Friday, September 14, 2007

Just sent T a couple highly discounted hard anodized aluminum pans as a housewarming gift.

Picked the free shipping, so it might be a while, dear. I'll keep you posted.

Also, here's how I make that fried rice with kale you like:

You need 8 oz of bacon (that's half a package, generally, though you can often get 8 oz packages also), a bunch of kale (usually sold in bunches), a nice thick 2-3 inch piece of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili paste (I usually use Lan Chi chili paste with garlic, but others will work, try to get one with little or no sugar), a cup and a half of rice. Sherry or white wine could also be nice in this if you happen to have any.

So, start cooking the rice, meanwhile peel the ginger & garlic, mince, wash the kale and strip the leaves from the stems, discard the stems and either chop or hand shred the leaves into smallish pieces, chop the bacon into smallish pieces, by the time you've done all that your rice is probably done, set it aside.

Heat about a tablespoon of sesame oil in a wok over medium high heat, once the oil is hot, add the bacon, stirring until it is nicely browned and crispy, add the ginger and garlic and a rounded teaspoon or so of chili paste, stir for about a minute, add a 1/4 cup of soy sauce (also a 1/4 cup of wine if you're using it), stir until the liquid is boiling vigorously (this will happen quickly), add the kale (this may be a little unmanageable at first, depending on the size of your wok, you might want to cover the wok briefly to steam the kale so it will shrink and become easier to stir), stir until the kale is cooked (this won't take very long, but longer than some other greens, it's also harder to overcook, so don't worry too much about it), with the wok still on the heat, mix in the rice and stir it around until everything is nicely mixed, taste for salt, if it's not salty enough for you, add a little more soy sauce and mix some more.

Serve & enjoy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

what kind of rice?

dbr said...

Any kind should work just fine, I've made this with jasmine, basmati, American long grain, etc. Would probably also be tasty with brown rice if you want to pretend something with half a pound of bacon in it is healthy, that takes longer to cook though, so give yourself more lead time.

dbr said...

This is also good with just about any other vegetable you would consider stir frying, I'm going to make this with baby broccoli raab & broccoli later I think.