Egg Fried Rice with Sausage

Don't feel bad if you are going to use the leftover rice and trying to serve a decent meal for your family.  Check your refrigerator and pantry, you might still find many ingredients that you can use to make fried rice that's good enough as a main dish.  It can be not only color-appealing but also nutrition-balanced.  Besides, the secret to good fried rice is starting with cold cooked grains.  If you don't have leftover rice, then cooked rice needs to be planned in advance.

I like to incorporate ingredients in my fried rice with as many colors of vegetable as possible (red, yellow, black, white or green).  And if it's for main dish, I would include one kind of meat (sausage, pork, chicken, ham) or shrimps.

Ingredients (2 servings):

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup soaked and diced dried mushrooms (or fresh mushrooms) (Tip 1)

3/4 cup diced carrots
1/3 cup diced onion

1/2 cup frozen peas (or chopped green onions)

1 cup diced Taiwanese sausages (can substitute with pork, chicken, ham or hot dog) (Tip 2)

4 cups cooked rice (long grain or brown rice)

cooking oil
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Bring 1-1/2 tablespoons oil to hot, add eggs and stir-fry to make scrambled eggs.  Break them up into smaller pieces with spatula and remove.
2. Bring another 3 tablespoons oil to medium high, stir-fry dried mushrooms until they are lightly browned and fragrant, season with dash of salt, push them to side of wok.
3. Stir-fry carrots, add dash of salt, cook until soft, also push them to side of wok.
4. Add sausages and stir-fry until cooked, push them to side of wok.
5. Stir-fry onions until they are transparent, then mix all the ingredients in wok, add green peas and dash of salt, stir-fry until all ingredients are cooked and soft (Tip 3).
6. Lower the temperature to low heat, add cooked rice,  Stir-fry rice with other ingredients in wok, break up big chunks of cold rice with spatula but don't press them too hard.  Add scrambled eggs pieces.  Season with more salt (just enough for the rice), mix well and serve.


Tip 1: The sequence of adding vegetables is depends on the cooking time needed for each different kind of vegetable.  The one that's hard to cook will need to go in first.  If fresh mushrooms are used, they go in after the onions.


Tip 2: If raw meat or shrimps are used, marinate (soy sauce for meat/salt and cooking wine for shrimps) and stir-fry them first, remove before cooking other vegetables.


Tip 3: Make sure there's still some extra oil in vegetables before adding rice.

An Easy Hot Dish in 15 Minutes - Ground Pork with Kernel Corn

Looking for a quick-and-easy dish that no washing and no cutting works (except chopping the green onions) are needed? Then this is the one that doesn't need much preparation work except opening a can of Whole Kernel Corn.  How hard can that be?  You can have this tasty dish served in 10 minutes, and guess what?  Everybody would love it.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. ground pork
15-1/4 oz. can whole kernel corn, water drained
4 dried red peppers
1 chopped green onion (optional)

Seasonings:
2 tablespoons oil
1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon wine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water

Directions:
1. Heat the oil to hot in wok, stir-fry the dried red peppers (Tip 1) until they turn black.
2. Add ground pork and stir-fry until cooked.  Add soy sauce, sugar, wine, then bring to boil; reduce heat to medium, cover and cook 3 minutes.
3. Add kernel corns, water and salt, stir-fry to mix well, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with green onions, mix, remove and serve.

Tip 1: If the dried red peppers are cook whole, the spiciness is mild.  If a spicier taste is preferred, cut one, or two, or all red peppers in half before stir-fry them, then it can be a very spicy hot dish.

Simple Version of Dry Cooked Green Beans

Dry Cooked Green Beans (亁煸四季豆 Gan-Bian-Si-Ji-Dou) was originated from Western China (like Sichuan or Hunan foods).  Normally it cooked with a small quantity of ground pork, heavy seasonings and using lots of oil to deep fry the green beans first.  Since small quantity of ground pork is not always available, and also for a healthier concern, I developed this simply version of Dry Cooked Green Beans.  This dish is not only easy to cook, it would also please the kids who normally don't care for much vegetables.

