Ginger Fried Rice

Whenever I cook rice, I have some left over. This time I struck gold with a recipe from Mark Bittman, stuck away in my old recipe file. At first glance, the recipe looked complicated. But, following it step by step, the dish came out exceedingly well: it looked lovely and, according to George, tasted great.

Since I am not a great fan of rice, I opted for a marinated skirt steak instead. We both had tomato salad, made with the first, ripe yummy New Jersey tomatoes. The wine straddled both dishes.

Menu: George

Ginger Fried Rice
Tomato Salad
Wine: Barnard Griffin Sangiovese Rose, 2009
Columbia Valley
Dessert: 85% Lindt Chocolate

Recipe: Ginger Fried Rice

¼ cup peanut oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger*
1 leek, white and light green parts only, rinsed and sliced into thin strips
1 cup day-old rice
1 egg
sesame oil
soy sauce
salt

*I came to ginger relatively late. But once I started to appreciate its unique taste, I have taken to it like the proverbial duck to water. Grating fresh ginger, I discovered, is easier than mincing it.

Sauté garlic and ginger in hot oil until crisp. Transfer to a paper towel. Reduce heat and cook the leek about 8 minutes until tender but not browned. Season lightly with salt. Raise heat, adding more oil if necessary, and add rice. If the rice is too dry, squirt some cold water of it. Heat through and transfer into a serving bowl.

Fry the egg in a nonstick skillet, sunny side up, until edges are set but the yolk is still runny. To me, this was the trickiest part of the recipe since I don’t remember ever having fried an egg sunny-side up, because when I was a child, it struck me as barbaric having to destroy the lovely looking egg yolk. Lo and behold, the egg came out beautifully. I slipped the egg over the rice, drizzled some sesame oil and soy sauce over the dish, and sprinkled the crisp garlic and ginger over everything.