One of our favorite breakfast is fried rice. Here, there are many ways to cook fried rice - Chinese way, Spanish, original Filipino, Taiwanese, and I think there is also a Japanese version. Fried rice is fried in little oil. But the first number of the program is to fry crushed garlic that would give the initial flavor to rice. When the garlic is brown, mix the rice and pour in a half tablespoon of soy sauce. You can include Chinese sausage and/or fried scrambled egg. And for more flavor, you can also add onion or spring onion. Or maybe bits of spam or you have leftover bacon. The combination is almost limitless.
You're right it is limitless for all the ingredients to put in fried rice! Fried rice is delicious and helps to clean up the frig too. I put all kinds of ingredients that's usually left over and use older rice so I don't waste anything. I like to top fried rice with green onions. I love green onions on almost everything. Fried rice is great when you have a little of everything that tastes good with rice. Using older rice that's a bit dehydrated from reheating is great for fried rice. I try to use healthier oils to watch cholesterol and carbs intake. One other good thing about fried rice is you can eat it anytime of day & it fills you up! Love fried rice.
I absolutely love fried rice, but I couldn't eat it for breakfast, unless I were eating breakfast in the middle of the night, after being out late, or getting a craving. My stomach is funny, and I have to be careful when I eat things cooked in oil or butter, no matter how small of an amount. I ran out of my Pam Spray (to lightly grease the pan, so food doesn't stick) this week, and used butter instead. I got very queasy on those two days, so I know that was the culprit. Thankfully, my delivery arrived, so I'm good for a while on the Pam Spray. I haven't made fried rice in a while. I'll have to pick up some ingredients on my next shopping trip. I usually add in some egg, chicken tenders or other meat or shrimp, as well as some veggies. I've never used the baby corn, but I think I'll add that next time, as well.
We have made fried rice before; but not very often. I usually use rice when I am making Spanish rice, or something where it is mixed in with other ingredients. I do have a small rice cooker that I got at the thrift store, and we will probably use more rice now that cooler weather is coming and we eat more cooked foods. I have to eat mainly anti-inflammatory foods, or my RA will have me hurting and creeping through the house; so potatoes, which are a very inflammatory food, are defintely off of the food list for me. Usually, when I make potatoes, I make a regular one for Bobby and a sweet potato for myself. However, rice is not an inflammatory food like a potato is; so I should be able to have that instead, at least in limited amount. We will probably have the rice steamed rather than fried, unless I am stirfrying veggies and add the rice in with that.
I try to avoid eating anything fried. I love Indian food, which inevitably involves rice, Basmati is my favourite. Brown basmati rice is gorgeous, though it takes a good bit longer to cook than white, Most of the rice I eat, therefore, is boiled.
One thing about breakfast in the Philippines - urban people normally eat bread and people in the rural area eat rice. The rice eaters in the provinces say they need rice in the morning so they can endure the hard work in the farm. But for bread eaters in the urban area, I don't see any reason, maybe it is just traditional that we eat bread in the morning. By the way, pandesal is the most common morning bread. We inherited the recipe from the Spanish bakers. As for fried rice, the middle class in the urban region have it for breakfast. Again, I have no explanation for this except maybe the urban people (like us) are trying to be thrifty in a way not to waste the leftover rice from dinner. But here at home, we deliberately cook more for dinner when we plan to have fried rice on the next morning.
That's good to know (that rice isn't as inflammation-inducing, I was afraid you were going to say it was), since I also have chronic inflammation. I tend to opt for sweet potatoes over regular ones, although i will have an occasional white or red potato. I am of Irish heritage, after all, so I can't do without them entirely. I don't have a rice cooker. I suppose someday I will invest in one, but for now, I just cook it in a pot. I don't make the fried rice with fresh rice, because it seems to come out better after it's been sitting a few days. I set aside part of the batch of rice, so I can eat it freshly cooked, and let the rest sit in the fridge for a day or two, until I'm ready to make my fried rice. I love using up extra vegetables by tossing them into the wok with the fried rice mixture.
@Diane Lane , the rice cooker is awesome, it makes perfect rice every time. Well, if you are proficient at cooking rice, maybe yours turns out better than mine always did ? I hate cooking anyway, and it seemed like rice was one of those things that I either got too hot, and it stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to soak it to get the rice off of the bottom, or I didn't use enough heat, and it either wasn't completely done, or it was done but runny. With the rice cooker, you just add the rice, the amount of water it says and a little extra if it is brown rice, put the lid on and forget about it. Once the rice is done, the rice cooker keeps it at perfect temp until you are ready to eat it. The rice cooker that I got looks like a small crock pot, and it just has an on-off button on the front so you can tell if it is cooking or just keeping it warm. They make larger ones for families; but for just the two of us this size is perfect for one meal and one leftover dish with rice. I got mine at the thrift store, so it only cost me a couple of dollars, and I really like it. For a non rice-cooking person like me, it is a lifesaver.
@Yvonne Smith Mine usually does come out nice. I add in a little salt and olive oil, as well. Occasionally, I will get preoccupied, and forget about it, despite the timer I'll carry around with me, and it will stick to the bottom of the pan. I will have to keep my eyes open for a rice cooker. Maybe I'll find one I can afford one of these days, and then I could use that when I'm having a fibro fog day, or just don't want to worry about forgetting, and it sticking. I like making extra, so I can set aside a good amount for fried rice, and I sometimes mix it in with the cat food, as well. Plain rice helps soothe my stomach when it's acting up also, so it's something I will always make use of, and I'd probably buy a larger sized rice cooker.
I have tried to make my own fried rice but not very successfully. I purchase fried rice when I go to the local asian restaurant for food. If I have left over rice I will eat it for breakfast if I am hungry. I also eat white rice for breakfast when we have some saved in the refrig.
I just made up a nice big batch last night, so I can cook some fried rice, probably tomorrow. I'm debating on which type I want to make. I'm going back and forth between shrimp fried rice (depending on whether I get to the store before then, and the price of shrimp) and this one, which I've been coveting for a long time: http://damndelicious.net/2014/06/25/pineapple-fried-rice/
We love fried rice at my house. And it is a great way to use up bits of leftover meat and vegies in the fridge. I always add scrambled eggs to my fried rice, and I like bean sprouts in my fried rice and have found a grocery store just up the street from me that sells fresh bean sprouts in large bags. They are so much better than the canned ones or the ones I sometimes find in my Kroger. My grandson and daughter love fried rice so it is a great quick meal to cook.
I always put eggs in mine, as well. I rarely get bean sprouts, but I do like them. I think the scares about them over the past few years have turned me off from them, because I haven't bought any lately, but they really do add to the fried rice. I use my leftovers in the fried rices, as well, and add water chestnuts when I have them.
Fried rice was our breakfast this morning. It is the ordinary fried rice that is leftover rice fried with brown garlic in the pan. The partner of our fried rice was longanisa, that pork sausage made by folks in the nearby provinces. It boiled in the pan before frying. And to add a side dish, I whipped a tomato and onion omelet. It was a nice and heavy breakfast. For a quantity of rice that is good for 4, only a tablespoon of cooking oil is used and about 3 pieces of crushed garlic. When the garlic is brown, that's the time to put in the rice. Unlike others who sprinkle salt on the rice while being fried, we don't do that because I have kidney stones. By the way, some others use margarine in lieu of cooking oil. They say that margarine is a healthy ingredient.