Quick and Easy Fried Rice

Usually I love cooking. Prepping vegetables is one of my favorite tasks. Slicing, dicing, mincing, chiffonading, matchsticking, even a simple rough chop is soothing to me.

But tonight, I was NOT in the mood.

Enter: Quick and Easy Fried Rice.

I kid you not, this dinner takes 10 minutes start to finish. If you're a food blogger, you can even stop for photos and be eating in 15. No knives. No cutting boards. Just 1 wok (and a microplane, if you can't go without fresh ginger...which I can't.)

By using frozen, pre-chopped veggies, you cut out all of the prep work. Aside from pulling a bag or two from the freezer, you merely drop and stir.

I used a mix of frozen corn, carrots, peas, and green beans, as well as frozen broccoli, but any veggies would work. I had leftover brown rice from last night, so it was already cooked and chilled. For protein I added one egg and some cashews. And for flavoring I used low sodium soy sauce, fresh ginger, and fermented black beans.

What, you don't have fermented black beans hanging out in your fridge?! You should. They are delicious. Salty and briny and so full of flavor.

But if you don't have fermented black beans or black bean sauce lying around, you could easily leave them out. If you'd like to bump up the flavor, garlic, scallions, or chili sauce would all be good options.

Now, I am no expert at stir frying. In fact, cooking with oil at a high temperature freaks me out. This stems from 1 of 2 things. Or probably both things.

1. The first time I made stir fry (in college) I thought it'd be a good idea to essentially flavor the oil, so it would permeate the entire dish. In order to do this, I put oil in a pan, cranked the heat, and then tossed the finely minced garlic into the smoking hot oil. And proceeded to burn the h&ll out of it. And stink up the entire floor of the dorm. Doh.
2. I'm afraid of splattering oil. I'm afraid it will burn me, and I'm afraid it will jump out of the pan and catch my house on fire. And in a panic I will forget that you put out grease fires with flour, and will instead dump a huge glass of water on it and end up with third degree burns and no hair.

Lucky for me, Alison over at Post-College Kitchen recently posted some stir frying tips. My 2 favorites were:

1. Heat the pan first, and then add the oil & veggies at about the same time, so your oil is not blazing hot.
2. Make sure your veggies are dry. Water is what makes oil splatter!

Unfortunately, you can't really dry off frozen veggies. But I survived.

Quick and Easy Fried Rice

serves 2 as a side or light entree

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs vegetable/canola oil
• 1 c frozen veggies (I used a mix of corn, carrots, peas, green beans, and broccoli)
• 1.5 c cooked and cooled brown rice (It must be cooled. Warm rice will turn to mush. This is a great way to use up leftovers!)
• 1 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1/4 c fermented black beans (optional)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 c cashews

Directions:

1. Heat wok (or large skillet) over high heat.
2.Once wok is hot, add oil and vegetables. *Note: stand back, the oil will probably splatter due to the water on the veggies.* Stir until heated through and beginning to brown (about 4 minutes).

3. Add rice, soy sauce, ginger, and black beans (if using). Stir to combine and heat through (about 2 minutes).

4. Move the veggies and rice to one side, and add the beaten egg to the other side. Stir until mostly scrambled, then mix with the rice and veggies (about 1 minute).

5. Remove from heat and stir in cashews. Enjoy!

Of course, what would be more perfect than a fortune cookie for dessert?

Hmmm...I want this adorable radish tea towel that I have. Does that count...?

...Missing the point, I know. But tonight, life is hard. I may need to sleep on this one.