Love fried rice?
I certainly do.
This fried rice recipe just might tickle your taste buds.
The New York Times Food Section featured a recipe for Tomato and Basil Fried Rice by cookbook author Hetty McKinnon this week. McKinnon is the author of a number of vegetable-forward cookbooks, most recently the much-acclaimed cookbook (and moving memoire) Tenderheart. (You can find Tenderheart through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.)
This particular McKinnon recipe is on the Times’ cooking site but not in Tenderheart. By the way, if you don’t already subscribe to the NYT Cooking site, it is a real bargain. There are, for example, twenty-seven recipes for fried rice on the NYT site–ranging from recipes by Eric Kim to Melissa Clark to Mark Bittman and including two more fried rice recipes from McKinnon. Here is a link to their subscription page: Cooking Subscription NYT . In addition to being a real treat for yourself, a cooking site subscription makes a great (and economical) gift.
The recipe I’m posting today was inspired by McKinnon’s Tomato and Basil Fried Rice recipe. As always seems to be the case with fried rice recipes, one adds a little bit of this and a little bit of that from one’s own pantry-of-the-moment. In my case, I added fresh corn, peeled Hatch chiles, fresh bean sprouts, green peas, and a handful of chopped green onions. I also was more generous in my seasoning with soy sauce and salt.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen:
Tomato and Basil Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- Kosher salt
- Grapeseed oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion (finely chopped)
- 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 1 jalapeno chile (chopped)
- 1 pound grape tomatoes
- 3 C. leftover white rice (I used basmati)
- 2 T. soy sauce
- 1/2 C. fresh basil
- 1/2 C. fresh corn
- 1/2 C. green peas
- 1/2 C. fresh bean sprouts
- 1/4-1/2 C. Hatch chiles (peeled and chopped)
- 1/2 C. green onions (chopped)
Directions
- Step 1 Heat 1 T. oil in a large pan or wok and cook beaten eggs in the hot oil. When the eggs are set, remove them from the pan and cool. Cut them into wide ribbons and set aside.
- Step 2 Heat 2 T. oil in the large pan or wok and fry chopped onion until it begins to soften. This will take a minute or two. Add the garlc, jalapeno chile, fresh corn kernels, chopped Hatch chiles, green peas, and fresh bean sprouts and continue to stir-fry for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes and 1 t. of salt to the mix and stir-fry for four or five minutes, stirring frequently.
- Step 3 Add the rice , soy sauce and half the basil to the pan along with more salt to your taste. Stir-fry this mixture for five or six minutes at a setting of medium-high heat. As the juices are released by the tomatoes, they will be (deliciously) absorbed. by the rice.
- Step 4 Add egg, chopped green onions, and remaining basil to the rice and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings (soy sauce and salt and pepper) to your taste.
- Step 5 Cook’s Note: The original recipe suggested cutting a few of the grape/cherry tomatoes in half before adding them in step 2 to more quickly release tomato juices into the dish.
