Egg fried rice is excellent fridge tidy food. Those leftover peas, the pickings from the roast chicken or the single egg, can be the beginnings of Chinese-style egg fried rice. It was one of the first things my youngest son Henry learnt to cook. When he was about six or seven, he loved going to Chinatown and wandering round the shops; a dim sum lunch was his idea of heaven. I kept a supply of cooked rice in the fridge specially, so he could make ‘fri ri’ with whatever else was in need of eating up. ‘What must be avoided’ says legendary Chinese expert Kenneth Lo in his book Chinese Vegetable and Vegetarian Cooking, ‘is a fried rice that is so mixed-up that it borders on a mess’. Ah so. This is my particular favourite and it could be made with cooked prawns, just reduce their cooking time.
Serves 3
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 10 min
150g basmati rice
100g frozen peas
150g raw, peeled prawns
8 spring onions
2 eggs
25g coriander
3 tbsp vegetable oil
25g coriander
3 sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 limes
Rinse the rice until the water runs clean. Place in a pan with 225ml water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat very low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, leave covered for 10 minutes. Fork up the rice and spread out on a plate to cool. Cook the peas in boiling water. Drain. Uncurl the prawns and halve lengthways. Wipe away the thin black vein/tract. Trim and finely slice the spring onions. Finely chop the coriander. Beat the eggs with a fork with ½ tbsp oil, 1 tbsp chilli sauce and half the chopped coriander. Mix remaining chilli and soy sauce in a ramekin. Get a wok very hot, add the remaining oil, and quickly swirl it round. Add the spring onions and stir-fry continuously for 30 seconds. Add the prawns and keep the food moving, continuing as the prawns change colour. Add rice, peas, chilli and soy sauce. Toss thoroughly for a few seconds until hot, then add the egg, stirring vigorously, mixing it through the rice. Add the last of the coriander and serve with chilli and soy sauce bottles and half a lime to squeeze over the top.