Aromatic fried rice with vegetables and holy basil leaves
Ingredients
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 peeled garlic cloves pounded with 2 fresh red chillies to make a paste
1 kg/2lb 3 oz cooked boiled rice
100 g/3 ½ oz onion, peeled and sliced
100 g/31/2 oz spring greens, sliced
80 g/3 oz broccoli stalks thinly sliced, florets cut into bite-sized pieces
50 g/2 oz mangetouts, topped and tailed
4 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
a small handful holy basil leaves
2 fresh red chilli, sliced lengthways
Spicy Fish Sauce to serve
Method
Heat a wok or frying pan over a medium heat, then add the oil and heat. Add the garlic and
Chilli paste and stir around for a couple of seconds until it releases its aroma. By heating the wok first, you ensure that the oil won't be so hot that it burns the paste when you add it.
Immediately stir in the rice, followed by the onion, spring greens, broccoli and mangetouts. Stir the vegetables into the rice.
Season with the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and salt, stirring to distribute the brown colour from the soy sauces evenly.
Add the holy basil leaves and chilli slices and stir for a few seconds. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with Spicy Fish Sauce.
Spicy Fish Sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients
5 tbsp Thai fish sauce
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
15 fresh bird's-eye chillies, finely chopped
6 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
Method
First, make the Spicy Fish Sauce by mixing together the fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar and water. Add the chopped chillies and sliced shallots and stir together. (Thai people eat this sauce with almost everything, sprinkling it on their food in the same way Europeans add salt and pepper. You can make the sauce with crushed garlic instead of shallots, if you prefer.)
©Mini C
Books:
Health Dairy-free Eating by Mini C, Tanya Carr, Martin Brigdale (Photographer) published by Kyle Cathie Limited. ISBN 1-85626-622-2
Mini C's Great Thai Dishes published by Cassell Illustrated. ISBN 1-84403 246 - 9
100 Great Thai Dishes by Mini C, Neil Barclay (Photographer) published by Cassell Illustrated. ISBN 1844033570
|
Gregg is an award-winning food broadcaster who coaches U-12 rugby in his spare time.
Charlie is a greengrocer extraordinaire bringing fruit and veg expertise to the masses.