Ingredients:
1. 1 lb. green beans
2. 1-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
3. oil
4. salt

Directions:
1. Remove ends and veins on both sides of green beans, break them into 1-1/2" to 2-1/2" long sections.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil to hot, cook the green beans with constant stirring to avoid burning (Tip 1).  Stir-fry the green beans until they turn soft (show wrinkles in appearance) and light brown in color, add salt (Tip 2), lower the heat to medium high and continue to sir-fry briefly.  Push green beans to one side of the wok, add 1 tablespoon oil and stir-fry minced garlic until fragrant.  Mix green beans and garlic, remove and serve.

Tip 1: 1 tablespoon water can be added when necessary to avoid burning, but don't add too early in this cooking process, otherwise it will take longer for the green beans to turn soft and brown.
Tips 2: Sprinkle a thin layer of salt first.  Taste and add salt if needed after mixing with garlic.

Turn Leftovers to a Quick and Easy Lunch - Fried Tortillas

With some Shredded Pork with Bean Sauce and some home-made Flour Tortillas leftovers from the day before, I add some more ingredients and serve a quick and easy lunch (for two) on the next day - Fried Tortillas (Chao-Bing).


Ingredients:
1. 1-1/2 cups Shredded Pork with Bean Sauce
2. 12 small flour tortillas cut in 1/3" x 2" strips

3. 1 cup green beans diagonally cut in 1-1/2" sections
4. 1 carrot peeled and cut in strips
5. 3/4 cup shredded green onions
6. 2 eggs
7. 1/2 cup chicken broth
8. cooking oil
9. salt

Directions:
1. Beat eggs.  Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a skillet until medium high, pour 1/2 beaten eggs into skillet, tilt to coat the bottom evenly.  Cook egg mixture until set on underside but still slightly wet on top.  Flip the egg sheet and cook until the other side is set as well.  Make another egg sheet in same manner.
2. Cut the egg sheets into 1/3" x 2" strips.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil to hot, stir-fry green beans for 30 seconds and push them to one side of the wok, add carrots to stir-fry for another 1 minute.  Mix green beans and carrots and season with dash of salt.  Add cooked shredded pork and mix well.  Add chicken broth and bring it to boil, then add tortilla strips,green onions and egg strips, mix well.

The Fried Tortillas was served with a bowl of clear soup made with chicken broth, Bok Choy and sliced mushroom.

A Dish for Meat-Lover: Shredded Pork with Bean Sauce

Thanks to the big bunch of green onions freshly cut from my friend's vegetable garden, today I am cooking this dish to make good use of them.  This dish will definitely please a meat-lover and it is fun to eat with home-made flour tortillas (it's called dan-bing in Chinese).

Ingredients for Shredded Pork with Bean Sauce:
1. 1 lb. pork tenderloin
2. 1-1/2 cups shredded green onions
3. 1 cup cooking oil

Marinade for pork:
1. 1 tablespoon soy sauce
2. 1 tablespoon wine
3. 1 tablespoon cornstarch
4. 1 tablespoon water

Sauce:
1. 2 tablespoons sweet bean sauce (Tip 1)
2. 2 teapoons sugar
3. 1 tablespoon water

Directions:
1. Cut the pork in thin strips.  Marinate it with the soy sauce and wine for 30 minutes.

2. Place the shredded green onions (very thin and long strips) on the serving plate.
3  Add the mixture of cornstarch and water to pork before cooking and mix them well (Tip 2).
4. Heat the oil to high.  Take out about one tablespoon of hot oil, mix it well with the pork (Tip 3).  Stir fry the pork until cooked; remove and leave the extra oil in the wok.
5. Use remaining oil to stir-fry the mixed sauce at medium temperature until fragrant, add the pork and mix well for about 3 minutes.  Remove and serve on top of the shredded green onions.

