10 mins Schezwan Fried rice
Life is knowingly a tumultous journey, coupled with the perils of unfathomable twists and turns, that one needs to encounter, at various stages. For me the only balm-ing effect through all such incidents is food (hello guys, the list begins with family friends & then aforementioned f-word). While comfort food comes in a lot of forms, rice tops them all. Blame it on my Bengali genetical inheritance may be, who cares!!
Rice is not a grain. Rice isn't a dish. Rice for any Bengali is an emotion, and I am certainly no exception. Time and again mommy has surprised us by rustling up rice dishes, conjuring all the leftovers of the fridge, whenever we wanted something fancy on the table. All so because our childhood wasn't dotted with eateries and take-away's like how it is now. During my growing up years food was a necessity, and wasn't revered as anything fancy or cool. Oh my my!! "Cool" wasn't even the word as it is now. Do I sound old? Nostalgic for sure.
So once I got over my fancy cookbook cooking, and dabbled into some real food shit, I had to rustle up something to satiate the taste-buds of the family & moi. So fried rice like this was born. Purely out of the need to clear up the contents of the fridge (You can believe it if you want to. Lol!). But this one made that evening was purely with the intention of trying out this new spice mix from a certain brand (mentioned in the ingredients list) that I picked up during my monthly grocery store visit.
And here how you can make this in your kitchen. Thank me later! Let's start with the list of ingredients, because mise-en-place is the first thing in oriental kitchens.
1. Smash with the back of your knife & chop up 4 cloves of garlic, as finely as possible. chop up bacon into cubes, mine was store bought. Chop up 2 spring onions, whites and greens separately. Chop up two green chilies thinly as well.
2. Now the important sauce mix: Mix 2 tbsp light soy sauce + 2 tbsp Chinese cooking one + 2 tbsp Daawat Schezwan mix + 1 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp sugar and mix well. Keep aside.
3. Blanch one 1/3 cup sweetcorn and keep aside.
4. I always use fridge cold rice: 3 cups approx, whenever making fried rice of any sorts at home.
5. Break 2 eggs and room temperature in a bowl + 1 tsp salt & whisk well with a fork. Heat 1 tsp oil is a pan and add in the beaten eggs. Make a thin omelette. It is advisable to cut them into big pieces once they are off the hob!
6. To the same pan, add in 1 tbsp vegetable oil, once warm add in 1/3 cup chopped bacon cubes. Fry till they turn golden brown and have rendered all their fat. Take them out & keep aside.
7. Reduce the flame and to this rendered fat & oil mix, add in 3 broken dry red chilies + chopped garlic + whites of spring onions and cook till they soften. Be careful as we do not want anything to burn at all.
8. Time to throw in the fridge cold rice and the blanched sweet corns to the pan and give a good mix. Also add in the sauce mix at this time and stir well, till all the grains have some bit of dark elixir.
9. Add in the chopped omelette chunks and the bacon now and give a good mix. And yes, we are done.
10. Finish it with the zest of half an orange, 1 tsp crushed schezwan peppercons (crushed), 1 tsp butter butter and the chopped spring onion greens. The only thing that needs to be done is eat them hot.
Do not follow my food steps because I eat them straight out of pan, even before serving the guests or family. D I feel guilty about it? Absolutely not. That's like the cook's prize. For me, I do not really need any side dish for this, but feel free to pair it up with any sides you have to really.
And here goes my observations or tips, as always:
1. The flavor that bacon brings to this dish, is unmistakable. So for vegetarians, go ahead and make it without eggs and bacon, as you do not even know the taste of both, if I may say so. #respectforall
2. Feel free to add in more color in the form of bell-peppers of capsicum if they are lying in your fridge, for vegetarians. And for the carnivorous ones, use up any chopped up meat if there at home, just remember to get rid of the gravy sticking to them.
3. Yes, the image of rice that you sees here is a super bland fried rice ( no more details to be shared), which was lying in my fridge. So nothing to feel cheated about, since generally it is always made with plain rice at my home.
4. Also omelette chunks is absolutely a personal choice. If you like it dry scrambles, almost like the consistency of a bhurji, please be my guest.
Guys, please please make this at home. More than anything I would really really like you guys to make this at home: Not only because its a flavor bomb but also simple. In today's busy life the best way to make family & friends feel special with that sprinkling of salt of love, which food delivery apps fail to deliver.
