Fried Rice - My Way

if I had to say something about my favourite thing to eat when I have had the shittiest day possible - it has to be friend rice; specifically for dinner.

Now if you think im talking about the stupid Desi-Chinese friend rice, you're so wrong because I cant get myself to swallow that. My version of fried rice includes eggs and is unseasoned only if there is crispy sweet chilli chicken to eat on the side. You can add an egg or two if you aren't  planning to add the chicken kebab, and even if you do, it would taste fine as long as you don't add the sweet chili sauce. But again - your choice (im heavily judging you if you add that sauce)

But on days that I am absolutely overworked and irritable, I love to cook up this recipe I created based on my personal preferences :

Dice up 1 onion , 3-4 garlic cloves (garlic girlie!), half a carrot, half a green capsicum and spring onions. Cook your rice upon your portion size (rice should be separated, not clumped and sticky). Heat your pan on low, pour a little olive oil, add onions and let it sautée till you're happy with it. Then add garlic and stir for a bit, and then add your capsicum and carrots. When you're done with that, add the rice and stir for a bit to mix it up. Take some dark soy sauce and add it to the pan while stirring continuously; I prefer to add only 1 tablespoon so that the soy sauce doesn't overwhelm the friend rice. Keep stirring and then add some buldak sauce you get from the noodles packet or you can buy a bottle of their sauce idk, I specifically use . Do a taste test based on your spice tolerance, and if you feel like you want some more spice but not the intensity of adding more buldak sauce, add some chilli powder carefully. After mixing it all up, add salt slowly - as per taste. Personally, I prefer not to add too much salt because the taste of salt comes very easily to me, hence over salting can ruin my experience with food. Take it out on whatever dish/bowl you will eat/serve it in

Now, take another pan, or use the same one its upto you- just make sure you wipe the alll the oil off with a tissue. Now, I bought this panda express orange chicken sauce in Walmart, but it tastes really sour and artificial even after heating up, so I bought this sweet chilli sauce which has a bit of a kick, and its really good. I'll try to link it if anyone ever reads this and wants the name of the brand. So, usually I have a packet of chicken kebabs lying around in my freezer. I just thaw one, dice it up into small pices (not too small) and then in a pan, pour some of that sweet chilli sauce with a little water, let it simmer up till its boiling and then add the kebabs. I let them soak up the juice and like a barbarian - I add it right into my bowl of friend rice, sauce and all. I care not for others as I make this only for myself, but in the rare instance my mom joins in, I put this sweet chili kebab in a separate bowl, and use 2 kebabs so we both can get enough. 

Id say this takes about 30-40 mins to make, if you've already got your ingredients chopped up. if not, id say an hour. Personally, im a slow cook- I like to think about my day and zone out while im cooking (strictly autopilot, and the coming back to my senses when I end every step to make sure it tastes right). You can listen to music while chopping up the ingredients- I listen to metallica! But when you get to the cooking, the ear is a very important organ that lets you know when the food is perfect. Once you hear the sounds of food, you get accustomed to the steps of cooking and get the hang of it. 

A crazy thing I did once was use pearled couscous from trader joe's, and dare I say - it was better than using rice. It's a controversial opinion but I really enjoyed it.