Season with Salt: Thai Fried Rice

I love rice. I really, really love rice. When I was little, my mom used to make a lot of Asian-type dishes, so we had rice quite often. I loooooove rice. My half-Filipino husband, not so much. He grew up with a LOT of rice, and could now care less about it. Which is too bad. Because I LOVE rice.

So here, I'll give you two recipes for really easy (and super delicious!) Thai Fried Rice.

The first is from Tamar Adler's book An Everlasting Meal. It`s meat-less and has lots of delicious herbs!

1 Tbsp peanut oil

2 shallots, sliced into thin rounds

1 Thai bird’s-eye chile (the small red ones), sliced into thin rounds and seeded

2 cloves garlic, smashed once or twice

1 cup yesterday’s cooked rice

Salt

½ cup chopped cucumber, radish, or green tomato

2 cups chopped cilantro or a combination of basil, cilantro, and mint

A big squeeze of lime, plus wedges for serving

½ tsp sugar

2 tsps Thai fish sauce

Optional: 1 fried egg per person

1) Heat the oil in as wide a pan or wok as possible. You need enough hot surface area for every grain to fry. Once the oil has begun to smoke, add the shallots, chile, and garlic, then immediately add the rice. Spread it out over the whole surface of the pan. Salt it lightly.

2) When it seems like every grain has had time alone with the hot pan, scoop the rice into the middle of the pan, add the rest of the ingredients, and toss it all well. Serve with a lime wedge per bowl. Add the fried egg on top.

The second recipe is very similar, but has minced beef and loads of basil. I enjoy both recipes, but I like this one better as a more filling meal. It`s from Molly Wizenberg`s blog, Orangette. You can find it here. I don`t have a picture of this one because it smelled too good and I ate it before I realized I should have taken a picture. Then again, fried rice looks like fried rice so - probably not a terrible loss!