I really try to make an effort to bring my lunch to work each day. My office is absolutely freezing, so I tend to gravitate towards warm lunches. Because of this, I am always looking for new pasta and rice recipes that sound like they would reheat well and still taste good. As usual, Cooking Light came to the rescue with the August issue’s Fried Rice with Sweet Soy Saucerecipe. I made all four servings so that I could have a batch for dinner, and get a few lunches out of it.
Ingredients for Fried Rice:
3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 finely chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 serrano chile, seeded and chopped
4 cups cooked rice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 thinly sliced daikon radish
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 lime wedges
Ingredients for sweet soy sauce:
1/4 cup lower-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (The original recipe used dark brown sugar. I didn’t have any. Oh well)
Begin by cooking your rice. You can just cook the rice in water because the soy sauce will add plenty of taste, no need to waste your chicken broth.
While your rice is cooking. prepare your shallots, garlic and chile. I am a wimp about heat and serraro chile can really be hot, so I removed all seeds before chopping. If you like spicy food, keep the seeds in.
Slice your daikon radish. I used a mandoline slicer.
Prepare your herbs.
To make the sweet soy sauce, combine the soy sauce and brown sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the brown sugar is incorporated into the soy sauce. Set aside.
Add 4 eggs to a bowl and lightly beat.
Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to a large saute pan over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour eggs into the pan and cook for 2 minutes or until they set. Remove and set aside.
Increase the heat to high and add 2 tablespoons peanut oil to the pan. Add your shallots, garlic and chile and saute for 1 minute.
Add the cooked rice and cook for 3 minutes or until lightly browned.
Add cooked eggs and soy sauce mixture.
Season with salt and pepper and mix to coat. Add to bowls and top with radish and herbs. Serve with a lime wedge.
This meal was really tasty, not only the first time around but also when reheated. The serrano pepper gave a subtle heat to the whole dish which counteracted the sweetness of the soy sauce, great combination! When I packed it for lunch, I kept the rice mixture in one container and a few radish slices,herbs , and a lime wedge in another container. I heated the rice in the microwave and topped them with the radish slices and herbs, then squeezed the lime juice over the whole dish. Perfect!