And yes I will be back. Till then, stay safe. Be happy!!
Rice is not a grain. Rice isn't a dish. Rice for any Bengali is an emotion, and I am certainly no exception. Time and again mommy has surprised us by rustling up rice dishes, conjuring all the leftovers of the fridge, whenever we wanted something fancy on the table. All so because our childhood wasn't dotted with eateries and take-away's like how it is now. During my growing up years food was a necessity, and wasn't revered as anything fancy or cool. Oh my my!! "Cool" wasn't even the word as it is now. Do I sound old? Nostalgic for sure.
So once I got over my fancy cookbook cooking, and dabbled into some real food shit, I had to rustle up something to satiate the taste-buds of the family & moi. So fried rice like this was born. Purely out of the need to clear up the contents of the fridge (You can believe it if you want to. Lol!). But this one made that evening was purely with the intention of trying out this new spice mix from a certain brand (mentioned in the ingredients list) that I picked up during my monthly grocery store visit.
And here how you can make this in your kitchen. Thank me later! Let's start with the list of ingredients, because mise-en-place is the first thing in oriental kitchens.
1. Smash with the back of your knife & chop up 4 cloves of garlic, as finely as possible. chop up bacon into cubes, mine was store bought. Chop up 2 spring onions, whites and greens separately. Chop up two green chilies thinly as well.
2. Now the important sauce mix: Mix 2 tbsp light soy sauce + 2 tbsp Chinese cooking one + 2 tbsp Daawat Schezwan mix + 1 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp sugar and mix well. Keep aside.
3. Blanch one 1/3 cup sweetcorn and keep aside.
4. I always use fridge cold rice: 3 cups approx, whenever making fried rice of any sorts at home.
5. Break 2 eggs and room temperature in a bowl + 1 tsp salt & whisk well with a fork. Heat 1 tsp oil is a pan and add in the beaten eggs. Make a thin omelette. It is advisable to cut them into big pieces once they are off the hob!
6. To the same pan, add in 1 tbsp vegetable oil, once warm add in 1/3 cup chopped bacon cubes. Fry till they turn golden brown and have rendered all their fat. Take them out & keep aside.
7. Reduce the flame and to this rendered fat & oil mix, add in 3 broken dry red chilies + chopped garlic + whites of spring onions and cook till they soften. Be careful as we do not want anything to burn at all.
8. Time to throw in the fridge cold rice and the blanched sweet corns to the pan and give a good mix. Also add in the sauce mix at this time and stir well, till all the grains have some bit of dark elixir.
9. Add in the chopped omelette chunks and the bacon now and give a good mix. And yes, we are done.
10. Finish it with the zest of half an orange, 1 tsp crushed schezwan peppercons (crushed), 1 tsp butter butter and the chopped spring onion greens. The only thing that needs to be done is eat them hot.
Do not follow my food steps because I eat them straight out of pan, even before serving the guests or family. D I feel guilty about it? Absolutely not. That's like the cook's prize. For me, I do not really need any side dish for this, but feel free to pair it up with any sides you have to really.
And here goes my observations or tips, as always:
1. The flavor that bacon brings to this dish, is unmistakable. So for vegetarians, go ahead and make it without eggs and bacon, as you do not even know the taste of both, if I may say so. #respectforall
2. Feel free to add in more color in the form of bell-peppers of capsicum if they are lying in your fridge, for vegetarians. And for the carnivorous ones, use up any chopped up meat if there at home, just remember to get rid of the gravy sticking to them.
3. Yes, the image of rice that you sees here is a super bland fried rice ( no more details to be shared), which was lying in my fridge. So nothing to feel cheated about, since generally it is always made with plain rice at my home.
4. Also omelette chunks is absolutely a personal choice. If you like it dry scrambles, almost like the consistency of a bhurji, please be my guest.
Guys, please please make this at home. More than anything I would really really like you guys to make this at home: Not only because its a flavor bomb but also simple. In today's busy life the best way to make family & friends feel special with that sprinkling of salt of love, which food delivery apps fail to deliver.
And yes I will be back. Till then, stay safe. Be happy!!
Wow. Looks yummy. Will try and make it.
ReplyDeleteToo tempting pictures.
ReplyDelete