Hello! Thanks for stopping by! If you missed yesterday’s post, you’ll probably want to take a peek! This is part 2 of an easy, restaurant-style, Chinese supper just like take-out! Yesterday’s post was all about the battered and fried Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken, and today I’m sharing my version of Pork Fried Rice slowed down just a bit! 😀 

As I said yesterday, every country has their comfort foods, and to me, this is classic Chinese comfort food! Well, how us American’s enjoy Chinese cuisine, anyways. 😉 

Even though the proper and ideal way to cook fried rice is with a wok, I don’t happen to have one anymore, and my frying pan worked just fine. 😉 I think a lot of people are a bit intimidated to try Chinese cooking because of not having one, or are afraid of how fast you have to cook everything and aren’t confident that they can handle it. I totally get that. 😉 

So I’ve taken my fried rice recipe and slowed it down just a bit. And I honestly really couldn’t taste the difference. 

I made up a batch of rice in the morning, fluffed it with a fork, and popped in into the fridge out in the garage to chill. This is important.

You must use COLD, cooked rice or you’ll end up with a mushy mess.

*You can also make this rice from all that extra rice you had leftover the last time you ordered take-out. Just simply pop it into a ziploc freezer baggie, shake it to the bottom, roll it up, seal it and freeze it. Then pop it into the fridge the night before you want to make homemade.

But rice is simple to make, and I hope that these recipes have you making everything from home soon! It’s so much better, NO MSG, and you can control the sodium. 😉

I’ve found that it helps to scramble the eggs by themselves ahead of time, too. I like to scramble them until well cooked, then chop them fairly finely. But you can cook them and chop them to your own preference. Just scramble in a little butter and don’t add any salt! There will be plenty from the soy sauce later. 

Here are some of the ingredients chopped and all ready to go… 

 

 

 

 

Once your rice is cold, your eggs are cooked, and everything is chopped and ready to go, it’s easy street! 😀

Just sauté your pork and veggies until done, add everything else but your peas, stir-fry a bit, fold in the peas and you’re done!  😀 It really is easy and as simple as that! 

If you need a few secs to “catch up” when adding ingredients, just simply turn your heat down a bit. Stir-frying at the end will catch everything back up again. 😉 

Frozen peas don’t really need to actually “cook”. To keep their freshness and their pop, I always add them frozen at the end, and then just let the heat of everything else warm them through. You can add them frozen or thawed though, but don’t cook them. 

 

 

 

 

 

Traditionally, this dish is a “fast and furious” dish that is cooked over fairly high heat and even the eggs are cooked in the wok. But I’ve found in the past, that when I try and do it that way, my veggies get over-cooked and so does the pork. I actually really enjoy cooking it this way so much better, and there’s no fret. You can take your time without worry! 😀 Cooking should be fun, not highly stressful. 😉  

 

 

 

 

So if you think that making  Chinese food is difficult, or that you must have a wok, or it’s a complicated mystery, trust me that it’s none of those things. It’s simply the comfort food of another country using different pantry-style ingredients. Simple as that. 😉 If I can make this, you can make this. 😉 

We don’t have very good Chinese food here in our town, and we frankly got tired of paying such astronomically high prices for mediocre food. Though I’ve made it a gazillion times, ordering Chinese food was one of the few things that I enjoyed ordering to give me a break and treat myself.

But I’m back to making it homemade again, and so glad that I did! And even though I have to do the dishes, it’s worth the effort and still every bit of a treat! 😉 😀 

So if you’ve never tried making this before, add this to your MUST-DO list for 2015! 😀 You’ll thank me later! I promise!! 😀  

Take care all, and enjoy a Chinese take-out meal at home from scratch next time you get the craving! 😀 ~Kelly

 

Be sure to check out my Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken recipe, or see others to make below!

 

Yield: 6-8 servings

No Fret Chinese Restaurant-Style Pork Fried Rice

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Ingredients

For White Rice:

• cups water
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbl. butter
• 1 cup long grain white rice

Rest of Ingredients:

• 2 extra large eggs, well beaten
• 1 Tbl. butter
• 1 - 2 pork loin chops (8 oz. total), trimmed of fat and diced into 1/3 - 1/2" pieces
• 2 Tbl. butter
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 large rib celery
• 1/2 cup baby carrots, sliced fairly thinly
• 1 onion, diced to the size you prefer, (I prefer a large dice)
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/8 tsp. dried ginger, or grate in a little fresh, to taste
• 1 tsp. fresh minced garlic
• 1/4 cup soy sauce, or to taste, (I added just a splash more)
• 1/2 - 1 Tbl. sesame oil, to taste, (I add 1 Tbl. for our taste)
• 1 tsp. hoisin sauce
• 3/4 cup frozen sweet baby peas, unthawed
• more soy sauce to taste if needed

Instructions

Several hours before or in the morning, Make Rice: In medium to large saucepan, add water, salt and butter and bring to a boil, covered. Stir in rice, recover and turn down heat to LOW. Simmer for 15 minutes. Do not lift lid! Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, cover top with a paper towel to absorb steam/extra moisture, and cover with lid. When pan is cool enough, place into fridge to chill for at least 2 hours until rice is completely cold. The longer the better.

To make rest:

While rice is chilling, beat eggs well. In small sauté pan, melt butter, add eggs. Over medium heat, scramble eggs until hard scrambled chopping eggs into small pieces. Remove eggs to a bowl to cool. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

When rice is chilled well, get out a large deep frying pan or wok if you have one. Over medium heat, melt butter with sesame oil and soy sauce. Add pork, celery, carrots, onion, garlic salt, crushed red pepper and dried ginger. Sauté until veggies are almost tender. Add fresh garlic (and grated fresh ginger if using), and sauté 1 more minute.

Stir in rest of soy sauce, sesame oil and hoisin.

Stir in rice and eggs and fold in until well mixed and coated. Stir-fry 1-2 minutes.

Stir in frozen peas, taste-test, add more soy sauce to taste, cover with lid tilted and set aside for 1-2 minutes.

Serve hot with more soy sauce and sesame oil at the table as condiments for those who prefer a bit more.

Notes

I'm allergic, so I can't, but if you'd like to, you can serve this topped with broiled, steamed, stir-fried, or grilled shrimp.

You can also add coarse-chopped or sliced water chestnuts, too, but my hubby is allergic to those.

I used regular (not dark), sesame oil and regular (not low sodium), soy sauce for this recipe.

 

 

Other Asian-style recipes that you might like! Click photo for recipe!