Simple Spicy Fried Rice

Fried rice is a weekly affair in my home. My kids love it. Easy to prepare and simple ingredients. This time around I was thinking of what to do with the abundance of bird eye chilli peppers or better known here as 'cili padi/cili api', and I was thinking of how yummy my mum makes her fried rice. She loves to put cilantro in her fried rice and since I had some wilting cilantro (more like half-dead cilantro..haha) in my fridge waiting to be used and some Chinese parsley growing in the pot outside my kitchen..I decided why not fry up some rice for the kids. You would be surprised how lovely and aromatic the rice is with the addition of cilantro in it. The only difference this time would be the chilli pepper I'm using. I have no idea what's the name of this chilli pepper but I'm going to give it a try.

Since I'm cooking for the kids (mind you...they eat spicy food without a wince! Even my 1 yr 4 month old baby too!) I'm going to reduce the amount of chilli peppers I put in my fried rice to just one small chilli pepper and 1 whole green chilli. I learnt to put in green chillies in my fried rice from my mum too! It gives the rice a subtle but lovely flavour. She is always coming up with alternatives to put in traditional recipes and taking short cuts to prepare the food, which I find extremely convenient in our day and age..hehehhe..thank you mum ..love you to bits!

I find that there is no sure one way of making fried rice. The variations are limitless. Play around with the ingredients you have. Great way to finish up old stock in your fridge too. Have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Today, I've packed the kids with fried rice for school. When I told them what's in their lunch pack, they were both excited! Can you believe it? Excited over fried rice?? Amazing! Hahaha.. :) I wonder if they would still be excited over fried rice once their bigger..hahha. Anyway, have a go at my mum's version of fried rice and play around with the ingredients according to your own taste buds. Oh one more note before I jot the recipe down. I know many of you in Malaysia will opt for the mortar and pestle for making your chilli paste but me being the lazy one and having a baby who wants my attention, I can't afford to have chilli on my fingers and hands. I don't want him to accidentally touch my hands and get the burning effect of chilli on him...so this is what I do...opppsss the cats out of the bag..hhahha.

Lazy me. hahaha

Mummy Dearest's Simple Spicy Fried Rice
serves 2 persons

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked rice to be cooked -I just cook my rice in the rice cooker few hours ahead of making the fried rice. Left over rice would be good too
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2 - 1 green chilli
1 birds eye chilli pepper
2-3 tablespoons dried anchovies a variety of small and medium
coriander leaves chopped
chinese parsley chopped
salt
1 egg lightly beaten
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoon vegetable oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Cook rice and set aside to cool.
2. Put onion, garlic, birds eye chilli pepper, green chilli, dried anchovies in the food processor and pulse everything until no big chunks are visible. You can use the mortar and pestle if you like.
3. Heat oil in wok/ frying pan. Pour the blended onion and chillies into the hot oil and fry till fragrant and a deep golden brown color and the blended ingredients are dry and slightly crispy.
4. Add in the lightly beaten egg and stir vigorously almost like the texture of scrambled eggs.
5. Add in the rice and stir to coat with the fried paste and egg.
6. Add in the fish sauce, coriander and chinese parsley.
7. Stir fry the rice till everything is incorporated.
8. Serve hot with cucumbers and eggs sunny side up.