Thai Fried Rice

I knew that during our streak of Thai meals I had to make a fried rice.  I love Thai fried rice.  And I love fried rice in general.  But when you're making this many meals with rice, it's inevitable that you will end up with some leftover rice and by the end of the week you should have more than enough leftover rice to whip up a batch of fried rice.  The past few meals have been chicken, beef and shrimp, so I figured we should go back to pork for the fried rice.  Originally I was going to serve the fried rice with either a tom yum soup or maybe some sauteed cabbage on the side, but in the end I decided that the fried rice could stand on its own.  And I'm glad I did.  Because if I had served anything as a side dish to this rice, it would have to be pretty darn good to compete.  Because this fried rice was pretty awesome.  I really liked the spritz of lime juice and the Thai Fish Sauce with Hot Chilis on top of the rice.  It really made the dish.  The freshness of the lime and the salty, spicy flavor of the fish sauce totally brought the rice up to another level in terms of flavor and complexity.  And really brought the whole dish together.  When you cut into the egg yolk and it oozed down into the rice it almost gave the fried rice a sauce and bound it all together.  I generally prefer to cook my egg into thin pancakes and then mix it in with the rice, but I think that for this dish the fried egg with the runny yolk was a much better choice than the egg pancakes.

Recipes after the jump!

Thai Fried Rice

Adapted from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

INGREDIENTS:

5 tbsp peanut oil, separated

10-12 cloves garlic, minced

6 oz thinly sliced boneless pork (we sliced up one pork chop)

4 cups cold cooked jasmine rice

5 scallions, white and green parts, cut on the bias, separated with 1 scallion set aside for garnish

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced on the bias

4 lime wedges

Thai Fish Sauce with Hot Chilis (recipe below)

2 large eggs

Heat a large wok over high heat.  Add 4 tbsp oil and heat until very hot.  Add garlic and stir-fry until just golden, about 20 seconds.  Add pork and cook, stirring constantly, until all the pork has changed color completely, about 1 minute.  Add the rice, breaking it up as you toss it into the wok.  With your spatula, keep moving the rice around the wok.  Cook for approximately 1 1/2 minutes, periodically pressing the rice against the wok with the back of the spatula to sear it a little.  Add scallions, fish sauce, and stir-fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Remove from heat and toss with 1/4 cup cilantro.

Turn out onto a dinner plate and garnish with remaining coriander and scallion.  Serve rice with cucumber slices and lime wedges.  Wipe out the wok and add remaining tbsp oil.  Quickly fry the eggs until whites are just set and yolks are still runny and turn them out onto the rice.

Squeeze the lime onto the rice as you eat it, along with the chili sauce.

Thai Fish Sauce with Hot Chilis

Adapted from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup bird chilis, stems removed

1/2 cup Thai fish sauce

Place the chilis in a mini food processor and pulse to finely chop (stop before they are mush).  If you don't have a food processor, use a cleaver or sharp knife to mince the chilis on a cutting board (you might want to wear gloves).

Transfer the minced chilis (with their seeds) to a glass or plastic container and add the fish sauce.  Cover and store in the refrigerator.  The sauce will keep indefinitely, losing chili heat over time; top it up with extra chilis or fish sauce when it runs slow.