Boxing Day Turkey
Boxing Day Turkey (goose, duck, tofu, screamin’ wean) Fried Rice.
You’ve woken up on the 26th , or perhaps the 27th, after an extremely overindulgent Christmas Day. The fear finally gone and you’re ravenous…….. Your internal organs shudder at the thought of more over cooked dry turkey, or whatever you gorged yourself on. Fridge door ajar, the well picked carcass is crammed inside directly on top of your plum pudding and Stilton, begging you to end its misery with this magical recipe, transforming it into this glorious dish………
Ingredients:
Left over (cooked) meat, free of bones and gristle from your turkey. You can substitute any meat really or dare I say it, vegetarian thingy.
4 cups cooked Basmati Rice, best cooked a day or two in advance, dried and chilled. It’s very important that you chill cooked rice as bacteria flourish in cooked rice at an ambient temperature. It’s also better to have your rice Al Dente ‘cause you don’t want mushy fried rice.
The Chinese Trinity: Garlic, Ginger & Spring onions. Garlic and ginger peeled and finely chopped. Spring onions chopped, green and white separated.
Red Chillies, the hotter the better in my opinion, especially if your house is full of greeting faced party poopers. Chopped.
Onions, peeled and roughly chopped.
Red Pepper, or any colourful vegetable, roughly chopped.
Free Range Eggs, whisked, lightly salted with the white spring onion added to them.
Frozen garden Peas
Fresh coriander bunch, finely chopped.
Light Soy Sauce as required.
Rice Vinegar, splash.
Shaosingh Wine splash.
Salt & Pepper be careful adding salt as the soy sauce has a high salt content.
Pure Peanut Oil, Be aware of those with nut allergies or just patch them.
Pure Sesame Oil, see allergy note above.
Ideally you’ll do this in a wok on a gas hob, if not a large solid bottomed frying pan
Method:
Heat your wok over a high flame, add a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil. Once it starts smoking gently swirl it around the wok, coating all the interior surface. Do not splash yourself or anyone else as the sizzling sound you will hear is your flesh crisping like a Peking Duck.
Add your onions, stir frying until they start turning opaque, tip into a bowl and season gently. Repeat this step with your red pepper.
More peanut oil in the wok, swirling after it smokes. Add your seasoned whisked eggs, stir frying until they look like an undercooked omelette. Tip into a bowl and break up gently with a fork.
Oil the wok and swirl like before. Add ginger, garlic and chillies (if using) and stir fry for a minute or so. Tip in your cooked rice, stirring until every grain has been coated with oil and glistens like the eyes of a wolf in the fog. Add some soy sauce, a tablespoon at a time, stirring frantically until your rice is the colour and taste you like. Just remember the high salt content, too much soy will kill this dish. Check your seasoning and adjust to taste. Add your vinegar, shaosing wine, stir fry… Now it’s turkey time, drop it in, keep stirring. Peas, onions and peppers are added next. Coriander, eggs and sesame oil…. Get them in and mixed well. Put it on a grand serving plate and scatter the green spring onions over.
You can of course add anything you wish, Brussel sprouts for instance, although if you do I will laugh if I hear you choked on the little green monsters…. I was thinking more along the lines of water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms.
I know basmati rice is not the most widely used rice in Chinese cuisine but I love it and think it makes the best fried rice.
This should feed 5/6 regulars or 3/4 stoners.
Yo ho ho.
