Japanese Garlic Fried Rice

On days that you feel lazy to do anything, and even whip up a 3 dishes and 1 soup meal for your hubby and yourself, what would you do?  Well, for us, we will do the fried rice option.  

Fast and easy, and you wil get to eat in no time. We had Japanese Garlic Fried Rice during our recent Kyushu vacation and we love how simple, yet yummy their fried rice were. I knew I had to try to cook it when I am when here and so I attempted it.  Not too alike to what we had in Japan but was still yummy because you will not go too wrong with garlic and spring onions fried with rice yeah? :P

A few easy ingredients and you can cook up this fried rice fast.

Japanese Garlic Fried Rice

2 cups of Japanese short grain rice
(rinsed and cook accordingly, then set aside to cool before use. Can cook rice a night before and set into fridge when cooled to be use the next day - loosen rice rice up before use)

1/2 tbsp olive oil + 2 tbsp olive oil

1 or 2 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork

3 whole stalks of Spring onions, cubed

8 garlic, minced

char siew, desired amount, cubed (optional))

1 tsp black pepper powder (or lesser, adjust according to taste)

1 1/2 or 2 tbsp light soy sauce (to taste)


1. Heat 1/2 tbsp oil and then add in beaten egg.  Quick fry egg into scrambled egg form by breaking it up and dish out scrambled egg onto a bowl.

2. Add in 2 tbsp olive oil and let it heat up before adding in minced garlic.  Stir fry till fragrant, do not let it come to brown.

3. On high heat, add in spring onion bits and char siew cubes and stir fry till fragrant and well mixed before adding in cooled rice. Stir well to get all ingredients well mixed with rice.  Finally add scrambled egg.

4. Spoon in desired amount of light soy sauce and stir fry well to coat each rice bits evenly.  Do a taste test at this stage.

5. Stir in black pepper powder evenly, dish out and serve immediately.

Fried Rice with Preserved Olive Vegetable

Fried rice has always been one of my go to food whenever I do not want to eat takeaways and also am too lazy to whip up dishes. Fast and easy to whip up, no excuse not to stir fry some rice at home lor!

Okay... when Mum gives you a small tub of fried anchovies and roasted peanuts, have them as one of the sides for your fried rice and eat it. I also had a scoop of pork floss to go along with and this completed my meal.

Burp.

Be back soon. Hopefully. :)


Fried Rice with Preserved Olive Vegetable

1 bowl cooked rice
2 tbsp Chinese preserved olive vegetable
2 tbsp minced pork
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp light soy sauce
Fried onions, 1/2 tbsp (optional)
1 egg, beaten

1. Cook rice and set aside to let it cool. Loosen rice.
2. Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in frying pan and fry egg, scrambled form till done. Dish out and set aside.

3. Heat 1 tbsp oil. Add in minced garlic and stir fry for awhile. Add in preserved olive vege and minced pork, stir fry til minced pork is half cooked.
4. Add in cooked rice and roughly stir to mix. Add in scrambled egg, fried onions and light soy sauce. Stir fry well till fragrant. Dish out and serve immediately.

Kimchi Fried Rice 韩式泡菜炒饭 (Kimchi Bokkeumbap) 김치볶음밥

I can't wait for my next trip back to Korea again, for their food! Not that I am flying again anytime soon, that is just me daydreaming. Hehe!

Everything Korean is kinda part of my lifestyle now. From food to variety shows to dramas, songs, facial products, make up and so many more. It is why more Korean food is popping up here in this space.

We had just one serving of kimchi rice in Seoul and that left me craving for more I just had to cook them at home.  Might not be the authentic Kimchi Fried Rice but at least it could fill a void in me. Hey at least the kimchi was from Lotte mart okay!

Do you love kimchi like I do?

Okay, I tried to take a shortcut here with a heat-up-and-ready-to-consume soondubu jjigae (spicy tofu stew) which I also lugged back with me from Korea. I just threw in more ingredients of my own and voila, a meal of rice and soup.

