THE FABULOUSNESS OF FRIED RICE

Fried rice is extreme comfort food. Let's not take it for granted, but make it special.

It’s a life-saver. It can be clean and fresh, or dark and dirty, or a bit of both, like the one below. It can be the whole meal, or just something on the side. It’s comfort food, taken to the extreme.

Fried rice is the most intuitive way to use up left-over rice – but I think we do it an injustice.  It should be elevated and celebrated for its own fabulousness, and not relegated to helping you clean out the fridge of all manner of dodgy things.

It’s worth, therefore, starting from scratch.  Just cook up some rice until al dente, and tip it out onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper to cool. Leave it to dry out for a few hours in the fridge, and the drier grains will absorb flavours and sauces better.

Doing your prep a little ahead of time also makes the actual chucking-in-a-pan process pretty simple.

• If you’re using up left-over roast chicken or steak or salmon, shred it into bite-size pieces first. If it’s already cooked, add it a little later in the cooking process.

• If you’re adding peas, pour boiling water over them in a bowl, leave for 10 seconds, drain and rinse in cold water, and set aside until ready.

• If you’re addicted to lup cheong sausage (hello, Terry), steam two whole sausages, then cool and slice on the diagonal, ready for the fry.

If you want egg, and of course you want egg, there are two easy ways.

One is to make a small omelette ahead of time, and add it towards the end.

The other is to whisk a couple of eggs with sesame oil, salt and white pepper. Then, once the rice and sauces have been tossed together in the pan, move the rice to one side of the pan, pour in the beaten eggs, leave to set until half cooked through, then toss the egg through the rice and serve. I like a bit more presence from the egg than this, so I do an omelette or throw a sliced boiled egg or a fried egg on top.

• Ignore what I said about not using fried rice as a vehicle for left-overs (I did), and go through fridge and cupboard with your ‘fried rice’ radar on - you never know what you might find. I found broccolini, lup cheong sausage and the end of last night’s steak in the fridge, and a can of corn in the cupboard; oh joy.

• Corral all your sauces in one place, ready to go. Soy sauce, obviously. Less obvious but darn good: sambal oelek, doubanjiang fermented chilli bean paste, sweet chilli sauce, chilli oil, oyster sauce, sesame oil. Kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) is mighty.

• Once you start cooking, it should be pretty fast, over high heat. Keep it moving, don’t let it settle and clump.

• Finally, identify something that DOESN’T get chopped up and thrown into the mix, to serve on top. I’ve done cucumber and egg here, but it could be a pile of snow peas, a roast chicken leg, some BBQ roast pork or crisp-skinned salmon.

The end result is not at all traditional, studded with squishy peas and juicy corn and crisped Chinese sausage, and hectic with sauces and warming chilli. Perfect.

Or just pan-fry a fillet of salmon and shred it through.

EXTREME FRIED RICE aka maximum comfort food

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 lup cheong sausages, steamed and sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

• 1 red chilli, finely sliced

• Chicken, beef or salmon, chopped into bite-sized pieces

• 100 g water chestnuts, drained, rinsed and cut in half

• 400 g cooked rice, spread out to dry

• 4 spring onions, chopped

• 125 g (half cup) peas, blanched

• 125 g (half cup) sweetcorn kernels, drained

• 1-egg omelette (or sliced boiled egg for garnish)

• 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari

• 1 tbsp doubanjiang (chilli bean paste)

• 1 tsp sambal oelek

• 1 tsp sesame oil

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wide frying pan or wok and fry the lup cheong, garlic, chilli and whatever protein you are using, tossing until crisp.

Add the remaining oil and add the rice, breaking up any clumps with your fingers as you drop it in.

Add water chestnuts, omelette (if using), sea salt, pepper, and most of the springies, peas, corn, tossing well.

Add the soy sauce, doubanjiang, sambal oelek or your choice of sauces, tossing well.

Keep the heat on high and keep everything moving, tossing not stirring, until the rice is fully coloured.

Spoon onto a warm serving platter, and strew with any remaining peas, corn, and spring onions for colour and freshness. Sliced boiled egg and sliced cucumber wouldn’t go astray.

I always think its nice to SEE the egg rather than have it coat everything, but it’s your call.

Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and opinionated thoughts. Special thanks to Terry for keeping us constantly supplied with lup cheong, and not asking me to add bean sprouts, for once.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s only fair, folks.