Continuing our occasional series on quick and easy midweek dinners, here’s one for the Asian storecupboard.
A healthy fallback, a quick and delicious dinner, and a good way of using what you have: stir-fries to the rescue. Lately I’ve been experimenting with some very simple variations, and I’ve hit on a few winners.
Egg Fried Rice with Spinach and Pak Choi
Serves four
Pak choi, surprisingly, grows extremely well in Irish weather and is so delicious in any Chinese-style dish. You could vary this recipe in many ways – perhaps omitting the spinach or adding beanspouts and asparagus – but I’d definitely recommend keeping the egg.
Rice can be tricky to cook, so I follow as much of Delia’s fool-proof instructions as possible. Stirring the rice, it seems, is the path to destruction: this will make it starchy and sticky.
Do you have an amazing stir-fry recipe?
Ingredients
- About 250g basmati or non-stick rice, covered with 500ml salted water
- 1 pak choi, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, chopped
- 1 inch ginger, finely chopped
- 1 red chilli (optional), chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten with a dash of water and a dash of milk
- A handful of frozen peas
- 150g spinach, washed
- Soy sauce, to taste
- A tablespoon of mirin or rice wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar as a substitute)
- Sesame or sunflower oil
Method
- Boil the rice according to the packet instructions, or use old leftover rice. Separate the grains using your fingers or a fork, this will prevent the rice sticking.
- Make an omelette from the beaten egg: pour some sesame oil or sunflower oil in a pan, heat, and add the egg. It will cook in about a minute. Remove from the pan and chop roughly.
- Add the onions to the pan and fry in sesame/ sunflower oil for 2 minutes, stirring.
- Add the garlic, ginger and chilli, and stir for another minute
- Add the spinach. When it is beginning to wilt, add the pak choi, peas, soy sauce and mirin, and cook for a minute.
- Tip the drained rice into the pan and stir well for another 2-3 minutes.
- Serve: there, a foolproof stir fry using fridge and (mostly) store cupboard ingredients
Wednesday 7 April, 2010 at 4:43 pm
mmmm I love pak choi, it holds its flavour really well when it’s cooked.
Thursday 8 April, 2010 at 7:07 am
I’m growing pak choi at the moment… i love it…
Monday 12 April, 2010 at 1:14 pm
What happens to the eggs after they’re taken off the pan and chopped??
Monday 12 April, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Ah sorry, tip them back into the final mix