cook: asian fried rice

I needed brunch and wanted to use up a package of Chinese bacon in the pantry and leftover rice and Spam (which Patrick opened for Sadie to entice her to eat) in the fridge.                                 

 

Ugh, the bacon grossed me out a bit as it was grisly and I used tweezers to pluck out hairs. I needed scissors to cut the pork skin. I'll never buy this product again though I do like their Chinese style sausage. And before I started frying the rice, I decided to also make a Korean banchan of bean sprouts. I first washed the bean sprouts before blanching them in boiling water for just one minute.

 

I also cleaned up the scallions that were in my fridge. Into a small bowl, I mixed a mashed clove of garlic, fish sauce, sesame oil, sugar, a pinch of salt, and toasted sesame seeds and then coated the bean sprouts with the dressing.

 

Since I was cleaning out my fridge, I also blanched what was left of baby bok choy and then tossed it in a sauce of red miso paste, garlic clove, gochuchan, sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, and toasted sesame seeds. Both vegetables also got tossed with green onions and chives. I coated the rice in sesame oil and mixed up soy sauce and gochuchan with the juice I squeezed from the kimchi I had chopped up. It was not spicy enough, and so I added sriracha to the sauce.

 

I could not do without these sauces though I'll need a spicier brand of gochuchan in my Asian pantry.

Finally it was fry time. First the Chinese bacon, which I then removed and then the spam, also removed, and then added into the pan, the kimchi, followed by the rice and the sauce. Frying took at least 20 minutes to get the rice dry enough before adding the browned meats.

I prepared a lunch plate for Cecilia before finally tucking into the fried rice and bean sprouts and bok choy and kimchi.

 

I was proud of myself for eating vegetables and my fridge clean-out, but what to do with the rest of that Chinese bacon? I've a carton of Chinese deli chow mein, but I wish I had some more baby bok choy to fry with the bacon to add to the noodles.