Fried Rice with Shiitake Mushrooms
Fried rice is my favorite Chinese takeout food. Its very delicious, but can be full of unwanted fat and calories from your local Chinese restaurant. Making this popular takeout dish at home can ensure the quality of ingredients and save you on some unwanted fat grams. I love to make this dish as our supper. It is full of vegetables, and since it uses eggs as the meat, is very economical. You can make it even more economical by using simple button mushrooms. Simply use your leftover white rice, or make some fresh rice for this dish. I usually never have leftover white rice, so I always make the white rice the same day. After I cook the rice, I spread it on a cookie sheet, so that it cools very quickly and dries a little. Leftover white rice is always a little dry, so I wanted to try and mimic that effect. To make this dish extra special, add some peeled, deveined, cooked shrimp at the end for tasty shrimp fried rice. For the popular pork fried rice, add diced ham before the vegetables, and cook the ham along with everything else so that the ham flavor is incorporated into the whole dish.
Yield: Serves 4
Fried Rice with Shiitake Mushrooms
Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 sweet onion
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 stalks celery with leaves
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 lb fresh snow peas
3 stalks green onion, sliced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups cooked rice
Directions:
Preheat large skillet or wok. Add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce to the beaten eggs. Add one teaspoon sesame oil to the preheated wok, and scramble eggs until set. Remove from wok and set aside.
Add the tablespoon each of sesame oil and olive oil to wok. Add onions, green and red peppers, snow peas, and celery to wok. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes longer.
Add cooked rice and carrots. Sprinkle in the 2 tablespoons soy sauce. Add more olive oil if necessary. Cook the rice for about 5 minutes, until heated through.
Add cooked eggs and green onions, and cook for 1 minute more before serving.