Aren't jotting down how I cooked the soup because it was just cutting up side ingredients, emptying soup contents into my Korean ddukbaegi, an earthernware that is traditionally used to cook guk (soup) and jjigae (stew). It was worth the while buying this ddukbaegi back here. I love how it keeps my soup and stew hot till we finish our meal. Nice!

Hubby said he thought he was back in Korea when he sipped one spoonful of the stew.

Now, on to my kimchi rice cooking experience.

Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkeumbap) 김치볶음밥

Recipe by Crazy Korean Cooking

175g Kimchi
2 cups cooked rice
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp Kimchi juice
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

I also used:
1 garlic, minced
1 spring  onion (green onion) – sliced side, thinly (leave sliced white parts for frying, and green part for garnishing)
Drizzle some sesame oil over once Kimchi rice is fried and done

1.        Make rice
Cook rice if you don’t have any. Use Korean rice, also known as short grain rice, sticky rice or Japanese rice. See cooking white rice in a pot andcooking white rice in a rice cooker. For fried rice, make the rice a little drier than usual by adding a little less water. This prevents your Kimchi Fried Rice from becoming too soggy. White rice is usually used for Kimchi Fried Rice, but multigrain or brown rice is okay too. 
2.        Chop kimchi
Chop kimchi into ¼” pieces (about 1 cm) to yield 1½ cup of chopped kimchi (about ⅛ of a whole nappa cabbage kimchi). It’s ideal to use over-fermented (sour) kimchi. You can also add meat or vegetables you like (see tips above). Chop them into the same size as kimchi. 
3.         Butter
In a large pan or wok melt 2 tablespoons of butter on medium heat. (You can add one more spoon if you love butter.) If you are not using butter, you can use vegetable oil but adding some sort of meat to the dish is recommended to enhance the flavor. (Add in minced garlic and white part of spring onion / green onion and fry for awhile)

4.        Saute kimchi
Add chopped kimchi to pan and saute for 5-10 min on medium heat or until kimchi is cooked completely. Add 3 tablespoons of kimchi juice (optional) while cooking. If kimchi starts to stick to the bottom but not cooked through yet, add a little bit of water or more kimchi juice. You can add more kimchi juice if you like it spicy. If you don’t have kimchi juice, you can also add some gochugaru for more spiciness and red color. 
5.        Add rice
Reduce heat to low. Add 2 cups of cooked rice and mix thoroughly. If you are using cold leftover rice, make sure you mix it until there are no cold lumps of rice and all the rice is warmed up. Let it sit on low heat for about 5 min. If you like it crispy on the bottom, you can spread the fried rice thinly over the pan and cook on low heat until the crispy bottoms if formed. 
6.        Season
Taste and season with salt only if necessary. The amount of salt depends on the saltiness of kimchi and how much kimchi juice is used. Add a pinch of black pepper. 
7.        Fry eggs (optional)
In a pan, add a little bit of vegetable oil and fry eggs on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. You can cook one egg for each serving. Sunny side up is great for presentation but you can cook to your preference.
8.        Serve
Serve Kimchi Fried Rice on a plate. Top it with a fried egg. Enjoy! 

Dig in!

Bak Kwa Fried Rice 肉干炒饭

After the 1.5 months of in depth spring cleaning of my house plus baking of CNY goodies, this annual Lunar New Year holiday is over just like that. Back to work today with utmost reluctance! Gosh... I am missing the temporary break from office and work already!

So with the many rounds of steamboat feastings, I guess it is a norm for households to have leftovers for a meal the next day.

Since I have a substantial amount of bak kwa (given to us by my SIL and a colleague), plus some prawns and leftover rice, I decided that bak kwa fried rice will be the one dish I can whip up with the few ingredients.

Easy peasy and our one meal is then settled.

