spicy fried rice

Posted on July 8th, 2008 by chili queen

At wedding dinners, the second or third to the last course is usually fried rice or hor yip fan, fried glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves. But at the wedding we went to recently, they served spicy fried rice. What a twist!

I was going to give this course a miss like I usually do. I’m not much of a rice person though most people assume that being Chinese, I should love rice by default .

At any rate, my kids convinced me to try this. They say it’s different and it’s tasty. In fact, they liked it so much (my kids? rice?) they made me conjure my own recipe for it. The verdict: “it’s the same as the one we ate that night, Mom”. So I guess I didn’t do too badly, eh .

A simple twist to the same old fried rice. You need:

a large bowl of cooked rice (leftovers would be great)
a handful of medium-sized shrimp, deveined and cut into 2 or 3 smaller pieces
French beans, diced
carrot, diced
fresh red chillies, finely chopped
a tablespoon of chilli powder
garlic, finely chopped

I’m using the ‘simply grab and go’ method of measurement here, just like my grandma used to do it. Proportions depend entirely on your own preference and those you’re cooking for.

I like it hot with lots of veggies but my kids can’t take too much heat and “we hate veggies!”. So I try to strike a happy medium.

First of all, I heat up some cooking oil in my wok and flavor it with the garlic. Then I add the carrot, French beans, chillies and chilli powder and saute till fragrant.

The shrimps go in next. Stir that around for a bit so it absorbs the flavors before you add the rice. Season to taste and you’ve got yourself a one-dish meal with carb, veggies and seafood. Goes great with a hot cup of Chinese tea afterwards.