Thai Fried Rice

Last night I made fried rice for dinner. I like to make it when we have a lot of leftover white rice. Or you can make the rice a day ahead of time and refrigerate it. When making fried rice in the wok, it needs to be cold and dry as well as the vegetables.  Wash and place veggies in colander for a few hours ahead of time.

I like to use what I have on hand and in the summer it is even easier since I can use vegetables and herbs from our garden. This time, I had the bok choy I bought at the farmers market on Saturday, snow peas from our garden and chopped mushrooms.

We have meat eating guys that live here, so I chopped up some leftover ham from the freezer. When adding uncooked meat or chicken to the wok, allow to the meat to sit undisturbed in the wok until it sears. Otherwise, the meat/chicken will stew and the stir-fry will be watery.

Another important tip: Do not overload the wok. Everytime you add something to it, the temperature of the wok goes down.

 Chop ingredients uniformly so they all cook at the same rate. Be sure and have everything prepped and ready to go. I like to place all the ingredients in an assembly line on the counter so I know what comes next.

 Thai Fried Rice


4 cups cold rice ( I use Jasmine rice)
4 T peanut oil ( peanut oil is good for wok cooking)
2 eggs beaten
1 cup of protein, diced ( chopped ham, pork, beef, chicken or shrimp)
2 T soy sauce ( La Choy is gluten-free)
2 T fish sauce (Asian section of grocery store)
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teas chili garlic sauce for heat (Asian section of grocery store)
bok choy,  a handful, chopped
mushrooms, 1/2 cup, chopped
1 small tomato, quartered
4 T cilantro
lime , quartered
freshly ground black pepper


Directions:


Beat eggs in small bowl, season with black pepper
Heat wok to high heat.
Add 1 T oil ( do not add oil to cold wok)
Add egg and cook, stirring around vigorously
Add ham and stir and cook til lightly brown
Add more oil
Add onion and mix with cooked egg and ham
Add garlic and chili
Add bok choy, peas and mushrooms, stir fry until lightly crisp
Add more oil
Add rice and stir and alternately press against side of wok 

Add tomato, soy sauce and fish sauce and stir
Stir in fresh cilantro and serve with lime wedges