Tag Archives: easy

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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Easy Asian Beef & Noodle Soup

One more recipe before I unleash the first of the Regency ball pictures–and it’s a good one. Drawing from my usual resource, this recipe is a fantastic little find. Inspired by Vietnamese Pho, this brothy soup is chock full of tasty tidbits, and the little bit of sriracha stirred in at the end is absolutely essential in taking it from a basic broth flavor to something satisfyingly complex and interesting. Picking out the pieces of steak, bok choy and mushrooms with a pair of chopsticks is (dare I say) really fun, and I will definitely be coming back to this soup. Thanks Mary Helen for creating such a great recipe!

It makes 4 generous servings, but could be stretched to 5, especially with extra noodles.

Let’s get down with our inner Asian side.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

14 oz thin rice noodles

6 cups beef stock

3 TBS dark soy sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

3 TBS peanut oil

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic

1 large white onion, minced

3 baby bok choy, chopped

1 lb NY strip steak, sliced thinly

1 bunch scallions

1 TBS sesame oil

1/3 cup shredded basil

2-4 tsp sriracha, to taste

1 tsp chicken bouillon, to taste

1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste

Any thin noodle would work, but I used these. They had been hanging out in my fridge for a few months and it was time to put them to good use.

Cook the noodles according to the package directions. My fresh noodles just needed a couple minutes in hot water.

Drain them and set them aside.

Here are the rest of ingredients that will be appearing on scene today:

Give the ginger a rough grate–a microplane zester works wonders in a situation like this.

In a large pot, combine the beef stock, ginger, and soy sauce . . .

. . . and bring it to a simmer.

In the meantime, give the onion a nice mince.

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet and brown half of the onion, the garlic, and the mushrooms. Give the mushrooms a nice go-’round with some salt and pepper.

Within a few minutes, they will become brown and beautiful.

Add them to the soup–but only after sneaking a taste!

While the mushrooms were sizzlin’, I gave the bok choy a rough chop.

Bok choy is such a beautiful vegetable–the slices look like flowers, don’t you think?

Brown the rest of the onion and the bok choy with a little more oil if necessary . . .

. . . and then add them to the soup as well.

Slice the steak thinly and on the diagonal.

I was a little concerned with the amount of fat in the steak, but it turned the pieces into melt-in-your-mouth morsels of glory.

Add the strips to the soup.

Thank you, New York Strip. Thank you, cow. Thank you, marbling.

The meat should cook within a couple minutes; stir in the sriracha to taste.

Don’t fear the sriracha! It will add a lovely depth, so please don’t skip it–you can adjust to your spiciness level, but the flavor it adds is not to be missed.

Plus, if you skip the sriracha I might start hyperventilating, and no one wants that.

Now this is very important: taste!!

Add the chicken bouillon if you need a little more flavor (I did), and sriracha if you want a little more oomph.

Give the scallions a quick chop.

And do a quick mince on the basil.

Stir in the scallions and sesame oil . . .

. . . add the basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Lovely! Give it another taste just to double check the seasoning. If you underseason the soup it will be very ‘meh.’ If it’s tasting thin, that can easily be changed with more sriracha and/or chicken or beef bouillon. Yes, I know I’m beating a dead horse–but seasoning things correctly (correctly = to your taste) is a powerful thing. It has transformational magic.

Divide the noodles into bowls and pour the hot soup over them.

Serve with both chopsticks and a soup spoon.

Enjoy!

It may splatter some as you scoop the noodles out of the liquid, so diners beware!

Am I allowed to just fish for the pieces of New York strip and eat them? All? One by one?

No? Next time I might add 8 lbs of steak instead of just 1 lb. Everybody to the limit.

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