Sharing here how my mum cooks fried rice - always with fresh vegetables!😆
Little bit of background
When my siblings and I were little, I recall mum being very creative in the kitchen. She would take pride in her cooking and would often experiment adding different ingredients or cook a particular vegetable in another way - her way. Sometimes I was the guinea pig but mostly the judge/critic/taster of her food creations. This was way before people could get cooking inspirations from the internet and tv. The culture of sharing actual food/meal with family, friends and neighbours was prominent back then as opposed to sharing still photos in today’s modern, fast, and hectic lifestyle.🙊
We used to have visitors almost all the time and the table would be full of a variety of dishes. Further, mum would often cook in large pots for the less privileged. As I grew up, I started helping her in the kitchen and have learnt a lot from my mum. This came in handy when I came to Australia as a student; and the same applies to my brothers.
Now as I sit back and reflect upon mum’s cooking, I have often enjoyed her meals but never documented it or preserved her food creations. Thus, as a little tribute to her hard work, I’m thinking of compiling mum’s cooking here (on the blog) whenever possible. I must also clarify that mother dear is not some renowned chef, but fondly a much loved cook in our family circle. From the warmth of my mum’s kitchen to your table, sharing here how I’ve learnt to make fried rice from my mum.
Ingredients:
- Rice - long grain or jasmine
- Chicken - boneless, skinless chicken cut into small cubes - if you are opting for a chicken fried rice
- Carrots - cut diagonally, long and thin
- Bok choy - thinly cut, mostly the white stalks with some leaf on them
- French beans - cut diagonally
- Onions - cut into quarters and separate the layers
- Capsicum - dice into cubes (use yellow, orange, & red for more colour)
- Celery - remove strings by peeling then cut into small slices
- Soy sauce - Pearl River Bridge Golden Label Superior LIGHT Soy Sauce and Pearl River Bridge Golden Label Superior DARK Soy Sauce. (You can also opt for a soy sauce of your choice)
- Sesame oil
- Olive oil
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Salt to taste
Method:
Step 1 - if adding chicken
- Marinate boneless, skinless chicken cubes with light soy sauce and fresh ginger and garlic paste. Be generous with the paste. The quantity of chicken depends on your liking. One chicken breast or thigh piece would be enough for 2-3 servings of fried rice. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
Step 2 - rice prep
- Cook rice either over stove top or in a rice cooker. (2 cups would make 4-5 servings of fried rice, depending on how much vegetables you add.)
Step 3 - cook the chicken (if using)
- Add little olive oil to a pan and cook the marinated chicken. Add salt to your liking, noting that soy sauce also has a lot of salt. Fry on low to medium heat until the meat loses all liquid and is golden brown in colour.
Step 4 - sauté the vegetables
For this mum often uses an electric frying pan or else a wok.
- In a wok, add 1/2 tspn of olive oil (or lightly spray can olive oil), then add carrots and lightly toss for 2-3 minutes, cooking only until they are tender -crisp (slightly crunchy.) Optional - sprinkle just a tiny amount of salt to enhance the taste, be mindful you’ll be adding soy sauce later which is quite salty. Remove the carrots from the wok.
- In the same wok, repeat the above process with French beans. Spray or drizzle little olive oil as required. This may require a few extra minutes to cook compared to carrots. Like with carrots, adding little salt is optional. Remove the French bean from the wok when slightly crunchy.
- In the same wok, repeat the above process with bok choy. Spray or drizzle little olive oil as required. This may require less cooking time then compared to carrots. Again salt is optional. Remove from the wok when slightly crunchy.
- In the same wok, repeat the above process with onions. The oil coating on the wok may suffice but you can spray or drizzle little olive oil if required. Do not add any salt to this as it will make the onions soggy. Toss this only for a minute or less, removing it from the wok when onions are still crunchy.
- No need to sauté celery and capsicum; at least mum doesn’t.
Step 5 - stir-fry the rice
- Add a tiny bit of oil in a pan (you can use same wok used for veggies or a skillet.)
- Add fresh ginger and garlic paste, sauté it lightly. (This is optional if you are using chicken and already added ample ginger and garlic to it when marinating. Be generous with the paste if preparing vegetable fried rice.)
- Add rice and stir-fry it on medium to low heat for several minutes, this will enhance the taste of otherwise plain boiled rice.
- Once rice is fried, add both light and dark soy sauce. A tiny bit of dark soy sauce will go a long way.
Step 6 - Add cooked chicken (optional)
- If using chicken, combine rice and chicken at this point. You can keep the heat on low flame.
Step 7 - Add cooked vegetables
- Add all the vegetables to rice and switch off the flame.
- Toss well; taste to adjust salt or sauce as per your liking.
- Drizzle some sesame oil right in the end for extra flavour and a nice aroma.
Finally, your fried rice is ready and you can serve it fresh while the vegetables are still crunchy.
This is a meal in itself however, you can have it with cucumber slices, salad of your choice or one of the following sauces on the side - tomato sauce, chilli sauce, thinly sliced onions dipped into Pick Me Up Worcestershire sauce.
Here’s a photo of the cooked veggies, the vegetable fried rice that I made, and mum’s chicken fried rice. You can see that her fried rice does not have any shortcuts as mine (esp. when frying the rice). We enjoyed ours, hope you enjoy yours too!🙏
Apart from celery and capsicum, the rest are cooked vegetables (below).
Vegetable fried rice I made. This has basmati rice as I didn’t have any other white rice at home. Also, it has very minimal light soy sauce and no dark soy sauce.
Finally, below is the chicken fried rice cooked by mum. My son loves it and so do my brothers. Remember, the quantity of the ingredients depend on your liking but if you follow the method/technique and add fresh vegetables, chances are you’ll love it too!😊
