to stir fry for about 4 minutes, until the onion is starting to get translucent.

I happen to like big chunks of onion, but if you’re averse you can feel free to mince ‘er on up. Sprinkle the onion generously with salt and pepper as it fries.

Add the cabbage and fry for a few more minutes, until the cabbage is crisp-tender.

The cabbage isn’t extremely visible in this picture because I used a bag of cabbage that I shredded months ago and then froze. In the defrosting process it got a little mushy, and proceeded to disappear into the final dish. Alas.

Once the cabbage is getting tender, sprinkle in a pinch of sugar and splash in the Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry).

No need to measure–just splash. I doubt you could over-splash even if you tried.

Cook for about 2 minutes, letting some of the alcohol cook off.

Add the soy sauce . . .

. . . and the sriracha.

Stir that good stuff around, baby!

Time to add the rice.

Note: It’s very important to use cold, refrigerated cooked rice (as opposed to hot, freshly cooked rice). The cold rice gives fried rice its delectable texture. Hmmmm–I just said ‘rice’ four times and I see no way around it. That’s an F- in composition for you! Thank you, teacher in my head. At least it wasn’t an F – -. Those are the worst.

Stir fry the rice for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. I like to let it sit sometimes without touching it so that the grains get crisp and browned.

Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt if needed. I needed both more salt and more sugar.

Drizzle in the sesame oil and stir in the green onions (which I totally didn’t use, but only because of a refrigerator inventory misconception).

While the rice was frying, this should have been happenin’ in a separate skillet: the cookination of the eggs.

Nothing fancy: heat 1 TBS oil in a separate pan and cook the 4 eggs over easy (or however your palate demands them).

Serve the eggs immediately over the fried rice.

Oh sí, señor.

I think I need a leeeeedle bit more.

If your palate is opposed to over-easy eggs (I know you’re out there–I’m married to one) you must forgive the following picture.

I’ll make up for it with the final picture, which shows the wonderfully crispy brown grains of rice. I die.

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Erica's Bacon Potato Leek Soup

So I’m assembling and editing pictures from Saturday’s Regency Ball in order to put together a post for you guys. A few things you should know: I did not turn into a pumpkin. Our dresses were beautiful. Our husbands get an A + for coming with us and learning all those period dances. That evening we arrived back in Chicago pretty exhausted; those Regency dances may look calm and elegant, but lemme tell you–I worked up quite a sweat. So until the time that I can spit out the full report of our doings, I bring you: more food.

During that roadtrip to Kentucky two weekends ago to visit my sister Erica, she whipped up a lovely dinner for us in an attempt to recreate a soup she had experienced at a restaurant. Whereas I tend to get my inspiration from specific recipes, she is the queen of throwing things together and creating something marvelous from scratch. What magic lies in the recesses of her little brain? And how can I get some of that magic?

I don’t have answers yet, but I plan on absorbing whatever I can through faithful readings of her recently inaugurated blog. Maybe she will reveal her secrets, who knows.

So anyway: being the blonde tornado of wonder that she is in the kitchen, I just knew I had to record and photograph whatever she was concocting for posterity.

You can thank me after you make this simple, comforting soup. And if you’re thinking “Soup?? But it’s springtime! Salad time! Pasta Primavera time!” thing again. Here in Chicago we’re back down in the 30s, and soup season ain’t over yet.

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

6 rashers bacon

1 large onion, roughly chopped

5 large red potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 leeks, chopped (use the whole leek)

¼ cup light soy sauce

½ tsp ground coriander

6-8 cups water

3-4 cubes beef bouillon

Salt, to taste

½ tsp black pepper (or more, to taste)

Pinch of nutmeg

Half and half or heavy cream, to serve (optional)

Take hold of yon rashers of bacon.

Fry up the bacon in a large soup pot or Dutch oven.

Erica has a handy little bacon press that helps things cook quite uniformly.

Once it’s browned and crispy, remove the bacon and chop it up.

Important note: please fend off any cats that may gather during this time for bacon hand-outs.

While the bacon is frying, you can give a rough chop to the onion:

Peel and roughly chop the potatoes:

Check out Erica’s gorgeous rock. Uh huh.

And chop up those leeks too. Make sure to give them a good all-’round washing, because dirt gets stuck in between the layers, and you don’t want any suspicious crunching happening during the consumption of this soup.

Don’t be afraid of using the dark green parts–they are quite delicious. And I’m sure they’re also good for you in some way.

Remove all but 1 TBS bacon grease from the pot. Over medium high heat, fry the chopped onion for about 5 minutes, until it’s starting to get brown.

Grab the soy sauce and coriander:

Add it to the onions, and simmer for a few minutes.

Add the potato cubes . . .

. . . and the leeks and bacon too.

The bacon adds great flavor to the soup, but it will become limp after simmering for half an hour, so if you want some crunchy bacon on top, set a couple pieces aside and use them for garnishing the soup once you serve it.

Now: pour in enough water to almost cover everything. It’s okay if a couple leeks are peeking out.

This could be anywhere from 6-8 cups of liquid depending on the size of your pot. Give it a stir:

Add in the cubes of beef bouillon and the 1/2 tsp of black pepper, then cover the soup, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender but not mushy or falling apart.

After those 30 minutes, taste! We needed loads more black pepper on our end.

Use a generous hand with that black pepper–we’re looking for a little punch.

Okay, not the most beautiful soup in creation, I’ll give you that. But back to the flavor: add a pinch of nutmeg to the soup, and taste again for seasoning. If you need more depth, add some more beef bouillon and soy sauce.

Time to serve! You have a choice: you can serve it as is . . .

. . . or with a little half and half or heavy cream stirred in.

I’ll let you guess which way I chose to eat mine.

Cream all the way, baby.

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