i was lucky enough to grow up in a family that believed in the homemade meal. it was the kind of family where regardless of what else was going on, a homemade meal always managed to make its way to the dining table every night; whether we chose to eat in our rooms, in front of the tv, or every once in awhile, actually at the dining table, my brother and i could always count on a meal cooked with love and care. now that i live in california, 3,000 long miles away from my family, these are the meals i miss the most and all I can hope for is that one day, i will be able to provide my children the same love for food, love through food my parents provided me. in college, far away from my parent’s kitchens, i started collecting recipes of all the comfort dishes i came to miss from my mom and dad. i cook them often to remind me of those meals of love from home and the love of home.
i used to have cravings for my dad’s fried rice in college and anything i could find at my local chinese restaurant, regardless of how authentic, just didn’t cut it. i finally got his recipe my senior year of college. i made my dad’s recipe last night with apparently the best chinese sausage you can find in southern californ according to my mom’s cousin who lives there. thrown together with some gao zi (jiaozi in mandarin and just plain ol’ dumplings in English) made from scratch and one could not find a better comfort meal (that is if you’re chinese).
my dad’s fried rice
serves 4
cooking time: 30 minutes
2 cups jasmine rice
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons peanut oil (plus some more to coat wok)
4 lop cheong (aka chinese sausage links)*
4 eggs + salt & pepper
maggi seasoning*
sugar, salt and white pepper
10 oz. bag of frozen peas & carrots
bring 3.75 cups of water to boil in medium-sized saucepan. add rice, salt and peanut oil to boiling water.** bury sausage links into rice.*** cover and bring to boil again. reduce heat to a simmer until rice absorbs all the liquid (about 10 minutes). while rice is cooking, whisk eggs in medium sized mixing bowl. season with salt and pepper. when rice has cooked through, remove sausage and slice either on a bias into ¼ inch slices or dice into ¼ squares.
heat wok to medium-high heat. coat lightly with peanut oil (1 tablespoon should do it). add egg mixture and scramble. add cooked rice. season with desired amount of maggi seasoning (i suggest starting out with about 4 tablespoons and going from there), sugar (2 teaspoons), salt (1 teaspoon) and white pepper (2 teaspoons). add frozen peas and carrots. stir and fry (this is fried rice after all) until desired doneness (as hot as you like it).
*chinese sausage and maggi seasoning can both be found in your local chinese grocers. now if your ethnic culinary palate is not ready to cross over in the world of chinese sausage, try using another kind of meat (shrimp, chicken, pork or beef will all suffice – it just won’t be my dad’s fried rice). however, i’d highly recommend giving it a try – it’s a mostly-sweet, slightly-savory sausage and completely unlike american or european sausage varieties.
**cooking rice in some oil provides two advantages: 1) prevents some sticking to the bottom of your saucepan (unless you burn the rice in which case no amount of oil or anything really can help you); and 2) gives the cooked rice a slight oily glisten so you don’t have to use very much oil when stir-frying it later.
***chinese sausage is technically already cooked when you buy it. by cooking it with the rice, i not only reheat the sausage but it allows the rice to absorb some of the flavor from the sausage
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