Home Cooked Take Out. Shrimp Fried Rice.

Last day of class for the Summer semester means two papers still due and an early morning final exam. By 6 o’clock the kids are starving, I am pressed for time; what to do? Shrimp fried rice of course. A Chinese comfort food if there ever was one. Rasa Malaysia is my go-to Asian recipe base; of course I tweak, but Rasa delivers consistently good direction, always gorgeous photography and her recipes make even the most complicated dishes look easy. Fresh, quick and little to no fuss was just what the Professor ordered for dinner. Delicious results. Recipe after the jump.

 

Ingredients:

3 cups pre-cooked rice
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 Tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon white pepper powder
1 Tablespoon fresh powdered ginger
1 large scallion, sliced 
1 lb. fresh peeled shrimp
1/2 cup frozen green peas (fresh vegetables optional: broccoli crowns, carrot strips, white onion, red pepper strips)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1 knob of ginger julienned
2 eggs, beaten and set aside

In a small bowl combine soy sauce with granulated sugar and fish sauce, set aside. Heat up a sautee pan with two tablespoons of oil. Add ginger strips and garlic, saute until aromatic taking care not to burn the garlic and ginger. Add the shrimp and fry until they just start to turn pink. Season with salt, pepper and powdered ginger. Continue to fry for 1-2 minutes. Add your peas and vegetables, and just a splash of oil to make sure the vegetables don’t stick. Add in the rice and mix well until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Add in soy/fish sauce mixture and continue to mix and fry the rice until coated well. Salt to taste.

Make a “well” in the middle of the pan, pushing the rice to the sides and pour the beaten eggs in the well. Leave the eggs for about 30 seconds then mix the eggs into the fried rice. Add sliced scallion, mix briefly just until the scallions wilt a bit. Remove the pan from the heat and serve.

For a vegetarian version you could always substitue tofu for shrimp; I would marinate the tofu overnight in the soy/fish sauce, slice and broil it before using it in the rice.

Serves 6

Lunch…retrospective

cold bar from the deli down the street. crispy tofu in fresh sweet chili sauce. snow pea salad. ginger wings. bet.

Crispy Tofu Teriyaki

Hoisin Glazed Veg*n Ribs. Um, yum.

Sometimes, cravings and flavors just begin to take on a life of their own. Such is the case with this recipe. I was looking for a good smoky, BBQ-esque, Asian fusion kind of dish. That, of course, did not involve meat of any kind. I’ve seen some BBQ shaved Seitan sandwich recipes, and Hoisin Tofu recipes – neither got me too excited. I had a great starter by way of a staple seitan recipe – which can be modified many different ways. But I was still missing that magic…

Last week sometime (the day before I began my Spring fast) I picked up the April 2009 issue of Real Simple Magazine. There was a cool article about Cleaning Your House Naturally that caught my attention, but lo and behold there on p. 151 was a recipe for Ginger Hoisin sauce. Needless to say I knew exactly how to take this and make it stellar! I turned an awesome vegan rib recipe into Ginger Hoisin Glazed Veg*n Ribs.

Recipe after the jump. If you make it that far. Ok. Seriously. Stop Drooling.

2 Cups vital wheat gluten
4 Teaspoons paprika
4 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
4 Teaspoons onion powder
2 Tablespoons Chinese five spice powder
4 Teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 cups water
4 Tablespoons Tahini
2 Tablespoons natural peanut butter
2 Teaspoons Liquid Hickory Smoke
3 Tablespoons Tamari
1 Tablespoon freshly minced ginger (optional)
2 Green onions sliced (optional)
2 Cups Ginger Hoisin Glaze

Preheat the oven to 375 and lightly grease a deep roasting pan.

Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mix the water with the nut butter, Liquid Smoke, peanut butter and soy sauce (make sure there are little to no clumps) and add it to the dry ingredients.

Stir to mix well and then knead lightly by hand in the bowl for a couple of minutes, until the dough is smooth and keeps its shape.

Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thickness.

Cut strips out of the dough and roll them out to about a 1/4 inch thickness (dough will spring back).

Place your seitan strips into your roasting pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Then set broiler on high and broil your seitan strips for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven.

Brush the Ginger Hoisin Glaze onto the seitan strips, and return to broiler for another 5 minutes or until glaze is slightly crispy.

Garnish with green onion, or freshly minced ginger.

Dinner Tonight. Caramelized Black Pepper Tofu.

I was lucky enough to score some fantastic food and great conversation with a friend today over lunch. Told the kids when I got home that I had the most amazing meal – of course, they wanted to know what it was, who had made it and if they could have some. Countless google searches and recipe compilations later (kidding, I probably spent 5 minutes looking for a good recipe and then tweaking it to my liking), here’s my try – I had no chicken on hand, had to sub out for two packages of extra firm tofu. Sauce so good you could pour it on sneakers and make them eat-able. Geez. So good.

½ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup Asian fish sauce (or Vegan Fish Sauce)
¼ cup water
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 sweet red bell pepper
1/2 cup of red cabbage, sliced
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
2 pkgs. of extra firm tofu, drained and cubed
4 sprigs of fresh herbs (lemon mint is what I had on hand)
2 tbsp of cornstarch
2 tbsp of water
2 tbsp canola oil, for frying

In a small bowl, combine sugar, fish sauce, water, rice vinegar, garlic, sesame oil, ginger, pepper. Stir and set it aside until the sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes).

In a smaller bowl combine 2 tbsp of cornstarch with equal parts water and mix well (this is a slurry, you will add this to your fish sauce later to thicken it). Set this mixture aside.

Heat canola oil in large, deep skillet. Add the cubed tofu, fry the cubes until they are golden brown and crispy.

To your pan, add the red pepper, onions and cabbage – cook the vegetables together with the tofu cubes for about 3 minutes, stirring all the while so nothing sticks to the pan.

Add the fish sauce mixture to the tofu and vegetables, use a slotted spoon to stir the sauce in and to make sure it is incorporated well into the other ingredients.

Lower the heat on the pan to medium-low, Add the cornstarch/water slurry to the pan, simmer on low and stir everything well until the sauce thickens an begins to coat the spoon, about 5 – 7 minutes.

Finish with a few twists of your pepper mill, transfer to serving bowl; garnish with cilantro or other fresh herbs, serve with steamed bok choy, white rice, brown rice or fresh fruit.

Serves 5 for dinner and 3 for lunch (the next day).

Enjoy!

Nira