Ham Fried Rice

 

Easy...
Loved by my kids, fried rice is often found in any Filipino household as a common preparation for leftover rice. My older son loves making fried rice (and younger son is happy to have a share without spending much effort). Though my husband has very much learned to accept some Chinese food and actually likes fried rice in Chinese restaurant, he has never attempted tasting fried rice cooked at home (What's up with that????), which, in my opinon, is waaaay much better than that in the Chinese resto. Oh well...who said it was easy feeding my husband?
Ingredients:
LEFTOVERS -
Rice (we deliberately cook rice to end up with leftover. My kids love fried rice)
1 cup or so Ham, shredded (this was pork ham from our own pig we raised, cooked a la New England boiled dinner)
1 cup Frozen veggies (carrots and peas)
3 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
3 tbsp oil
soy sauce or Maggi Seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Heat oil. Sautee garlic until fragrant and golden brown. Add veggies and ham. Add rice and stir, breaking rice clumps. Season with soy sauce/seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until well heated thorough (my kids don't like the fried rice "tutong"-like, and neither do I). Can be eaten alone ("Kanin pa lang, ulam na!" is a common Filipino saying for such fried rice complete with protein source and veggies) or with anything you fancy.

Chicken Adobo Fried Rice

Any Filipino loves using leftover adobo (if any) for fried rice.
Before my husband and I went out of town for an anniversary celebration (without the kids!), I cooked chicken adobo for them to bring to my in-laws to have for supper. Not that I was worried they would not have anything they would like to eat there, and I was sure my MIL would cook something good for them. It's just that on that day, I finished packing and freezing my chickens and I left one in the fridge for having chicken adobo, but my husband, who was quite concerned that I was already exhausted, offered to bring us out for supper. I did not object. But thinking I did not want to leave the chickens in the fridge for 3 days, I cooked them that night and left instructions for my older son to bring it to my MIL for their supper. Of course, I wanted my in-laws to have a taste of adobo as well.


Since my husband was the breast lover (chicken, that is), I had leftovers mainly of breast meat. I cut them in bite-size pieces and I added the leftover chicken teriyaki from a previously ordered Chinese food. Since I did not have enough adobo sauce, I mixed some soy sauce with water (probably 1/4 cup each) and used that for further seasoning of the rice. When fried rice is prepared this way, as in lots of meat in it, we Filipinos like saying, "Kanin pa lang, ulam na." (Rice itself is a whole dish" since we do not really consider rice alone as a meal by itself, and it has to be accompanied by meat and veggies. Now, even if I was considering adding frozen veggies (carrots and peas) to this, I decided against it because I was going to convert a leftover saucy beef dish into a healthy veggie based stir-fry (up on my next post).

I will not post exact amounts of ingredients; just approximate because everything depends on how much you have.

Ingredients:
4 cups of leftover cooked rice
(optional) 2 cloves garlic, minced (I did not add any since I had some still in the adobo sauce)
1 whole chicken breast adobo leftover (or so, this can be forgiving) plus whatever adobo sauce was left
1-2 tbsp oil (may add more depending on the amount of rice and how oily you want it to be. I don't like it too oily, nor too "dry")
soy-sauce water mix (1:1)
kosher salt

Instructions:
Heat wok/pan. Add oil (then garlic, if using). Sautee chicken pieces briefly. Add the rice and stir, stir, stir, until the grains do not clump together too much and are quite coated with some oil. Add the soy sauce-water mixture and stir, stir, stir again. Adjust taste with kosher salt as needed. Continue stirring until heated good (some want the rice to get toasted. We don't.)

Beef Pares with an Apple Twist

From 10-06-08 dinner

I used the Beef Pares recipe, and added carrots and ginger (per comment of one who tried adding these to my recipe), then instead of using frozen beef broth to top the chuck roast (to avoid drying it up), I used half of the apples I usually use for an apple pie, mixed with the usual spices cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ground cloves.



When cooked, I placed the apples in a bowl first and mashed with a fork. Then I strained the sauce (separating the spaces and carrots in the process), then thickened and finalized the gravy the usual way. Then I mixed some of the gravy with the mashed apples, tasted it and adjusted by adding some soy sauce as needed. The resulting applesauce was yummmmmylicious! Hubby liked it as well! (He usually does not use the sauce of beef pares; he likes savoring the flavor infused in the meat itself.)

Then we had very little leftover. At first I was considering making beef asado roll but since I did not have enough meat mixed with remaining applesauce, I decided to use it for fried rice (I had plenty of gravy remaining, perfect for flavoring the rice!)

Fried Rice

I do not want to give it any special name. I just want to post here how I usually prepare my fried rice.
Basically, I heat 1-2 tbsp of oil (depending on the amount of leftover rice; I don't want my fried rice to be swimming in oil), then sautee 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic, then add the rice. No salt added. Sometimes my sons would add soy sauce. (I sometimes use bacon drippings, or even use leftover bacon, usually the fatty parts, instead of the vegetable oil.)

But, in times when I have leftover sauce/gravy from such dishes as beef pares, chicken or pork adobo, Korean short beef ribs, or meatloaf, I save that even if it is just 1/4 cup, because I love using them to flavor fried rice.

Then I also always have in my freezer bags of peas, sometimes I have canned slice mushrooms, which I love adding to the fried rice. I also save some leftover scrambled eggs (even bacon if any) from past day's breakfast, and cut them into strips before adding.

If I have chives or leeks or spring onions, I also sprinkle them on top before serving.

When prepared this way, especially if we add bits of sausage or hotdogs, truly we Filipinos can say, "Kanin pa lang, ulam na!"

My sons already know what to do when we have leftovers which they can imagine to be good with fried rice.