Fried Rice

Raise your hand if you like fried rice.

Swuuut I thought. Raise your hand if you own a wok.

Freak. Nobody likes a show off.


Wok or no wok, fried rice can still be had. It's not going to taste like your local take-out either. It's going to taste 10x better. Unless, of course, you're ordering fried rice from Peking in Tyler, Tx.

I <3 you.

While you can make fried rice without a wok, you can't make fried rice without refrigerated rice. That's right. The rice must be cooked, cold, and dry. Let me repeat myself to make sure I'm crystal clear. The rice must be c.o.o.k.e.d. c-o-l-d & dry.


Get it?
Got it?
Good.

This isn't a one man show though. Fried rice is a team effort, and as we all know: There's no "I" in "Team."

With Team Fried Rice assembled, it's time to crack skulls. By cracking skulls, I mean cook some fried rice.


Before one can fry, one must first scramble.

After one scrambles. One must then finely dice half of an onion, along w/two green onion's white parts, all the while reserving the green parts of the green onions for later use. Sounds complicated? It's really not.

The time has come. Time to fry. Don't get too excited.



Preheat a pan over medium-high heat for 2min.

Add oil, then add your onions

Cook for 4min.

Add sugar (I buy my sugar in cubes. For this recipe, I use one cube which is equivalent to 1teas)

Add a dash or two of red pepper flakes

Add crushed garlic (I'd suggest 2-3 cloves)



This picture looks weird. Apologies.

Cook 1-2min. all the while stirring.

Add the rice

Punch down the clumps and lumps with the utensil you've chosen

Once in an even layer, scoop and flip the rice.

Prime time for seasons.

Shower the rice with garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, seasoning salt, & pepper across the rice.

Scoop and flip again

 

Once set, you'll hear crickling & crackling. This is normal. Sounds like that of Rice Krispies in milk are reminiscent.

Word of advice: Leave the rice alone & quit messing with it so much. Let it crisp on its own.

Let it crisp for @ least 4min. For @ most, 8min. Occasionally flipping.

Raise the heat a little.

Then douse with soy sauce...

Douse generously. Douse so no grain of rice is left unsoyed.

Let the fried rice sit for a minute on its bottom.

After a minute, scoop its tushie over and stir.

Repeat this process over the course of 3-4min.

Chop the remaining green parts of the green onions

Chop the reserved scrambled egg

Then add both to its home skillet aka pan of fried rice, along with some frozen peas.

Drizzle a smidge of sesame oil.

Tun off the heat

Stir through

Say goodbye to all of the Chinese take-out or eat-in hot spots, once and for all.

Ricotta Cheese

The idea of making ricotta cheese seemed so far-fetched until I watched Rebecca on Working Class Foodies show me how. Observe.

Science Experiments. I'm a fan.

Required utensils, ingredients, and seasonings.
Not pictured: The nerd making the cheese.

Strainer was a little small

So I remedied that

Over high heat, bring your milk to a boil.
Continually stir to prevent the milk crusting on the bottom.  


Incidentally, watching a pot of water to boil is WAY better than watching & waiting for a pot of milk to boil. Do you know how long it takes milk to boil? I do.


It takes forever. Or at least it seems like it does.

It doesn't really. Just stir for 7-8min. over high heat & you'll get there.

Adding my lemon juice.
There's no point in using a stainless steel mini-pitcher for this task, so don't feel like you have to.

Cook for 2 minutes and watch the curds appear before your very own eyes.

Also, if you didn't know - when milk boils, it doesn't joke around. The stuff boils up and over and onto your stove in less than a minute. No need to be scared of this, since there's no use in crying over spilled milk (or boiled/spilled milk in this case) ... just be aware and try to regulate the heat as best you can.

I spilt

Stirring action



Curds & whey. So cool.

With hot pads, transfer your pot of curds & whey into the designated and prepped straining station.



r

Mine are a little worse for wear



Scrape out any little-bits left

Smoosh. Spoon. Whatever you do, get your mind outta the gutter and strain.

 

At this point, you're looking at one newborn, naked baby Ricotta Cheese. Courtesy of you. It's up to you to season this cheese & make it good. So season well. 

Not wanting to make a wrong move or potentially ruin the fresh batch of cheese, I seel my eyes shut & do like Rebecca did.

Pinch of salt. And some grinding of pepper.

Zested lemon skin.

Addition of Parm.

Done son.

Let's make some homemade cheese ravioli, shall we? Ohhh. Let us do. Please.


1/4c Ricotta Cheese
2Tbl Grated Mozzarella
1 Egg, separated (or if you're familiar w/Tom Haverford lingo, one Pre-bird or Future Bird)
24 Wonton Wrappers
Dash or Two of Ground Nutmeg

Great Gratings

 

Save the clear stuff

 

Mixi Mixi





Dampen the edges w/the reserved egg white. With your finga.

Make like a triangle

Suffocate your filling

Seal so that no air can come in or out.

At this point, you've arrived @ a fork in the road. You can either fry. Or boil.

To boil:

Per Rebecca's instructions, I boil my Ravi Reevees in the reserved whey. I WOULD feed the whey to my dog, but tragically, I don't have a pet to call my own (sad face).

The raviolis take not long at all to cook. Maybe two minutes. Once cooked, serving options are endless.

You could brown in butter w/sage & lemon.

Give it a swirl

Add some whey for sauciness

I couldn't decide which photo looked more appetizing.

So I added both. You can decide for yourself.

Or boil. Then straight to the plate.

Eat them neck-ked. (naked)

A spot of EVOO

Parm Alarm

Mater sauce (tomato sauce) is good too

To Fry:
*I wouldn't suggest frying these guys. They're not horrible, but the wonton wrapper makes the texture taste a little off. However, I'm not the boss of you. Fry if you wanna.

Heat some oil in a pan. Have a plate ready for the removal & draining of the fried food.



Weapon of choice



Give them a click

Gotta make sure they still work

By the time the 3rd is placed in the pan, the 1st is ready to flip

By the time the 3rd is flipped. The 1st is ready to be taken out.

Serve w/marinara

Or not.