Let's Cook! Fried Rice

So we already have the Small Things series and now I'm starting another one called Let's Cook! which is basically me documenting my cooking of things I expect to make in Japan. A lot of this stuff is going to be really simple because despite the fact that I am actually a good cook I can't be bothered to do fancy stuff. Especially if I'm hungry, which I often am while making these. Again, sorry if the pictures aren't great. This is something I made after getting home from work late so lighting wasn't exactly perfect.

This is me making fried rice. There are a million recipes and I'm probably making it wrong, but this is how I make it.

Step 1: Gather Ingredients

First things first you have to make sure you have everything you need. Fried rice is pretty flexible with what you use. Just use whatever rice you have and whatever vegetables you have. In my case I had some frozen peas, an onion, carrots, yams, a quarter bell pepper, and some California rice (not super sure why it's called that but it's tasty). Also, garlic. Garlic is awesome.

Step 2: Make Your Rice

If I was an organized person I would have this made already, but I'm not so I just make the rice while cutting up the vegetables. The package said put 1 1/4 cups rice, 2 cups water, and 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan, bring to boil, then let simmer for 25 minutes. Do whatever your package of rice says or use some other more sophisticated method besides cover with 3/4ish inch of water and boil for half an hourish and watch the thing. Yeah I'm not very exacting with my cooking. I would write the worst cookbook directions ever XD

Step 3: Chop Vegetables

Chop up your vegetables in whatever way you like, just make sure they are in small enough pieces that they will cook in a reasonable amount of time and that you can actually mix it into the rice well and be able to pick everything up with chopsticks. Just a note here but whenever I cut up onions I just cut them one way so they are long strips because it's a lot easier and I like them that way. This isn't the proper way to do it but that's how I like it and how you will see onions cut up in this series, and I love onions so you will be seeing them a lot.

Step 4: Saute the Vegetables

 

Add a tablespoon or so of an oil of your choice (in my house we use bacon fat, beef fat, coconut oil, or olive oil) and start sauteing the vegetables. Over medium heat is best but you will have to watch them a bit to make sure they don't burn. This should take 10-15 minutes depending on the vegetables you used and how large of pieces they are in (and a million other factors but anyway just cook until they are soft enough for your taste). 

Step 5: Add Frozen Peas and Garlic

At this point you throw in the frozen peas and chopped up garlic (because garlic makes things better) and stir it around a bit. You don't actually have to cook these so wait until everything else is pretty much cooked then turn down the heat and stir these things in.

Step 6: Fuss With Your Rice

Poke at your rice with a fork or spoon to see if it is done. Try some to double check and if it needs more water to cook more throw that in and let it keep steaming.

Step 7: Mix Stuff

Once you have deemed your rice done enough for you dump it all into the vegetable mixture and stir everything around, turning the heat back up a little so you can cook the rice a little more (but only a couple minutes).

Step 8: Admire and Eat

It should look something like this when you are done. Nothing Pinterest worthy but my motto with cooking is "I make food that tastes good, not food that looks good" so this is what you get. Put however much you want into a bowl then grab your chopsticks and soy sauce (or tamari sauce or coconut aminos if you are like me and can't have soy sauce) and dig in. Once you are done eating, the rest of the fried rice should have cooled enough to put in a container and put in the fridge for later.

And there ya go! I have more of this series in the works so stay tuned :D