Jul 30, 2010

Five Colored Veggies Fried Rice (at least)

Few days ago I had a very satisfying dinner at my friend's place,
Chinese spicy hot pot!
Dumping all the ingredients into spicy broth filled with chili oil and spices,
To bring it up to another level,
You can mix and match different sauces to make your ultimate dipping sauce,
My stomach was almost as big as Himalayas,
No no no, it was almost like a giant volcano that was gonna explode any moment.

In order to calm my belly down a little bit,
The very next morning, I made five colored veggies fried rice,
Let's stay on the healthy route for at least 3 days?


Ingredients (3 to 4 plates)?

2 1/2 cups of brown rice
1/3 cup of dried wood ear
2 shitake mushroom
1/2 cup shimeji mushroom
1/2 onion
1/2 canned corns
1 can of tuna (drained out the liquid)
1/3 cup of cooked salmon flakes (it's ok if you don't have it)
1 small carrot
1 stalk of scallion
Some Japanese light soy sauce
Some roasted white sesame seeds
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper/white pepper

How?

Dried wood ear needs to be rinsed and soaked in water before cooking,
So give them a quick rinse and soak in lukewarm water for about 15 minutes,
Afterwards, drain the water and cut into small pieces, set aside.

Dice the scallion, onion, and mushrooms into smaller cubes/pieces,
Cook the brown rice according to package instruction.
I usually use more water when cooking brown rice since it tends to be dryer than regular white rice.

Drizzle some olive oil in a large pan, toss in chopped onions,
Sprinkle some salt and black pepper, give it a quick stir, cook till the onions turned translucent,
Toss in the scallions, cook for another 10 seconds,
Toss in chopped carrot and wood ear, cook for about 20 seconds,
Add 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce,
I actually used a type of Japanese "soup base,"
It's similar to soy sauce, but infused with the flavors from other ingredients such as mushrooms or katsuo.

Let the carrot cooked in the sauce for a little bit longer,
Once that's done, toss in chopped mushrooms and corns,
Add about 1 more tablespoon of light soy sauce into the mixture,
Mix well, there should be some liquid present in the pan,
That's good, no worries, once we add the rice in, all the liquid will be absorbed by the rice.

Cook the mushrooms for about 1 minute,
Mix in canned tuna and salmon flakes,
You don't really need salmon flakes,
I was just too greedy and thought that one tiny can of tuna won't be enough (especially having such meaty spicy hot pot dinner the day before),
Cook for a little bit longer, taste it and see if more salts are needed,
It should be on the salty side because the flavor will get "diluted" once we add the rice in.

When the mixture is ready, turn the heat to medium low.
Add the cooked rice in 3 batches, don't dump it in all at once,
Mix the rice well with the sauces and ingredients for every batch,
During the mixing process,
The sauce should be gradually absorbed by the rice, turning them into tiny light brown goodies.

Sprinkle some roasted white sesame seeds before serving,
Some white pepper or sriracha sauce is also good with this dish.

Let's see,
Wood ear - black
Corn - yellow
Carrot - red
Scallion - green
Onion - white? translucent?
Mushrooms - black and white
Sesame seeds - white

So many colors, so many vegetables, so healthy!
This is my "detox" or "de-oil" food for at least 3 days straight!
By the way,
I found this link below that will calculate the daily veggies needed based on your age, gender, and physical activity:
http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/
Go give it a try,
I found out that I'm actually eating way less veggies than I'm supposed to be...
Well...guess it's time to catch up!

Cindy's Rating: 8

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful. We have something like this at home at least once a week. It's a great way to clean out the fridge. I love how vibrant your fried rice looks and you're the only other person that I've seen use canned tuna in their rice. I use the canned tuna in olive oil and I love it!

    Very nice. :-)

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  2. Certainly sounds healthy! Interesting addition with the wood ear, I haven't done that before.

    For more veggies add carrot and peas? LOL :)

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  3. To Jean~
    Yeah so true, I always make fried rice when I need to clean up my fridge! I love canned tuna in olive oil more than the ones in water. Somehow the texture (oil)is more tender than the water ones!

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  4. To Eat Travel Eat~
    I was searching for a seasoning in the kitchen then I found the wood ear that I brought from Taiwan (better tasting than the ones I can get from CA). That's how I figured why not put some wood ear in my fried rice!

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  5. I love your fried rice...so much veggies :D

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  6. To Tigerfish~
    Yeah so healthy, but at this moment I'm craving for meat again. I want steakkkkk!!

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  7. Wooaw. Fried rice is one of my favorite at home fast foods. Quick and easy and could be made by using leftovers.

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  8. I love fried rice, I still haven't decided what to eat today for dinner and fried rice sounds quite nice.

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  9. To Linn~
    Yeah I love it too, just chop everything into little pieces, toss into the pot, moments after a yummy easy meal is done!

    To Magda~
    Make fried rice!!!

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