Tag Archives: Rice

Yeung Chow Fried Rice (揚州炒飯)

September 21, 2015 7:58 am , Leave a Comment ,
Yeung Chow Fried Rice

Yeung Chow Fried Rice derives from the city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province of China. I believe it’s one of the most popular Cantonese rice dish in the West. In every Chinese restaurant, there is Yeung Chow Fried Rice on the menu. Who wouldn’t love it? It has a taste of everything—bbq pork, shrimp, eggs and veggies.

If you ask my husband what his favourite Chinese food is he would definitely say, “Yeung Chow Fried Rice!” Every time we go to a Chinese restaurant, he wants to order Yeung Chow Fried Rice. When he heard that I was making this for the blog, he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to taste this Memorable Dish because he had to fly out for work. I told him I was going to save him some if the boys hadn’t devoured it all.

The kiddies also love Yeung Chow Fried Rice. Actually they love eating any type of fried rice. I think the crispiness of the rice combined with the meat and vegetables give their mouths a sensation overload that they enjoy. They can eat bowls and bowls of it! When they eat fried rice, they are like little machines scooping big mouthfuls at a time into their mouths.

You can easily make this Memorable Dish right in your own home. Either buy Chinese BBQ Pork from the Chinese BBQ shop or major Chinese grocery store. If you have time, make your own Chinese BBQ Pork from my recipe. Frankly, I think it tastes better when you make this fried rice at home. I find that restaurants skimp out on the ingredients and the meat to rice ratio is too low. I’ll bet you can’t just eat one bowl of this yummy fried rice 😉Yeung Chow Fried Rice

Yeung Chow Fried Rice (揚州炒飯)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients

  • 5 cups of day-old Cooked Rice (2 cups of uncooked rice)
  • 2 cups of Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu), diced
  • 1/2 cup of Shrimp, diced
  • 2 cups of frozen Peas, Carrots, Corn (thawed)
  • 3 large beaten Eggs
  • Vegetable Oil (1 tsp for eggs, 1 tsp for bbq pork and shrimp, 3 tsp for rice)
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1/4 cup low sodium Soy Sauce
  • 1 sliced Green Onion for garnish

Preparation

  1. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a non-stick wok or large frying pan.
  2. Scramble the eggs and set aside.
  3. Using the same wok, heat 1 tsp of oil and fry up the bbq pork until it’s lightly brown. Then add the shrimp to the pork and cook until shrimp just turn pink. Set aside.
  4. Heat 3 tsp of oil and stir fry the rice until it’s heated through.
  5. When the rice turns a bit crispy, add the salt, garlic powder, and soy sauce.
  6. Stir fry the rice a bit more until the soy sauce is mixed in the rice.
  7. Put the pork, shrimp, eggs, and vegetables with the rice.
  8. Stir fry all the ingredients until they are evenly mixed.
  9. Garnish with sliced green onions.

Notes

If you don’t have any day-old rice, cook the rice and cool it in the fridge before making the fried rice for best results. Basically, the rice has to be a bit on the dryer side.

https://www.memorabledishes.com/yeung-chow-fried-rice/

Posted in: Main Course, Pork, Rice, Seafood , Tagged: , , ,

Spam Fried Rice

April 6, 2015 9:30 am , Leave a Comment ,
Spam Fried Rice

Spam – what can I say about it? For some, it is a deceptively tasty can of meat. For others, it is the antichrist of meat products. Whether you love it or loathe it, Spam is a Memorable Dish for everyone because everyone has an opinion about it.

I never knew that Spam was a food to be made fun of until I moved to North America. In Hong Kong, we consider Spam a meat staple. There are Spam and egg sandwiches, Spam in macaroni soup, Spam on top of ramen noodles, and Spam fried rice. The list of food made from Spam is endless.

Even though Spam is the butt of many jokes in North America (except in Hawaii where they LOVE Spam), I think most people secretly enjoy eating it. Some of my friends always bring Spam when they go camping. They insist they only eat it when camping because it’s easy to pack and doesn’t need refrigeration. Perhaps they use camping as an excuse to indulge in their innermost desires of Spam eating without the guilt? 😉

What makes this a Memorable Dish for me is that my mom used to make us Spam Fried Rice as kids. North Americans have their macaroni and cheese and we have our Spam Fried Rice, or any fried rice for that matter. But I fondly remember her Spam Fried Rice. Now that we are more health conscious, she hasn’t used Spam for fried rice as much. She uses ham or chicken or whatever leftover meats she has on hand.

