Recipe: Vietnamese Fried Rice

I'm mourning the demise of West Wing. Five years or so late, I know. I've always heard from fellow WW devotees that the series took a serious dive in Season 5, when Aaron Sorkin left. But I had no idea. The writing stinks, it's full of cheesy dramatics and soap operatic moments, and the characters keep doing things that are so out of character (like constantly being at each others throats) that I just want to do something angry. I can hardly stand to watch it anymore. But J and I have been working on this show for a year and a half and we're not going to quit now.

Also, we're kind of a sickie couple at the moment-- J has been sick with some kind of flu for a couple days and I am now feeling kind of rotten myself.

But on the bright side at least it wasn't 96 degrees today (like yesterday!) and I made some awesome fried rice tonight that I thought I would blog about before I forgot what I did.

This started with a package of Chinese sausage that was in the meat mark-downs a month or two ago. I can't resist anything that is half price and a potentially exciting new ingredient, so I bought the package and threw it in the freezer. Ever since I have wondered what to do with it. What is Chinese sausage, anyway? Now I know-- it's kind of sweet, like the barbecued pork they use in Chinese fried rice sometimes. But I actually couldn't find it mentioned anywhere in my cookbooks or recipe websites, so for a while it languished in my freezer.

Then today I was struck with inspiration-- fried rice! What doesn't go in fried rice? Let me just digress here to say that there is a lot of really bad fried rice in the world, and I was never much of a fan until I discovered SE Asian food (primarily Thai and Vietnamese) here in Boston. SE Asian fried rice is not the soggy, oily, bland stuff you get in Chinese restaurants, with a few benighted vegetables and rubbery shrimp. Vietnamese fried rice, like all good SE Asian food, has that magical mixture of salty, sweet, savory, and sour-- it's a total revelation if all you've ever had is the bad Chinese stuff (or at least it was for me).

Anyway, I'm not sure I've nailed it yet, but this is what I threw together, and it was pretty good. (I guess fried rice is like soup-- just throw in what you have, and it's pretty hard to ruin.)

Vietnamese Fried Rice

I've discovered the secret to any kind of stir fry is to have everything ready to go, because it goes so quickly once you start cooking, Also, cook ingredients that cook differently separately, remove when almost cooked, and combine everything with the sauce at the end. This both keeps anything from being overcooked, and gives you as much heat as possible for your ingredients (rather than dumping in a whole bunch of stuff at once). And have the wok as hot as possible. (Even with my real wok over a full gas flame a lot of stuff ends up getting more steamed than stir-fried-- I've heard if you want to really wok something you've got to do it over a real flame in a barbecue!)

Also, the secret of good fried rice is to cook the rice a day or more ahead of time and use it when it's cold and a bit dried out from being in the fridge

• 2 c. short-grain rice (I use brown), cooked (about 6 c. cooked)

Sauce

• 1/4 c. nam pla (Vietnamese fish sauce, kind of like soy sauce, or you could use soy sauce)
  
• 1/4 c. Chinese cooking wine (like fish sauce, it comes in a big bottle and is dirt cheap)
  
• 1 1/2 T. rice vinegar
  
• 1 T. chili oil (bright red, very hot, comes in a small bottle-- use less if you don't want it too spicy or are using fresh chilies in addition)
  
• 1 T. sugar

Stir together so you have it ready to go.

• 4 eggs, lightly scrambled and seasoned with some salt and pepper
  
• 2 T. peanut oil (or other neutral oil)

Pour the oil into the wok, let heat for a few seconds, then pour in the eggs and scramble them. Remove when still a little soft (should take about 1 minute).

• 1 lb. Chinese sausages (chicken, pork, or shrimp would also be delicious-- I would marinate in a little mirin (sweet rice wine), soy sauce or nam pla, ginger, and garlic first)

I just threw them into the wok with a little more peanut oil and cooked over high heat (turning once in a while) until they were somewhat charred on the outside, and cooked inside. Then I removed them and sliced them into thin slices. It's easier to cook and slice them if you cook first, slice later!

• 1-2 T. fresh ginger, grated (or to taste, I didn't have as much as I wish I would have!)
  
• 1-2 T. garlic, minced (again, to taste)

There should be some grease in the wok from the sausages. Use it to stir fry the ginger and garlic, for about 1 minute. Then add (don't remove the ginger/garlic):

• 2 red bell peppers, cut into thin strips, then strips cut in half
  
• (I wish I would have added) sliced onion, sliced fresh hot Thai or jalapeno chilies, fresh mushrooms, bean sprouts-- or any other veg that sounds good (if you have the patience to dice carrots into little dice, more power to you)

Stir fry until crisp tender.

• handful of dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water an hour or until soft, then sliced
  
• 1 c. or so frozen peas

Add to wok with rice and sausages. Stir fry until hot. Then add egg and sauce. At the last minute add:

• 1 bunch green onions, chopped (you can use the dark green parts as well)

And all SE Asian food tastes so much better if you top it with:

• lime wedges (squeeze juice on to taste)
  
• chopped fresh cilantro
• fried shallots-- the ne plus ultra and tonight I actually had some, fry in a little oil until beginning to char, salt liberally, yum!

I actually took a picture of it but it isn't a very exciting picture-- it just looks like rice with red peppers, sausage slices, and cilantro lying on top. Food photography is a trick, one I definitely haven't mastered yet! I'll keep trying. But believe me (even if I don't have a picture as evidence), this is delicious stuff!