The spicy sausage I'm using here is the Chinese kind, and I know it can be hard to find if you're in western countries. Worry not, if that's the case, use other spicy varieties. Take chorizo for instance, which can be a great substitute if you can't get a hold of Chinese spicy sausages.
Spicy sausage fried rice (interchangeable with chorizo) -
Ingredients (about 5 servings)?
- 3 rice measuring cups basmati rice
- 4 spicy sausages
- 2/3 cup green beans/peas
- 200 grams gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
- 3 eggs
- 2 stalks scallion
- 1 chunk ginger
- 1/2 cup peeled and chopped shallots
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
How?
Measure the rice to the inner pot of rice cooker. Rinse and drain the water a few times. Cook the rice with a bit less water than usual. Per my case, I use the rice measuring cup and measured 3 cups of rice, then I only added water up to the scale indicating 2 1/2 cups of rice.
When the rice is cooked, fluff the grains and wait till some steam has been escaped. I prefer to cook the rice the day before, just so it'll be less work for me on the actual day of cooking.
Bring a small pot of water to a boil and quickly cook the peas. It should take no more than a minute. Drain and remove the skin if needed. There is no need to boil the peas first if using precooked frozen peas.
Steam the Asian spicy sausages first, or sear the western version instead. Once fully cooked through, remove from heat and let the sausages sit till cool enough to handle by hand. Pour out all the sausage juice or fats to a bowl.
Slice the sausages to thinner pieces and transfer to the bowl with juice and fats. It'll keep the slices moist while we prep other ingredients.
Peel and chop the shallots. We will need about 1/2 cup of prepped shallots later on. Scrape the ginger skin and finely chop the ginger, we will need about 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of prepped ginger. Destem and chop the scallion. Chop the gai lan. Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a big wok. Switch to medium heat and wait till the oil gets warm. Once hot enough, pour in beaten eggs to make scrambled eggs. You can use a spatula to break the eggs to smaller pieces while the heat keeps going. Once done, scoop out the eggs and set aside first.
Still using the same wok, pour in 2 tablespoons of olive oil again and switch to medium high heat. Only use high heat if you can work your way around the fire fast enough without burning or messing up things.
Add in shallot, ginger, scallion, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Stir-fry till aromatic but not burning the garlic.
Transfer chopped gai lan over along with peas. Continue to cook for a minute. Add the sausages along with its juice and fats. Mix till blended.
Add cooked rice over, also 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder. Flip, fluff, or gently mix the rice with all these ingredients. Try not to "smash" or "over-stir" the rice, that way the grains can turn mushy or broken to even smaller pieces.
Transfer scrambled eggs over and mix till blended. Taste and adjust with additional seasonings if needed. Especially most likely we are using different kind of spicy sausages, it's best to give it a taste test and see if the rice is salty enough.
Once checked and ready to go, scoop the rice to serving plates or bowls and enjoy right away.
One can say the key here is the spicy sausage. That's right, the flavor of the sausage controls a big portion of the taste profile here. But the key aroma lies on shallots and ginger. You have to use shallots here, not onion. And ginger provides a bright yet slightly spicy Asian tone to it, even though you won't really notice its presence.
Sausages, we can improvise. But aromatics must stay.
Other fried rice recipes:
- Sacha bell pepper and beef fried rice 沙茶青椒牛肉炒飯
- Three cup chicken fried rice 三杯雞炒飯
- SPAM fried rice with colorful veggies 午餐肉炒飯
- Bitter tea oil fried rice 苦茶油炒飯
