Harvest Monday – 13 August 2012 – And tips on making Fried Rice at home

Much smaller harvest this week, mostly because I haven’t ventured outside to pick any of it. I still have tomatoes hanging off mostly-dead plants and other stuff waiting for picking.

2 kilograms Daikon and Swedes

I took these along to some of the other mothers at Playgroup. One of the Japanese mums showed me pictures of how she used the daikon from last week, and she used not only the daikon root, but the leaves and also the skins! I really should have asked for a copy of the photo to post.

2 Sticks of Celery and 3 leaves of Silverbeet

My friend Sarah took these home with her after visiting today.

A few more blueberries

Average of 4 eggs per day

I always forget to account for the eggs in these posts, particularly as they have slowed over winter. The laying rate has picked up a bit, now about 4 per day.

3 Spring Onions

4 Carrots

250g Peas

All of these went into some kimchi fried rice that I made last night. Kimchi is a-mazing in fried rice. It adds a sour and spicy element to a dish that already has a lot of salty-sweetness. I made Kim chi from the wombok harvested a couple of weeks ago, and this batch was a winner. I’ve been eating it as a snack ever since.

Tips on making great fried rice at home

To pad my post this week I might arrogantly share my fried rice making tips, because I think mine is pretty good.

1. Start with leftover rice, cold and dry. Rice that has been left uncovered in the refrigerator for a few hours is ideal. If I’m cooking rice for a particular dish I will often intentionally cook too much so I can make fried rice a day or 2 later. In the photo above I didn’t dry the rice out, so the texture wasn’t as good as it could have been.

2. Use as much oil as you think you can stomach, then double it. Fried rice has an insane amount of oil. It glistens in the restaurant for a reason.

3. Use a super-hot wok or pan. You want the rice to stick a bit and get burnt on to the pan, because those little charred bits add flavour.

4.Use very little in the way of seasonings. I fry the ingredients in vegetable oil and some honey, then add only a little soy sauce and sesame oil right at the end. I used to make the mistake of adding soy sauce until the dish is sufficiently salty, but fried rice really shouldn’t have much soy at all. It will taste wrong if you add too much, and worse – it will steam instead of fry.  Just add a little bit, then add normal salt to obtain sufficient saltiness.

5. Start the process by making an omelette. Once again, heat lots of oil, then beat a few eggs with a dash of light soy sauce and sesame oil. At high heat, pour all of the egg in and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Roll it up in the pan (well before it cooks right through), then roll it around so that the outside of the rolled omelette browns slightly. Remove it from the pan before it is cooked through – you want the inside to stay a bit runny because it will continue to cook on residual heat. Slice the omelette into thick strips and reserve until the end, then add to the fried rice just before serving.

6. Don’t be afraid of using brown rice. I know that the chinese restaurant always uses white rice, but I used brown rice this week and it works just fine.

For more harvests from around the world, visit Daphne’s Dandelions.