rice Archives - Experimental Epicurean

Have you heard of matcha? I’m sure you have. It is one of those “in” ingredients these days. I have put of trying it because green tea ranks below most other flavors of tea in my book. I tend to prefer spicy/cinnamon or earl grey rather than the earthy flavor of green tea.

None the less, I was still intrigued. One of the hypes of matcha is the concentrated antioxidants it offers. Instead of steeping tea leaves in a bag, you are essentially consuming finely ground tea leaves. In addition to beverages, it has found its way into food items, even dessert. I was determined to try it in an entrée and decided to make a version of my fried rice. I started with my Ham Fried Rice recipe, and eliminated peas, ham, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and ginger. I added matcha as my replacement spice and a bit of baby tomatoes for added sweetness. The result was a light and refreshing Matcha Fried Rice that was well balanced.

This festive dish has been a fun lunch this week and I look forward to experimenting with matcha in other recipes.

Matcha Fried Rice

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced red onion
4 cups cooked long grain rice
1 1/2 teaspoons matcha
2 large eggs
½ cup baby tomatoes, chopped
4 green onions, chopped

Add 4 tablespoons of butter to the pan and heat until melted over medium-high heat. Add carrots, and onion, and saute for 3 minutes or until onions begin to soften. Immediately add the rice, and matcha, and stir until combined. Continue stirring for an additional 3-4 minutes to fry the rice. Keep warm.

Coat a non-stick pan with cooking spray then heat over medium heat. Add eggs, and cook until scrambled, stirring occasionally. Remove egg, and stir into rice mixture, along with the tomatoes and green onions. Serve immediately.

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Since I pack lunch for work everyday, I usually attempt to make larger quantities of dinner to be able to take leftovers as my meal. However, some weeks dinner is such a success that I am left with a hodge podge of ingredients and nothing to take as a quick lunch. This week I decided to use my random leftover items – cooked rice, diced red onion, and diced ham – and created a Ham Fried Rice.

My fried rice typically changes a bit each time I make it, so I decided to do a quick search to see how my fried rice recipe(s) compare to others out there. One of the blogs that caught my attention was the one on gimmesomeoven.com, since I agree with many of her tips. She recommends using precooked rice (my favorite too, but probably just because it is easier) and adding oyster sauce. By coincidence I used similar veggies to the recipe on gimmesomeoven.com (though in higher quantity) and I decided to try her tip of using butter instead of an oil.

I ended up loving the result (and so did my husband). The oyster sauce wasn’t too overpowering, and it was filling enough that I wasn’t hungry 15 minutes later (which is a good thing, since I am usually starving by mid-morning and struggle to not scarf down my lunch by 11am. Being ready for a second lunch around 2pm wouldn’t be ideal). The ginger was just a gentle hint, so if you like ginger go ahead and add a bit more. My Ham Fried Rice was such an easy dish to make to supply a few lunches this week, that I think I am going to add it to my go-to rotation.

Ham Fried Rice

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced red onion
½ lb frozen peas, thawed
8 ounces diced ham
4 cups cooked long grain rice
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
2 large eggs
4 green onions, chopped

Add 4 tablespoons butter to the pan and heat until melted over medium-high heat. Add carrots, and onion, and saute for 3 minutes or until onions begin to soften. Add the peas and ham, and saute for 1-2 minutes longer. Finally, add the rice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and ginger, and stir until combined. Continue stirring for an additional 3-4 minutes to fry the rice. Keep warm.

Coat a non-stick pan with cooking spray then heat over medium heat . Add eggs, and cook until scrambled, stirring occasionally. Remove egg, and stir into rice mixture. Serve, garnishing with sliced green onion.

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