Monday, January 19, 2009

Scallop Fried Rice

Scallop Fried Rice
From: sturmhauke

2 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 lb. small scallops
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
1 egg
1 quart container of 2 day old leftover Chinese takeout white rice*
1/2 tbsp. soy sauce

Heat 1 tsp. of sesame oil in your wok over medium-high heat. (What, you don't have a wok? You can use a large pot instead, but it may be difficult to cook this properly.) Add scallops, garlic, pepper, and onion powder and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Move the scallops to the side, crack the egg into the wok, and scramble it, stirring as it cooks so as to make little scrambled egg bits. Stir everything back together. Add the rice, the rest of the sesame oil, and the soy sauce. Stir rice until heated through, adding more sesame oil or soy sauce to taste. The rice should be a light tan color. Sesame oil and soy sauce are both fairly strong flavors, so don't add so much that it overpowers the scallops. Serve yourself a bowl and eat next to your pregnant wife who is still raving about the other scallop recipe you just made (or, you know, eat them both yourself).

*Note on rice: Freshly cooked rice has too much water in it, so if you try to make fried rice it will get mushy and not be as good. But when it's been sitting in your fridge it gets nicely dried out and the individual grains can cook properly. On the other hand, rice can solidify into a brick while it's drying. You can knock it apart in the wok and turn the heat down while you do it (which is what I did), but I thought of some other possible solutions:

break it up in a large bowl first
curse strenuously at it
beat it with a bar of soap wrapped in a sock
put it in a strongbox and throw it off your roof

OK, so maybe the first alternative suggestion is really the only practical one.

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