Egg Fried Rice

I am feeling like making Daal Puri...with yummy spicy chickpeas curry. J The inspiration came from the Food Network, where I saw a chef making a giant puri capable of feeding and satisfying two people. Dal puri is basically a spiced yellow lentils stuffed tortillas, which are then deep fried or sautéed in some oil. Then she made the chickpeas curry. The process was very different from making Chole and a little similar to making gughni. The recipe of course included the regular spices like paprika, cumin and curry powder...which I guess is a special blend of garam masalas. What intrigued me most was her abundant use of black peppers in the recipe, and the way she prepared the chickpeas. The preparation itself was so elaborate that the curry was destined to be tasty. I am sure I am going to try this recipe soon.

Egg Fried Rice is most probably the simplest variety among the fried rice. The lovable fact about egg fried rice is that, it can be made with leftover rice, eggs, soy sauce, salt and pepper. As you can see you can find these ingredients anytime in the kitchen. I like to use oyster sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil into my fried rice as well...as they are always present in my pantry. Feel free to wave them out...as eggs and soy sauce are enough to get the burst of flavours into the dish.

I have used flat leaf parsley in place of spring onions...but the later is more appropriate for this dish.

Egg Fried Rice

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice (Either Basmati / Thai Jasmine rice)

4 large eggs

1 large onion – sliced

1 capsicum – chopped

2 green / red chillies – roughly chopped

2 Spring onions - chopped

4-6 cloves of garlic – paste

1 inch stick of ginger – chopped

2 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp oyster sauce (optional)

1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

1 tsp fish sauce (optional)

1 tbsp oil

Salt & pepper (use crushed black peppercorns rather that ready made black pepper)

Method:

Wash the rice till clear water runs out. After that soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, cook the rice with 5-6 cups of water until its properly cooked, i.e when squished with the thumb the rice grain turns into a paste. Be careful not to overcook the rice, or the fried rice will not be fluffy.

Once done, drain the rice starch and put the cooked rice in the fridge for 30-45 minutes. This will help to dry the excess moisture from the rice. You can also use leftover or 1day old rice, which are great to cook any fried rice.

Take a skillet or tawa and heat 2 tsp oil in it. Break and whisk the eggs in a cup. Mix in little salt and pepper. Pour the whisked eggs into the tawa / skillet. Let the omelette firm up. It will take some 1 to 1 and ½ minute. Take a spatula and torn the omelette into small pieces and make scrambled eggs. Sauté them for a minute, until they get cooked and become yellow in colour properly. Once done, take them out of the skillet and keep in a separate bowl.

Heat the rest of the oil in a wok / kadai and add in the garlic paste. Put the flame on highest and make sure that the wok / kadai is piping hot. You should be able to see the smoke coming from it. If the wok or kadai is not properly heated, your veggies and rice will turn soggy rather than becoming crisp and crunchy.

 Sauté till the garlic starts to brown and add in the sliced onions.

Sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the onions become translucent. Then add in the chopped capsicum and chopped ginger.

Sauté those capsicums for 2-3 minutes. The capsicum should be a little soft from outside but should retain their crispy and crunchy texture from inside.

In the mean time, in a bowl mix in all the sauces i.e. light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil.

Pour this sauce into the sautéed onion and capsicum.  Add in the already cooked scrambled eggs.

Give a good stir and add the cooked rice. Add the chopped green / red chillies, little salt and pepper and mix in. Make sure that each and every rice grain gets properly coated with the sauces. If your wok is properly heated and if you continue stirring then your rice will not stick to the bottom of the wok or kadai.

Once you see that all the rice is properly coated with the sauced and mixed with the veggies and eggs, put off the flame.

Taste and adjust the salt. Sprinkle the chopped spring onions on top and serve hot with garlic prawns or garlic chicken or chilli chicken or chicken Manchurian.