Dicko's Egg Fried Rice
The best leftover, ingredient gobbling dish there is. Perfect for lunches the day after you've cooked too much rice. Customise as your heart desires — there's no such thing as a gospel egg fried rice.
Equipment
- Large Wok (or a frying pan, but a wok is preferable | also, woks don't work as well on electric stoves)
- Chef's Knife
- Wooden Spoon x2 (or another spatula to break up the rice)
- Microplane (optional)
Ingredients
- A healthy amount of leftover refrigerated cooked rice (about 230g/1.5 cups)
- 3-4 eggs, lightly beaten
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 3-5 mushrooms, sliced (shitake ideally, but any will do)
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1 chili pepper (cayenne, jalapeño, habanero, etc.), (seeded and diced)
- A handful of sugar snap peas
- 4-5 garlic cloves, crushed and finely minced
- 1.5 in knob ginger root, peeled and grated over a microplane (or finely minced)
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced (most to be cooked but leave some for garnish)
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp Chinese rice vinegar
- cooking oil Something with a high smoke point, so veggie or sunflower oil, or leftover grease from the night before
- A pinch of chilli flakes
- sriracha To taste once served
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds optional
Instructions
- Crack the eggs and beat with a whisk or fork until decently mixed. Sprinkle the chili flakes if you're using them.
- Add the oil in your wok and put it over high heat. When hot, dump the battered eggs into the wok. You must stir constantly and stalwartly unless you want burnt eggs. At this high heat, the eggs will fluff up a bit more. Keep stirring for 2-3 mins; stop only when there is no more liquid egg. At which point, take the wok off the flame and scoop out the jostled eggs into a bowl and set aside.
- Add more oil if you need to (I always do) and heat back up over high. When it's hot, throw in the mushrooms and onions. Cook until onions become translucent, maybe even with a little browning, about 3-4 mins. (Now's the time to practice your wok-flipping. Work the wok back and forth over the flame to keep the ingredients moving).
- Add the peppers, chilis, and snap peas (and any other veggie you're using like carrots or zucchini ["courgettes" as the English and French call them], frozen peas, i.a.) now. And cook for 3-5 mins, until desired consistency is reached.
- Add the garlic and ginger and mix it thoroughly with the other ingredients for 1 min.
- Now add the rice. I dump it directly in from the container into the wok then proceed to attack it with a wooden spoon (right hand) and wide spatula (left hand). It's a fitful process, as you're stirring and breaking up rice clumps at the same time. Do it quickly. Once the rice is de-clumped, add soy sauce, mirin, oyster sauce, and Chinese rice vinegar, and some of the green onions.
- Keep stirring, mixing, and moving the wok. You'll need to have some sort of stirring device to ensure the rice isn't sticking to the wok and burning. Do this for another 3-5 mins. Once everything is hot and all the ingredients are well acquainted, remove wok from the hob and serve immediately. Garnish with remaining green onions and add srirracha and soy sauce to taste.
Notes
You'll want to cook the eggs first and remove them before starting with the onions, etc.. I've tried adding eggs at different points throughout the cooking process and this works the best. If you add them after other ingredients are cooking, the eggs sort of dissipate over everything and you don't get discrete bits of egg, just a film of egginess diffused throughout.