I am continuing the family tradition of making fried rice for the kiddies. Most of the time, I use real meat (not that Spam is not “real” meat…haha). But sometimes when I feel nostalgic and want to live life on the edge, I make Spam Fried Rice.

Just like me, the kids can’t stop eating just one bowl of fried rice. If you end up making this recipe, please enjoy and indulge! I don’t pig out on Spam all the time (pun intended). So, no guilt is allowed when eating Spam Fried Rice, ok? 🙂 On that note, here’s my recipe for Spam Fried Rice. Now that Spam Lite is available, I’m using that instead. Healthier Spam – how ironic!

img_Spam_Fried_Rice

Spam Fried Rice

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients

  • 5 cups of day-old Cooked Rice (2 cups of uncooked rice)
  • 1 can of diced Spam (I use the low-fat version.)
  • 2 cups of frozen Peas, Carrots, Corn (thawed)
  • 3 large beaten Eggs
  • Vegetable Oil (1 tsp for eggs, 3 tsp for rice)
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • ¼ cup low sodium Soy Sauce
  • 1 sliced Green Onion for garnish

Preparation

  1. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a non-stick wok or large frying pan.
  2. Scramble the eggs and set aside.
  3. Using the same wok, fry up the Spam until lightly brown and crispy on the outside. (You don’t need to use oil because there’s enough fat in the Spam.) Drain out the oil and set aside.
  4. Heat 3 tsp of oil and stir fry the rice until it’s heated through.
  5. When the rice turns a bit crispy, add the salt, garlic powder, and soy sauce.
  6. Stir fry the rice a bit more until the soy sauce is mixed in the rice.
  7. Put the Spam, eggs, and vegetables with the rice.
  8. Stir fry all the ingredients until they are evenly mixed.
  9. Garnish with sliced green onions.

Notes

If you don’t have any day-old rice, cook the rice and cool it in the fridge before making the fried rice for best results. Basically, the rice has to be a bit on the dryer side.

https://www.memorabledishes.com/spam-fried-rice/

Posted in: Main Course, Pork, Rice , Tagged: , , , , ,

Chicken With Rice
(Kokoshka Sou Oris)

March 23, 2015 8:06 am , 2 Comments ,

Chicken (Kokoshka) With (Sou) Rice (Oris) is one of my favourite Memorable Dishes from my husband’s family. When we first started dating, this is one of the dishes I had at my in-laws. It’s not a fancy dish by any means but I really enjoyed eating it every time. Even though we are from totally different backgrounds (me being Chinese and him being Macedonian), we find that lots of our values are very similar. Our family’s love of food is definitely one of them. Yes – I consider that a value! I always say to my husband, “Thank goodness you like to eat and try new foods as much as I do!” I believe our relationship has lasted because we share the same value for food 😉

When we got married, my mother-in-law bought me the “official” Macedonian recipe book. It’s a plastic-coiled bound book with a red cover that says, “Traditional Macedonian Recipes.” Mine is a revised edition with 40 additional recipes. It seems like everyone in the Macedonian community has one version or another. The book also includes a bit of Macedonian history and a map, which is very interesting to me. I also love that in each section, there’s a little anecdote that talks about the recipes and the importance of them to the Macedonian community.

The first time I cooked this dish from the recipe book, it didn’t turn out the same as my mother-in-law’s. When I told her about my blunder, she looked at the recipe and said that it wasn’t the same way she cooked this dish. This reiterated the line that I read from the cookbook, “In collecting the recipes, we did not find two women who made the same dish in exactly the same manner.” Go figure!

I find it very comforting when cooking this recipe. The smell of chopped onions, celery and carrots permeates my nose and into my mind. Even though I have never been to my husband’s Macedonian village before, I could picture hardworking mothers taking care of their families and cooking up a nice meal after a hard day’s work at the farm.

I used the Macedonian cookbook’s recipe as a base and adjusted the way I cook it for my family. The kids gobble up this dish every time I make it. Lovingly, they really enjoy this Macedonian dish made by their Chinese mother 🙂

Chicken With Rice (Kokoshka Sou Oris)

Chicken With Rice
(Kokoshka Sou Oris)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients

  • (For Chicken Broth)
  • 1 Chicken whole (approximately 4 pounds)
  • 1 Celery stalk with leaves, halved
  • 1 Onion, halved
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 10 cups of Water for boiling
  • (For Chicken Rice Dish)
  • 3 tsp Olive Oil
  • 1 medium diced Onion
  • 2 diced Celery stalks
  • 2 diced Carrots
  • 2 cups of long grain Rice
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • ½ tsp Pepper
  • 4 cups Chicken Broth (from the boiled chicken)
  • Chopped Parsley for garnish

