Never Be Limited When Making a Fried Rice Feast
Making fried rice should be easy and fast, since it’s just gradually adding ingredients and mixing them around. However, I have to remember to select a cooking vessel that has enough room to hold and mix everything in.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
I had extra ground pork to use up and found a great recipe for it!
Inspiring Recipe
The recipe that I spotted was 15-Minute Pork Fried Rice from a website called Omnivore’s Cookbook. This was the same site that I referenced to cook Hainanese chicken rice and Peking chicken.
First Try
After buying some green onions, I was ready to focus on making fried rice.
Ingredients to Use
With 1.66 pounds of ground pork, I more than tripled the majority of the remaining ingredients and used the following:
- 3 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon of oil (for the aromatics)
- 10 green onions
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 6 1/2 tablespoons of oyster sauce (for the aromatics)
- 10 cups of steamed rice
- 3 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon of oyster sauce (for the rice mixture)
- 3 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 3 cups of mixed frozen vegetables
- 3 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon of oil (for the eggs)
- 10 eggs
- 2 tablespoons + 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
There were several items that I had to substitute based on what was available at home, as follows:
- Avocado oil instead of peanut or vegetable oil
- Same-day instead of leftover rice
- 3 cups of peas and edamame (soybeans) instead of 3 1/4 cups of carrots, peas, and corn
Also, out of convenience while measuring the soy sauce, I just used the regular soy sauce instead of including the dark one.
Steps to Prepare
I followed the instructions, but had to add extra time to most of the seven steps due to the amount of ingredients I had. However, I was able to eliminate a few unneeded items.
The pork was brown after 6 minutes, rice mixed together after 5 minutes, and vegetables defrosted after 2 minutes. As for the eggs, there wasn’t enough room to have them set before the bottom started to burn, so I just scrambled them.
For the parts that I removed, they related to the rice. First, the steamed rice was moist enough, so I didn’t need to add extra oil. Next, since there were enough flavors, I didn’t add any salt. Lastly, because the bottom of the wok already had a crust, I wasn’t able to crisp the rice.
Time to Eat
Since I had already tasted the rice before adding the sesame oil, I knew that I was going to enjoy the flavors.
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣1️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
I had no complaints on the flavors of the fried rice, but my younger son was the first person to ask where the butter was, since that’s how he learned to cook this dish. For me, I wanted to make the cooking process a little bit smoother.
Second Try
To keep this attempt more manageable, I decreased the servings that I planned to make, as compared to the first round.
Ingredients to Use
With .624 pound of ground pork, I used the following amounts for the remaining ingredients:
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of oil (for the aromatics)
- 4 green onions
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of oyster sauce (for the aromatics)
- 3 3/4 cups of steamed rice
- 1 tablespoon + 3/4 teaspoon of oyster sauce (for the rice mixture)
- 1 tablespoon + 3/4 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 1 1/4 cups of mixed frozen vegetables
- 3 1/2 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon of oil (for the eggs)
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
When it came to the frozen vegetables, I used my favorite type (petite peas) in an amount proportionate to the recipe.
Steps to Prepare
During the second try, the only difference compared to the first try was that the timing was closer to what was stated in the recipe. The pork was brown after 3 minutes, aromatics cooked after 2 minutes, rice mixed together after 2 minutes, vegetables defrosted after 2 minutes, and eggs set after more than a couple seconds.
Time to Eat
For the second round, I was excited to try the fried rice with the bigger chunks of eggs!
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1️⃣0️⃣* | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
The fried rice was again tasty, with the garlic, pork, and oyster sauce shining through. My husband even thought it was good!
The next time I cook fried rice, I will not have to adjust the taste, but will try to improve the texture by doing the following:
Continuous Improvement
- Use more oil, so a crust doesn’t form prematurely. That way, I could attempt to crisp the rice.
After cooking more than 3 times the typical number of servings of fried rice during the first try, I learned the following that I would like to share with my dumber self:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- When making more than twice the default servings for a recipe, confirm that the go-to cookware or bakeware is large enough.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the recipe, 15-Minute Pork Fried Rice, from the website, Omnivore’s Cookbook?
- Share your favorite fried rice recipe?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)