For dinner tonight: Mushroom Chicken Fried Rice with Garlic Snow Pea Shoots

My favorite thing to do is to improvise fried rice. Here's what I had lying around...

4 eggs
2 cups of cooked white rice
4 cups of brown/wild rice medley
3 cups of chopped button mushrooms
1 lb of grilled and diced chicken breast
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of white pepper finely ground
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 cloves of garlic, diced finely
1/4th of an onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons peanut oil

I heated my cast iron wok for about 5 minutes on medium-high, drop 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in, and cracked the 4 eggs in. Scrambled with my spatula, then removed from the pan. Turned the heat to high, and used the other 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and browned the garlic. Once the garlic was brown, I put in the mushrooms and cooked those down a bit until softer, then dropped in the chicken and onions. Then I added all the rice and other ingredients including the egg, and cooked for about 5 minutes stirring constantly. It came out perfect, and now I have enough food for the rest of the week.

As for the snow pea shoots:

3 lbs of snow pea shoots (man it was huge, but it cooks down a lot)
4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 tablespoon white pepper
4 tablespoons peanut oil

Heated the peanut oil and browned the garlic on high heat, then dropped the whole mass of snow pea shoots into the wok. Here's where it's interesting. My Dad always told me to NOT to stir immediately, but instead let it cook down on high heat. It gives the bottom shoots a darker texture, and then maybe 3 or 4 minutes in, turn over once and mix a bit. Towards the end, I added the white pepper.

So there you go-- It's hard/impossible to mess up fried rice, and snow pea shoots (found only at your local Chinese market) are a great veggie companion. And actually it's the soy sauce / oyster sauce / rice vinegar that really brings the whole dish together, I find. Bon Appétit!

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