Preparation

  1. Cut the chicken into serving size pieces and trim any excess fat.
  2. Place chicken, celery, onion, bay leaf and 1 tsp salt in large pot and cover with water.
  3. Bring the water to a boil and skim any scum and fat floating on top.
  4. Turn down to medium low heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
  5. Once it’s done, set chicken aside from broth.
  6. For Rice Preparation
  7. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  8. Heat olive oil in large frying pan.
  9. Sauté onions, celery and carrots over medium heat until soft (about 5-10 minutes).
  10. Add rice, chicken broth, salt, and pepper into the vegetables and mix.
  11. Bring liquid back to a boil and turn off heat.
  12. Put rice mixture in a baking dish and place chicken on top.
  13. Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes.
  14. Cover with foil or lid and let it stand until all liquid is absorbed.
  15. Garnish with parsley.

Notes

Note #1: You can blanch the chicken pieces before boiling them to eliminate most of the scum.

Note #2: If rice is too dry for your liking, add some extra broth and then cover for a few more minutes.

https://www.memorabledishes.com/chicken-with-rice/

Posted in: Chicken, Main Course, Poultry, Rice , Tagged: , , , ,

Minced Beef and Egg with Rice
(窩蛋免治牛肉飯)

March 9, 2015 8:11 am , Leave a Comment ,
Minced Beef and Egg with Rice

Eating this rice dish brought back memories of weekend lunches in Hong Kong when I was a kid. Almost every weekend, our family went out for dim sum. My father is an avid rice eater, which means he needs to eat rice at every meal or else all hell would break loose! If he absolutely cannot eat rice at a particular meal, noodles or pasta would suffice.

If you are familiar with dim sum, you know that it consists of small morsels of meat or dumplings. I think my father doesn’t feel truly full unless he has eaten rice. So our dim sum outings would always end up with him ordering a rice dish. In most cases, it would be Minced Beef and Egg with Rice.

This dish appears in most Chinese restaurants’ menu as “Raw Egg with Minced Beef Rice”. Yes, the egg is raw! The waiter brings the raw egg to the table and cracks it into the beef mixture right in front of you. You then mix the raw egg with the beef and rice. The hot temperature of the beef and rice cooks the egg a little but it remains mostly raw. The egg gives the dish a silky finish that I love.

Every time I eat this Memorable Dish, it reminds me of how obsessed my father is over eating rice. This restaurant-style dish is very easy to recreate at home. My whole family, including the kids, love it! I think this dish is becoming one of my kids’ most Memorable Dishes.

Minced Beef and Egg with Rice

Minced Beef and Egg with Rice
(窩蛋免治牛肉飯)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Serving Size: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds of Ground Beef
  • 2 tbsp of low sodium Soy Sauce
  • 1 tsp of Sugar
  • 1 tsp of Cornstarch
  • 1/8 tsp of White Pepper
  • 1 tsp of Sesame Oil
  • 2 tbsp of Water
  • 1 small diced Onion
  • 2 cloves of minced Garlic
  • 2 cups frozen Green Peas
  • 1 tbsp of Oil (neutral tasting oil such as Canola or Vegetable)
  • 2 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
  • 1 sliced Green Onion for garnish
  • 1 Egg
  • Steamed Rice

Preparation

  1. Marinate beef with soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, white pepper, sesame oil and water for at least 30 minutes.
  2. If you marinate the beef in the fridge, make sure you bring it back to room temperature before cooking it.
  3. Heat oil in a wok or a large frying pan.
  4. Sauté the onions until they are translucent (about 5 minutes) and then add garlic in.
  5. Add beef to the onions and garlic and cook until it is done.
  6. Stir in oyster sauce.
  7. If sauce doesn’t thicken after adding the oyster sauce, thicken with cornstarch solution (mix 1 tsp. cornstarch and 1 tbsp. water in a bowl first then add it into the beef mixture).
  8. Lastly, add peas in the mixture and cook until peas are heated through.
  9. Put beef mixture on a bed of steamed rice.
  10. Crack and stir the raw egg into the rice dish.
  11. Garnish with sliced green onions.

Notes

Note #1: If the beef is too fatty, you might want to drain the fat after cooking before putting the mixture on the rice.

Note #2: If you are squeamish about using a raw egg, you can always cook it sunny side up or over easy. If you are using the raw egg, make sure you wash the shell thoroughly.

https://www.memorabledishes.com/minced-beef-and-egg-with-rice/

Posted in: Beef, Main Course, Rice , Tagged: , ,
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