Bak Kwa Fried Rice
Recipe by Noob Cook

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 4 cloves garlic peeled and minced
• 4 shallots peeled and finely chopped (I did not use shallots)
• 400 grams cooked rice (1 cup uncooked rice cooked in 1 cup of water) refrigerated overnight
• 3/4 cup frozen vegetables thawed
• 2 eggs beaten and seasoned with 1/4 tsp light soy sauce and white pepper powder
• 50 grams cooked frozen prawns (shrimps) thawed
• 80 grams bak kwa cut with scissors to small bite-sized squares
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
• 1/4 tsp salt to taste
• white pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in wok, stir fry shallots and garlic until shallots turn translucent.
2. Add rice and thawed vegetables. Stir fry for a minute until well mixed.
3. Pour egg evenly over rice. Stir fry on high heat until the egg is semi dry. Add shrimps and bak kwa; stir fry briefly until the egg is just cooked.
4. Add spring onions and stir though to mix evenly. Season the fried rice with salt and white pepper.

Japanese Chestnut Rice (Kurigohan) 日式栗子饭

It has been awhile since my last trip to Hokkaido and I am definitely missing the food, weather and the beautiful things there. Oh and the onsen! Another trip there?? Hmmm.... fingers crossed! Keke... so to reminisce the good times there, I cooked something Japanese at home. Brief post, less words this time!

Japanese Chestnut Rice (Kurigohan)

Recipe by Annieliciousfood

420g or 2 cups Japanese Rice
52g or 1/4 cups Glutinous Rice
20pcs Small Chestnuts / Kuri (I used ready-to-eat chestnuts in a pack bought from the supermarket)
1 pc Dried Konbu
1 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Mirin
1 tbsp Sake
1 tsp Sugar
583ml or 2 2/3 cup Water

Garnishing option
Some black sesame seeds (I used white sesame instead)
Some spring onions

1. Soak kuri in hot water for about 30 minutes. Crack open the chestnuts and discard the shells. Soak peeled chestnuts in hot water for another 10 minutes. Drain the chestnut in a colander.
Wash and soak dried konbu for 10 minutes or until the konbu is soft. 
2. Wash rice till water turns clear and soak the rice in room temperature water for 30 minutes and then drain it in a colander. 3. The preparation is just like how you usually cook Japanese rice. Not difficult.
4. Put rice, water, soy sauce, mirin, soft konbu, sugar and sake in a rice cooker. Lightly mix them. Place chestnuts on top and start cooking. 

5. When rice is cooked, keep the rice warm in the rice cooker for about 10 minutes before opening the lid. Garnish and serve.

Note:

If you have any leftover chestnut rice, do not throw it away! You may just place leftover into a clean bowl, cover with clingwrap when cooled and refrigerate it. Steam it the next day for about 8min and it's ready to consume.

Claypot Chicken Rice

It was a lazy weekend and I just needed all the rest I could have. Sometimes I just do not have the mood to do anything but just laze around. Because I am a wife to a man, I need to do my part and feed the hubby as well. I still need to cook to fill our stomach, right? Well, not that we cannot eat out, but we just prefer home cooked food so here you are, another lazy one-pot dish from me, the lazy wife.

Claypot Rice 
(Serves 2)

1 cup rice
1 cup water
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster / abalone sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oil
a dash of pepper

Chicken marinate
1 tbsp oyster / abalone sauce
1/2 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp dark soy sauce
a dash of pepper

2 chicken thighs (deskinned, excess fats removed & chop into small pieces)
1 tsp salted fish (finely chopped) - you may add more if you prefer stronger salted fish taste
1/2 pc of a whole Chinese sausage (lup cheong), sliced thinly
4 pcs dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked till soft & halved) - reserve mushroom water for cooking with the rice
2 stalks of cai xin or xiao bai cai

Spring onions or Chinese parsley, for garnishing (optional)


