When I was at Uni I went our with an Chinese/Indonesian girl named Ratna. She was a fantastic cook and I will always remember what she used to say about food - "Rich or poor, all that matters is that you have good food". I agree with this totally - we used to be so broke while at university but we always were able to eat well. It was then that I learned how to turn simple (and cheap) ingredients into really satisfying meals - like chicken livers into a hearty, spicy asian casserole. Unfortunately I haven't been able to recreate that casserole and have lost touch with Ratna in the twelve years uni ended.
Prompted by a recent Sunday Life edition I remembered one dish that Ratna used to make and I used to love - fried rice. Now don't laugh just yet but Ratna used to use canned corned beef (like Hamper) as one of the main ingredients - however in this dinnerlastnight I used chinese sausage instead which is more like whats called beggars rice.
Teamed up with this rice dish is a hot pepper chicken stirfry. The paste that is used for this is Korean and is called Sunchang Gochujang (Hot Pepper Paste). You can get it at most asian grocery stores and comes in a convenient red flip-top container.
Ingredients for the beggars rice were: rice (I used basmati as it is low GI - any long grain rice will do), ginger, garlic, onion, eggs, soy sauce, chinese sausage, sesame oil, peas and spring onion.
The chicken stir fry included: chicken breast, hot pepper paste, zucchini, capsicum and broccoli.
Preparation:
In a rice cooker, cook 4 cups of rice until it is cooked but still holds its shape. While it is cooking, crack four eggs In a bowl, lightly beat and add to a non-stick pan sprayed with some oil over low heat. Cook until the egg is set, place on a chopping board and roughly cut into small pieces.
Thinly slice about a thumb sized ginger root, a couple of garlic segments and chop two brown onions. Slice a couple of chinese sausages and spring onions and put a half a cup of frozen peas in some hot water.
While the rice is still cooking you can prepare the stir fry. Dice the chicken and place in a bowl. Add a one or two teaspoons of hot pepper paste and stir to coat the chicken - you can add a little oil to smooth out the paste if you need to. Heat a little oil in a frypan and fry the chicken. When done put aside. Add to the hot frypan some chopped zucchini, capsicum and broccoli with a little water and cover with a lid. Leave for 3-5minutes until tender add the chicken back to the pan toss and keep warm.
Back to the fried rice, in a wok fry the sausage, garlic, ginger and onion in a little oil. When fragrant, add the cooked rice to the wok and toss to distribute the flavours. Add a good splash of soy sauce and a couple of drops of sesame oil. When hot toss in the drained peas, spring onion and cooked egg. Taste and add more soy sauce if necessary.
Serve the fried rice and chicken stirfry with some fresh chopped coriander.
dinnerlastnight rating: 7/10
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