Tonight's dinner was one of Christina's favorites, fried rice. Well, fried is overstating it a bit, since we use so little oil. It's more like skillet-heated rice with veggies and chicken.
3 - 4 cups cooked rice (usually leftover from a previous meal)
1.5 cups frozen peas & carrots
2 eggs (optional)
8 - 10 oz chicken (or tofu, if that's your thing), diced
2 tablespoons sesame oil (we like the lighter stuff as opposed to the strong, dark variety)
1 teaspoon mongolian fire oil (ahua! it's hot)
half an onion (sweet onions are good with this recipe), chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3/4 cup soy sauce (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon ginger, ground (or fresh minced, if you have it)
Thaw the peas and carrots in the microwave. About a minute on high should do it.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat (about 350º F), cook the chicken first (before you dice it). If you like, drizzle a little of the fire oil over the chicken for flavor It should be done all the way through, since it won't receive much in the way of cooking once it's in the rice. Dice it and set it aside.
If you're going to use eggs, cook them now. Just crack them onto the skillet and scramble them up -- no water or milk required. Set them aside as well.
Give your skillet a quick spritz with some non-stick spray and put in the chopped onions. When they turn translucent and begin to brown, add the peas and carrots. Add ginger and a bit of the fire oil. Add about a third of the soy sauce. Stir constantly for about three minutes to keep things from getting too brown.
Add rice, continue stirring. Add sesame oil and mix to coat the rice. After about three minutes, add the egg, followed by the soy sauce. (Or the other way around if you don't like the egg soaking up the soy.) Add the chicken. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until things look good and hot, then add the green onion (it cooks quickly, so it's the last thing to add) and cook for an additional minute.
If your rice is leftover and a bit dry, you may want to add some water with the rice to rehydrate it. Not too much, though, because the soy sauce will provide some moisture as well.
Makes 3-4 servings.
I came up with this recipe after seeing it done at one of those goofy Japanese steakhouses. Christina's mom took us to one when we visited her in Nebraska. (It's the East out West, didn't you know?)
Buckaroo Banzai
I finally sat down and watched this all the way through; previous attempts resulted in boredom and sleep. It's a quirky little sci-fi film about an absurdly ideal hero (Buckaroo, who is a brilliant physicist, neurosurgeon, musician, etc etc) played by Peter Weller. Banzai stops an invasion by aliens from the "eighth dimension." It's a little too intentionally quirky and purposefully difficult to follow on the first viewing; the filmmakers want you to either be a part of their club or be totally lost. Neither happened for me, but I can see how it might inspire a cult following.
Frankly, this has been done better in other cases (Terry Gilliam's Brazil, for example), and I just didn't think the movie was good enough to warrant a second viewing, let alone obsessive analysis. The most remarkable thing about it is the cast, with heavy hitters like Christopher Lloyd and John Lithgow sprinkled in with character actor faves like Vincent Schiavelli and Dan Hedaya.
And no, I didn't think the fact that the evil "Red Lectroids" were disguised as pasty white humans, and the good "Black Lectroids" were disguised as Rastafarian humans was very funny at all. The bit about "John Bigboote" got old quick. Nope, I was not destined to be a BB fan. I'm sure many Stomp Tokyo readers will give little horrified gasps when they find out.
Finished up the Transformers movie tonight while on the Healthwalker again, and was impressed that, among all the goofy made-for-the-movie faux '80s rock tunes, they also squeezed in Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid." Naturally, this came up when Eric Idle's character appeared.
But here I am, talking about movies in my cooking blog. I'll have to cut that out.
Yeah, right.
3 - 4 cups cooked rice (usually leftover from a previous meal)
1.5 cups frozen peas & carrots
2 eggs (optional)
8 - 10 oz chicken (or tofu, if that's your thing), diced
2 tablespoons sesame oil (we like the lighter stuff as opposed to the strong, dark variety)
1 teaspoon mongolian fire oil (ahua! it's hot)
half an onion (sweet onions are good with this recipe), chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3/4 cup soy sauce (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon ginger, ground (or fresh minced, if you have it)
Thaw the peas and carrots in the microwave. About a minute on high should do it.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat (about 350º F), cook the chicken first (before you dice it). If you like, drizzle a little of the fire oil over the chicken for flavor It should be done all the way through, since it won't receive much in the way of cooking once it's in the rice. Dice it and set it aside.
If you're going to use eggs, cook them now. Just crack them onto the skillet and scramble them up -- no water or milk required. Set them aside as well.
Give your skillet a quick spritz with some non-stick spray and put in the chopped onions. When they turn translucent and begin to brown, add the peas and carrots. Add ginger and a bit of the fire oil. Add about a third of the soy sauce. Stir constantly for about three minutes to keep things from getting too brown.
Add rice, continue stirring. Add sesame oil and mix to coat the rice. After about three minutes, add the egg, followed by the soy sauce. (Or the other way around if you don't like the egg soaking up the soy.) Add the chicken. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until things look good and hot, then add the green onion (it cooks quickly, so it's the last thing to add) and cook for an additional minute.
If your rice is leftover and a bit dry, you may want to add some water with the rice to rehydrate it. Not too much, though, because the soy sauce will provide some moisture as well.
Makes 3-4 servings.
I came up with this recipe after seeing it done at one of those goofy Japanese steakhouses. Christina's mom took us to one when we visited her in Nebraska. (It's the East out West, didn't you know?)
Buckaroo Banzai
I finally sat down and watched this all the way through; previous attempts resulted in boredom and sleep. It's a quirky little sci-fi film about an absurdly ideal hero (Buckaroo, who is a brilliant physicist, neurosurgeon, musician, etc etc) played by Peter Weller. Banzai stops an invasion by aliens from the "eighth dimension." It's a little too intentionally quirky and purposefully difficult to follow on the first viewing; the filmmakers want you to either be a part of their club or be totally lost. Neither happened for me, but I can see how it might inspire a cult following.
Frankly, this has been done better in other cases (Terry Gilliam's Brazil, for example), and I just didn't think the movie was good enough to warrant a second viewing, let alone obsessive analysis. The most remarkable thing about it is the cast, with heavy hitters like Christopher Lloyd and John Lithgow sprinkled in with character actor faves like Vincent Schiavelli and Dan Hedaya.
And no, I didn't think the fact that the evil "Red Lectroids" were disguised as pasty white humans, and the good "Black Lectroids" were disguised as Rastafarian humans was very funny at all. The bit about "John Bigboote" got old quick. Nope, I was not destined to be a BB fan. I'm sure many Stomp Tokyo readers will give little horrified gasps when they find out.
Finished up the Transformers movie tonight while on the Healthwalker again, and was impressed that, among all the goofy made-for-the-movie faux '80s rock tunes, they also squeezed in Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid." Naturally, this came up when Eric Idle's character appeared.
But here I am, talking about movies in my cooking blog. I'll have to cut that out.
Yeah, right.
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