1. Mix chicken with the marinate, cover with clingwrap and leave in fridge to marinate for 2 hours or overnight.
2. Soak rice in the one cup of water in a bowl for 30min to an hour.
3. Mix together light soy sauce, oyster/abalone sauce, dark soy and pepper in a bowl.  Set aside.
4. Heat a tbsp of oil in claypot and stir in salted fish bits and fry till fragrant and golden brown.  Remove just the salted fish and dish onto a small plate.
5. With the leftover oil from the salted fish in the claypot, pour in the soaked rice plus water and add in 2 tbsp of the mushroom water.  Put on claypot lid and let the rice come to a boil.
6. When rice has boiled,  place marinated chicken thighs on top sides of rice, chinese mushrooms, sausages, sprinkle salted fish all over , top with vege and cover.  Lower heat to small and let simmer for 8 to 10min.
7. Pour in prepared sauce all over top of rice and ingredients.  Cover and let it heat for 5min.  Serve immediately.  You may add more dark soy sauce if preferred.

Tomato Rice with Sunny Side Up Egg (Rice Cooker Version)

There has been this tomato rice craze going on in the Facebook & blogsphere for the longest time. I see so many people cooking this and raving about how yummy it is. I hesitated for so long before I finally got my butt up to want to try the tomato rice out.

I did so yesterday for Hubby and my brother who stayed over at our place for the weekend. I had 2 guinea pigs this time :P

Tomato Rice with Sunny Side Up Egg

1 big tomatoes or 2 small tomatoes (washed & stem removed)
2 chicken thighs (de-skinned, remove fats & cut into small pieces)
4 tbsp mixed peas (rinsed & drained)
5 button mushrooms (sliced thinly)
1.5 cup rice (washed to normal rice cooking level)



Seasoning
1.2 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
a dash of pepper

1. Remove about  5 tbsp if using 1 big tomato & 10 tbsp of rice water if using 2 tomatoes. (just make sure that rice water level is about same level as those of the ingredients added) The cooked whole tomato will produce lots of water when mashed, so too much water will cause the rice to be sticky when mixed with the mashed tomato.
2. Place all seasonings into pot and mix well with the rice and water.

3. Spoon in ingredients separately, leaving some space in the centre for tomato.
4. Place the tomato (top facing down) in the centre and put cooker to cook.

5. When rice is cooked & ready to be eaten, mash tomato to release the juice and mix it well with the rice and ingredients.  (You may remove the tomato skin if you want to)  Serve immediately.

Sambal Chicken Fried Rice

Mum has been my sole supplier of any grinded chilli sauce and paste. Chicken rice chilli, sambal belachan, dried shrimp chilli (hae bee hiam) are all stashed away in my freezer. I use them carefully. My mum makes seriously good chilli paste and I am always happy to take it when she makes them and give us some!

There was this one weekend evening that I had no idea what I wanna cook. (Yes yes, sorry for yet another overdue post. Hehe!) I had put no effort into thinking what to prep for dinner that day. Ran through my fridge and gathered some ingredients to come up with this sambal chicken fried rice in the end.  Simple meal but Hubby was sweet enough to say that it was good enough for him.

Sambal Chicken Fried Rice

2 chicken drumsticks or thigh meat, deskinned, deboned and cubed

6 to 8 slices of canned pineapples, cubed

8 button mushrooms, sliced

3 tbsp mixed peas

4 garlics, minced

1 egg, beaten

1.5 cup overnight rice (I did not use overnight rice, I cooked the rice an hour before frying the rice)

1/2 tbsp and 2 tbsp olive oil, separated

Seasonings

1.5 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp sugar

1.5 tbsp sambal chilli (more if desired)

1. Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in wok.

2. Pour in beaten egg and cook, breaking it into smaller pieces. Remove fried egg and set aside.

3. Add in remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and heat up oil.

4. Add in minced garlic and fry till fragrant, add in cubed chicken meat and pineapple cubes and fry till meat is half cooked.

5. Pour in button mushrooms and mixed peas and fry till evenly mixed.

6. Add in rice and loosen rice up with spatula to evenly mix all rice and ingredients together.

7. Add in seasonings and fry till rice and ingredients are evenly coated.

8. Lastly, mix in the fried egg evenly. Serve.