Autumn Fried Rice

Old, cold rice is usually the recommended base of good fried rice, and from there it is really all about your imagination....or what else is left over in your fridge. When you're cooking for two, you are often left with some weird amounts of leftover dishes and ingredients, which never really add up to a real meal unless you eat all your leftovers from various meals in one sitting. Fried rice is a solution to that. This autumn fried rice combination was the result of leftover lap xuong that I purchased to make xoi; one lonely beet and some kale that I used in a seasonal meal I made for Tyler's parents; rice I made a few days ago to go with some Trader Joe's frozen teriyaki chicken when I was lazy; a soy dipping sauce I made for some dumplings; and some leeks that I had leftover from this breakfast casserole. Who knew all these things would taste amazing together?!

The hiccup in this recipe is the soy dipping sauce -- I don't remember the proportions I used. It's a mix of soy sauce, water, white sugar, chili sauce (tuong ot), white vinegar, and sliced ginger.  Other than that, this is pretty straightforward (and so seasonally tasty!).

(makes 2 hearty servings)

1 bunch of kale, stems removed and chopped

1 golden beet, peeled and chopped (chopped firm persimmons might be great too!)

1 lap xuong sausage, halved and sliced 

1 egg

1 tbspn. water

Salt + pepper 

1 leek, light green/white portion chopped

1/2 white onion, chopped

1/2 tbspn. vegetable oil, plus a little more to fry the egg 

About 3 cups of cold leftover rice (it just depends on what you like your ratio of rice to be in comparison to the other ingredients, or however much rice you have on hand)

Beat the egg with 1 tbspn. water and a pinch of salt. Heat a little bit of vegetable oil in a pan (or wok). Pour the egg in and cook in one layer, like a pancake. Flip once. Remove and set aside to cool. 

Heat 1/2 tbspn. vegetable oil in the same pan. Add the lap xuong and cook until brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to soak up the oil. Add the leeks and onion to the pan and sautee until translucent. Add the beets. Cook for about 5 minutes, until almost the desired doneness. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the kale and sautee until wilted. Add the rice, breaking it up and tossing it with the vegetables. Slice the egg into strips. Add 1/4 cup of the soy sauce mixture and toss until everything is well coated. Add more soy sauce to taste. Top with freshly ground black pepper.

Banchan!

My mom told me once that she has a Korean coworker who often packs a variety of banchan to eat with rice for lunch. That's always stuck with me -- it sounds so fun! And full of so many possibilities. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to eat the same thing every day, so I figured I'd have 5 options available and pack 4 for lunch every day, with a little bit of rice. Everything turned out great and I can't wait for Monday! (My fifth banchan is store bought kimchi)

Sauteed anchovies
1 small bag of dried anchovies + 2 tbspns. soy sauce + 1 tbspn. Sesame oil + 2 tbspns. sugar + 1/2 tbspn. vegetable oil + 1 sliced jalepeno (optional)

Soak the anchovies in cold water for about 15 minutes. Heat up the vegetable oil in a sautee pan, and throw in the anchovies, soy sauce, jalepenos & sugar. Stir everything over medium high heat -- the sauce should be kind of caramel-y and mostly on the sweet side, the anchovies will provide the saltiness. Once the sugar dissolves and the sauce is a little thicker, sprinkle sesame seeds on top and serve.

Soy shitake mushrooms

Bean sprout banchan (I tweaked this recipe by adding more sugar since it was coming out a little salty for my taste)

Spicy pickled cucumbers
This recipe calls for Asian garlic chives, which are broader & flat & super long, unlike typical American chives. As the recipe says, if you can't find these, you can just use the green onions and omit the chives -- I wouldn't substitute the Asian chives with regular chives. I also ended up only using 4 cucumbers but I had to double the quantities for the sauce. Everything came out great though!

