I was sitting here tonight editing a friend's book and started getting the munchies. I made a roast beef wrap, ate a few bites and realized it wasn't what I wanted to eat. So I gave the rest of the wrap to a doggy and suddenly realized I was craving rice. I wanted to make something with the incredibly aromatic and yummy Texmati Basmati rice I had in my pantry. I Googled "easy rice recipes" and when I saw the words "fried rice" I knew that is what I wanted, one of my all time favorite foods. A perfect comfort food and good for you too! Now let me tell you that all those nutritionists out there claim that white rice is horrible for you and don't eat it. Well, they can go shove it. My botany prof in college is convinced that rice (white or brown) is an almost perfect food because of the high level of amino acids (and if you eat beans and rice, depending upon the type of bean, you can potentially have a complete protein, and this is a very, very good thing!). But I digress...
I have found the Texmati brand of Basmati rice (grown in Texas) has the most incredible aroma when toasted to a light golden brown and cooked. The air is filled with the scent of buttered popcorn. I've even seen Alton Brown suggest it as his rice of choice on Good Eats. Yay! So on to the recipe we go...
Ingredients:
1 cup Texmati Basmati rice
1 Tbs Olive oil
1 3/4 cups water
1/8 cup vegetable or canola oil
3 Tbs seasame oil
1 yellow onion chopped (I prefer sweet Texas yellow onions)
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
1-2 cups frozen peas & carrots
2 eggs scrambled
1/4-1/2 c low sodium soy sauce
In a sauce pan over medium heat add the olive oil and rice, stirring rice to coat. Cook, stirring frequently, until rice is a light golden brown. Add water, heat until boiling, cover and cook for 13-15 min. (The package says 15 min but mine was done after 13, and make sure you open the lid away from your person, I did not do this and now have a nasty steam burn on my forearm!).
While rice is cooking in water, heat a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat and add veggie or canola oil and sesame oil, mixing together w/a spoon or spatula. Add onion and garlic, cook until onion is translucent then add frozen peas and carrots cooking until heated about 1-2 minutes. Push veggies off to side and add egg mixture. Scramble and once cooked, incorporate into veggies.
Now drizzle veggies with some of the soy sauce and mix until coated. Add 2 heaping spoonfuls (or spatula-fuls) of rice to skillet, drizzle with a little more soy sauce, mixing to incorporate and coat, and keep repeating until all rice is incorporated.
Let leftovers cool for about 20 minutes, place into a storage container and refridgerate. I would guess this is good in the fridge for up to a week.
Optional: Drizzle a little soy sauce or sesame seed oil on top of rice as garnish.
