Soooooo erm this may be my new favourite thing for work lunches and easy dinners! I make a basic special fried rice recipe and then let the family customise it how they like! Its really quick to make and is light on pots and pans so no need to worry about washing up AND you can pack it with vegetables!

Ingredients

Must haves:

2 cups Basmati Rice
Handful Peas
Handful Sweetcorn
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 teaspoons Mirin
2 teaspoons Rice Wine Vinegar
2 cloves of Garlic thinly sliced
3-5 Spring onions sliced

Optional items:

Sliced mushrooms
Handful Small prawns
1 diced Red/Orange/Yellow Pepper
1 tbsp Ketjap Manis
3 Ready cooked Mackerel fillets
2 Salmon fillets cubed and cooked
2 cups Cooked chicken – strips, wings, bashed up thighs 

Handful Coriander
2 eggs, either scrambled or cooked as an omelette and sliced up
Crushed chilli flakes
Sweet Chilli Sauce

Method:

I have a fail-proof fluffy basmati recipe but feel free to use your own if you prefer.

Rinse your rice a few times in cold water if you want it really fluffy or leave it to soak in water for 30 mins. Boil the kettle, heat oil in the pan and throw in your (drained) rice , stir to cover in the oil and let it warm a little. Pour the boiling water over the rice, The water should come about 3cm over your rice. Put a lit on it with a little crack and let it simmer.

It’ll start to hiss once all the water has evaporated – this can take anywhere between 10-15 mins. Take a look at it. If it looks done, turn the heat off, remove the lid and place a tea towel/cloth over the rice and put the lid back on. Leave it for as long as you need to, it’ll keep warm and the towel will soak up excess steam to keep the rice fluffy. If it doesn’t look done, sprinkle on a little more water, put the lid back on and keep checking every 2-5 minutes.

The rest is just an assembly job – fry off the garlic, spring onions and any of your selected food items from the optional list that require cooking. I don’t bother with sweetcorn and peas as it takes seconds for them to warm through. Add in your sauces then add your rice to the pan to fry off. Put it all together, decant to a serving bowl and dive in!

Serve with some sweet chilli sauce on the side or some extra Ketjap Manis.