Tip 1: Combination of Sweet Bean Sauce and Bean Sauce (half/half) may be substituted here for a less sweet taste.
Tip 2: Add cornstarch to the meat just right before cooking so the meat won't get too sticky.
Tip 3: Add the hot oil to the marinated meat before frying will not only tenderize the meat, it will also separate meat easily during stir-frying.


Ingredients for Flour Tortillas (24 servings):
1. 3 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 cup hot water (close to boiling)
3. 1/2 cup cold water

Directions for Flour Tortillas:
1. Mix the hot water with flour in a mixing bowl with a fork or chopsticks.
2. Wait until the flour is cool enough to touch, gradually add in the cold water and knead it with hands.
3. Knead the dough until it forms a soft and smooth round dough.
4. Coat the surface of the dough with some oil and keep the dough in a sealed plastic bag for 15 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 24 pieces and make them into smaller round doughs.

6. Pair every two round doughs, press them down with palms, brush oil on one side of each dough.  Press the sides with oil facing each together and press it down to form a flat disk.
7. Place the flat dough on a slightly floured surface, and roll into a 6" (about 15 cm) circle.
8. Heat the skillet to medium, place the flatten circle in the skillet.  Heat about half minute or until the dough is turning transparent, flip the dough, continue to heat until both sides turn slightly brown.  Press down the air pockets with spatula if there's any.
9. Remove the tortilla from skillet (Tip 4), peel it apart into two pieces.  Place tortillas on a plate with the sides in the center facing up.  Cover these tortillas with a clean cloth before serving.

Tip 4: Sprinkle few drops of cold water in the skillet before removing the tortilla.  This will make the tortilla taste softer.

Chinese Cold Noodles with Peanut-Sesame Paste and Cucumbers

This dish is traditionally made with roasted sesame paste which is sold in a jar, but peanut butter can be substituted here for good reasons and great results.  Not only does it taste light and less greasy, it also compliments the freshness when served with fresh summer vegetables - cucumbers and bean sprouts.

Ingredients (4 servings):
1. 2 chicken quarters or 4 chicken thighs.
2. 2 cups shredded cucumbers (English cucumber or Japanese cucumber, neither one needs to be peeled or seeded).
3. 240 g bean sprouts (about a small handful for each serving), with roots removed, washed clean.
4. 4 servings Chinese wheat noodles or Japanese somen noodles.
Seasonings for chicken:
1. 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2. 1 tablespoon rice wine
3. 1 tablespoon red peppercorns (optional)
Ingredients for peanut-sesame paste:
1. 4 tablespoons peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
2. 1 cup lukewarm water
3. 4 tablespoons sesame oil
4. 1 tablespoon hot sesame oil
5. 1 tablespoon soy sauce
6. 1/2 teaspoon salt
7. 1 to 2 table spoons minced garlic
Directions:
1. Rub the seasonings, salt, rice wine and red peppercorns, on to the chicken.  Keep it in fridge for at least half day.
2. Wipe off the red peppercorns from the chickens. Fully cook the chickens with a steamer (the juice comes out clear when a chopstick is inserted).
3. Shred the chicken meat when they have completely cooled off.
4. Boil water in a deep pot.  Cook the bean sprouts for 30 seconds.  Drain the bean sprouts from the boiling water, and then soak them in a pot of ice cold water.  Once they are completely cool, drain them and keep them in the fridge before serving.
5. Start making the paste by gradually adding the lukewarm water into the peanut butter.  Just add few table spoons of water each time and mix well before next adding.  Stop adding water once the mixture is easy to stir with the spoon.  Then add in other listed ingredients for the paste.  Adjust the quantities based on your preference.
6. Boil the noodles in a deep pot (somen noodles only need to boil for 2 to 3 minutes).  Drain the boiling water, soak the noodles in cold water or rinse them with cold tap water until they're completely cool.  Drain them well.
7. Serve the noodles topped with bean sprouts, chicken and cucumbers shredded.