Surprise Fried Rice

Fried rice is one of those dishes that can be a side dish, but when I make it, fried rice becomes a whole meal in itself. I’ve had it Chinese style and American style. Either way is good with me.

All you need is left-over rice, preferably rice that’s sat overnight in the refrigerator. There’s something about refrigerated rice that creates better fried rice.

If you’ve got some leftover meat or vegetables from the night before, that’s even better. In fact, the name Surprise Fried Rice comes from the wife’s “recipe,” as she throws in anything she can find that’s in little leftover bowls. I’m sure you’ve all had some of those in your fridge.

Feel free to substitute anything you have. This recipe calls for two cups of rice, but you can use as much or as little as you want, depending on how much leftover rice you have, or how many people you have to feed.

Ingredients

• MIXED VEGETABLES, frozen, or leftover, 1 cup
• RICE, 2 cups cold precooked
• OYSTER SAUCE, 2 tablespoons
• SOY SAUCE, 3 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon for the eggs
• SUGAR, 1 teaspoon
• GARLIC SALT, to taste
• BLACK PEPPER, freshly ground to taste
• BACON, 4 slices
• MEAT OR SAUSAGE (Spam, Chinese lup cheon, Portuguese sausage, linguica, chorizo, smoked sausage, leftover steak, whatever), 1 cup, chopped into a small dice
• ONION, 1 small or ½ large, chopped
• GREEN ONION, two spears, chopped
• EGGS, 2, beaten

Directions

1. Put frozen mixed vegetables in boiling water or the microwave oven until hot. Drain and set aside.
2. If you’re using leftover vegetables, chop them into a small dice.
3. Mix the oyster sauce and soy sauce, and pour over the rice in a bowl. Mix the rice with your hands and put aside.
4. Chop the bacon into lardons and sauté until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy or near-crispy. Set aside.
5. Sauté the chopped meat and set aside, leaving any oil remaining in the pan.
6. Sauté the onions until soft but not browned, and set aside.
7. Add a teaspoon of soy sauce and the sugar to the eggs. Scramble and cook, breaking it up into little pieces. Set aside.
8. Fry the marinated rice in the pan, seasoning with garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
9. Add in the all ingredients you set aside earlier and continue frying while mixing everything together. Make sure you stir continuously so the rice fries and browns but does not overcook and burn.
10. Stir in the chopped green onions, reserving some of the greener pieces to sprinkle on top for garnish.

Serve in a bowl or plate. If desired (for breakfast), fry an egg or two and slide them on top of the rice. To make fried rice with a Korean flavor, chop up some kim chee and add it to the rice in its final stages of heating.

Salmon Omelet

This is so easy, no recipe is required.

If you have left-over salmon – baked, fried, smoked, miso-marinated, you name it – you can enjoy a salmon omelet in the morning, or maybe even for dinner.

All you need in addition to the salmon is butter or margarine (I use Benecol), sliced mushrooms if you have any lying around, chopped onions (sweet round or green) if you’ve got some, and a couple of eggs (I usually use one egg and egg substitute).

Sauté the mushrooms in a small nonstick pan in lots of butter, then add the salmon and onions. Start your omelet in a larger nonstick omelet pan flavored with more butter. Add in the heated salmon-mushroom-onion mix.

Slide the omelet off onto a plate, folding it over on itself.

If you are so inclined, you can add anything else to the innards that you can think of. Crispy bacon would be nice. So would bean sprouts. Heck, I’ve even added in chopped leftover Brussels sprouts.

Yum!

Hamburger Scramble

Here’s another quick and easy (and tasty too, of course) breakfast that you can rustle up with leftovers.

If you’ve made hamburger patties for dinner the night before (or perhaps even the night before the night before), use the leftovers to make an egg scramble in the morning.

If you have a tomato and a sweet onion, it’s even better!

Ingredients

• HAMBURGER PATTY, 2, leftovers
• TOMATO, 1, chopped into large chunks (seeded and/or skinned if you are so inclined)
• SWEET ONION, 1 small, chopped into large pieces
• EGGS, 3, scrambled
• BUTTER, 2 pats
• HOT SAUCE, to taste

Directions

1. Break up the leftover pre-cooked patties and microwave for a minute or so until hot. Set aside.
2. Sauté the onions until only slightly crunchy, then set aside.
3. Butter your non-stick sauté pan and scramble your eggs.
4. When the eggs are half-way set in the pan, toss in the chunks of filling – hamburger, tomatoes and onions.
5. Continue scrambling until almost set, and then remove from heat.
6. Serve and eat immediately, squirting on as much hot sauce (I use Tabasco) on the dish as you like.