This is the first dish my mother ever taught me to make. I used to call it breakfast rice because we would have it in the mornings at the weekend. My mother doesn’t enjoy the greasiness of lots of sausages in the kitchen so this was our alternative. The dish is so incredibly simple yet imperative when learning how to wok-fry rice. There’s a subtle art to getting smokiness into the rice that comes from patience; she taught me so much of this when mastering wok hei.
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Photography: Liz Seabrook
Season: Spring or Year Round
Ingredients
2 eggs, whisked
2 spring onions
3 lap cheong (Chinese sausages)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp light soy sauce
400g cooked jasmine rice
1 tsp dark soy sauce
100g peas
1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt and white pepper
Method
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Begin by thinly slicing the lap cheong on a diagonal. Then mix together the soy sauces and oyster sauce with a pinch of salt and white pepper (to taste) and 2 teaspoons of water.
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In a non-stick pan set over a low–medium heat, scramble the eggs with a pinch of salt and white pepper then set aside. Chop the white sections of the spring onions into 3cm chunks. Finely chop the green part and set both parts aside separately.
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Add the vegetable oil to a wok over a medium heat and tip in the sliced lap cheong and the chunks of white spring onion. Fry for around 2 minutes until fragrant. Add in the rice and peas, then immediately pour over the soy sauce mixture. Turn the heat up to full and wok-fry until smoky and all of the sauce has been incorporated.
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Add in the scrambled egg and the green part of the spring onions and mix through. Mould the rice into bowls, then flip out onto plates. Serve with fresh, sliced cucumber and chilli paste, if you like.
Read more: The Female Chef
An in depth exploration of the relationship between women and food, and simultaneously a celebration of some of the UK’s most talented chefs — the game-changers and the women shaking things up — Clare’s book The Female Chef is one for your kitchen counter and your bedside table. The Female Chef by Clare Finney and Liz Seabrook is published by Hoxton Mini Press.
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