Tofu Cuon

Grilled + marinated tofu, rolled up and dipped into hoisin goodness! You’ll need:

Grilled tofu

Romaine lettuce, cut or ripped into about 4 inch long pieces

Cucumber

Rice paper

Somen noodles

Bean sprouts (optional)

Shredded carrots (optional)

Hoisin dipping sauce 

Grilled tofu

Zest of 1 orange

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 tspns sesame oil

1/2 tspn soy sauce

1 tspn sugar

1 in. piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 minced garlic clove

1 tspn chili garlic sauce (look for a plastic jar that looks like it’s made from the brand that makes Siracha — in Vietnamese it’s called “tuong ot”)

1 block extra firm tofu 

Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch slabs and place on some paper towels. Place more paper towels over the tofu and put something heavy (look a heavy wooden cutting board) on top of the tofu. Press for about 15 minutes and throw away the paper towels.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together. Marinate the tofu in this mixture for at least 20 minutes. Heat a nonstick grill pan. Grill the tofu for about 3 minutes per side. Slice each slab in half lengthwise. 

                ___________________________________________________________

Hoisin Dipping Sauce

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 tspns. vegetable oil

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/2 cup water

1 tbspn. peanut butter (smooth or chunky, it doesn’t matter)

Chili garlic sauce, to taste

Heat up the vegetable oil in a saucepan. Add the minced garlic and sautee until translucent. Add the hoisin sauce and water and stir until well combined. Add the peanut butter and chili garlic sauce and stir. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add more peanut butter if you want a thicker sauce, add more water if you want it to be more watery.

            ___________________________________________________________

To make the rolls, dip the rice paper in a huge bowl of warm-almost boiling water. Place the rice paper on a flat dish. Lay out your ingredients at the end of the rice paper closest to you. I like this order: lettuce, cucumber, any other veggies, a small amount of noodles, and lastly the tofu. Fold the two sides of rice paper toward the middle. Roll up and you’re ready to eat!

About 4 rolls per person makes a filling meal.  You can also eat these as appetizers.

Chicken & Shrimp Patty Noodle Bowl

I used udon/ramen like noodles here because I had them on hand, but ideally I would have used pho noodles. I’d recommend soaking them for at least 2 hours (you can pop them in a bowl of warm water in the morning), so that when it’s time to eat the noodle portions will be ready in about 1-2 minutes. The noodles should be prepared separately from the soup broth, in its own pot of water. Extra patties would be delicious in a sandwich Vietnamese style, with pickled veggies and jalepenos and siracha mayo. You can also cut them into strips and roll them up in a goi cuon style, with vermicelli noodles, cucumber, lettuce and a hoisin sauce dip!

These are the bare bones of the recipe:

Noodles + Chicken & Shrimp Patties + Bok Choy

1 lb. ground chicken

1/2 lb. of shrimp, peeled

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup of oyster sauce

2 tbspns. of fish sauce (or more if you got some Vietnamese blood like me!)

Sesame seeds for crusting the meat patties

Vegetable oil

1 quart chicken stock, low sodium

A few slices of ginger

1/2 tbspn. of sugar  

Salt + pepper

Bok choy (about 4 halves per bowl)

Noodles

Lime wedges, optional

Throw the shrimp into a food processor and pulse a few times — the mixture should look like ground meat, not a paste. Combine the shrimp, ground chicken, garlic, 1/2 the oyster sauce and 1/2 the fish sauce. Form the meat into little meatballs, and roll them in the sesame seeds, flattening them slightly into discs. Heat the oil in a nonstick pan, and fry the patties in batches for about 3 minutes per side. Set them on the side on some paper towels while you prep everything else.

Grill the ginger pieces (I grilled three straight on my burner). Throw it into a pot with the chicken stock, the rest of the fish sauce, sugar and oyster sauce. Bring the broth to a boil and add salt & pepper to taste. If the broth is too intense, add more chicken stock.  

Prepare whatever noodles you’re using in a separate pot of water. Divide the noodles into however many bowls you’re preparing. Boil the bok choy for about 3-4 minutes. Top each bowl of noodles with 2-3 patties and 4 halves of bok choy. Pour the broth over the noodles and serve with lime wedges.  Slurp.