I used to cook a wok full of fried rice for my children on weekends so that they could have a warm lunch instead of ham sandwiches. I used white jasmine rice, char siew-Chinese roasted pork which is sweet and savory, a special chicken rice sauce made with ginger and garlic.
After my stroke, I’ve been learning about whole grains and how to fuel my active lifestyle with more nutritious foods.
My new fried rice uses brown basmati rice, wheat berry and quinoa. Instead of char siew…sigh…I use chicken breast or low sodium sausage when I’m lazy.
Here goes…
1 cup quinoa
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 cup wheat berry
Protein – 2 cooked chicken breasts cut into cubes. I put chicken breasts in a covered Pyrex dish, salt, pepper, garlic powder, whatever dried herbs I have handy eg oregano, tarragon, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a tablespoon of white wine or sherry. in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35 to 40 minutes. Save the yummy chicken essence liquid after you take it out of the oven for soup or stir fry.
If you want to use tofu, use firm tofu and I would suggest seasoning the tofu with vegetable oil, salt, pepper, and some corn starch to help crisp up the tofu. I put the cut up cubes of tofu in a baking sheet, 400 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes – more or less. The idea is to crisp it up so the tofu doesn’t turn to mush when mixing it around in the rice.
1 cup frozen peas
Half an onion diced
A lot of garlic minced
Extras…
3 or 4 eggs- scrambled
Mushrooms- chopped up
Celery – 2 stalks chopped up
Bell pepper- red or orange for color
Method-
Making fried rice is like composing a salad in a wok.
You start with making sure you have all your ingredients cooked- quinoa, rice, wheat berry, chicken, scrambled eggs (cooked hard).
You put a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok. If you don’t have a wok, get a large pan that can hold all the ingredients you are putting in.
Start with sautéing the onions, bell peppers, celery for a few minutes. If using fresh mushrooms, add after the aromatics are in as mushrooms tend to absorb whatever flavors they are cooking in. Add garlic last as you don’t want it to burn.
Once you have the aromatics ready, turn the heat to medium or low depending on your stove because everything else is cooked and you are really just tossing the ingredients together.
Add rice, quinoa, wheat berry combination to the onions etc and mix it up well. Add scrambled eggs, chicken, peas and mix it all up. You can add salt and pepper to taste while mixing the rice up with the aromatics.
This makes a lot of portions. I usually make this amount as my meal prep so I don’t have to cook for a few days. I love eating it with my own home made hot sauce or pickled jalapeños/Serrano peppers.
If you can find a chicken rice mix in a jar under the Kee’s brand…that’s the magic sauce. Yes…there’s sodium and probably MSG but one tablespoon of this yummy stuff makes the dish taste…well … yummier. You add one tablespoon of this mix (ginger, garlic paste and oil) while you are stirring the onions, peppers, celery etc around. If using this paste, add less salt later on.