Oyster fried rice + choy in oyster sauce
When you're running a Chinese kitchen, you are bound to have a pantry filled to the brim with a variety of dried goods ranging from flowers to medicinal herbs to seafood. Over Chinese New Year, my mom prepared dried oysters and seared them with soy sauce and honey to offer to the heavenly beings and deities. With that of course comes all the leftovers you can imagine, so I found myself with an excess of honey soy glazed oysters in my fridge back down here in New Orleans. After days of eating whole dried oysters, it honestly got monotonous and textures and flavors were starting to become overwhelming. In my usual fashion, I decided to remake my leftovers into something way more glamorous: oyster fried rice.
There are several key factors to making irresistible fried rice that I can eat several bowls of at a time.
- THE RICE! Like I mentioned before, it's got to be overnight rice.
- Start with browning garlic, scallion, and ginger: the Cantonese holy trinity.
- Always finish off with a splash of sesame oil
And because I'm a dietitian and actually try to eat as nutritiously as possible, you'll see that #myplate is half filled with vegetables. The lady at the Crescent City Farmers Market told me that it was bok choy, but it must be some southern / American variety that I'm unfamiliar with. Either way, it tasted delicious simply sauteed and topped with oyster sauce.
What an easy meal that I have been eating leftovers for days of!
Oyster fried rice
6-8 whole dried oysters, pre-soaked and diced
1 tbs dried shrimp, pre-soaked
3 tails scallion, diced
1 knob ginger, diced
6 cloves of garlic, diced
2 cups of brown rice, cooked
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbs canola oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame oil
1. Brown scallion, ginger and garlic. Sautee with oysters and dried shrimp.
2. Once everything is slightly browned, add the rice and stir-fry until rice is fragrant. Rice should be slightly harder to the bite, yet still retain some degree of moisture. (This should take 5-10 minutes depending on the heat of your stove top.)
3. Season on salt and garlic powder.
4. Mix in the two beaten eggs and keep the rice moving in the wok until the eggs are fully cooked and dispersed throughout.
5. Finally, add the sesame and make sure all ingredients are mixed evenly.
6. Remove the fried rice from the heat and add the sesame oil. Mix well.
Optional: top with XO sauce - spicy dried scallop sauce
