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Growing up in a Jamaican home, very little went to waste. Grocery bags doubled as garbage bags, take-out containers were washed and turned into Tupperware. Even to this day, my mom has beef bones from a soup she made in the freezer to bring my dog for Christmas. Food waste was definitely not tolerated in my household. 

A staple food often repurposed in our home was white rice. As Jamaicans, white rice was always on hand, made in excess, and shoved in the back of the fridge. For myself, my white rice consumption is usually from tons of take out where the portions of rice are too large for a normal human to eat.  

Either way, leftover rice, not freshly made rice, is best for fried rice as the grains of rice are just dry enough to soak up all the flavors of the rice. Though my recipe, nor my mom’s, is the most authentic Asian or even Caribbean-Asian fried rice, it does provide a basis for a great side dish (or even main) for your leftover white rice.

THE RECIPE

1 half white onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/2 tablespoon ginger, finely minced

1 tablespoon of neutral oil (avocado, corn, vegetable, etc.) 

1 egg 

1 teaspoon of red pepper flake (optional) 

2 cups of leftover rice (white or brown)

2-3 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce 

1 tsp sesame oil  

Salt and pepper to taste 

Sauté onions, garlic, and ginger in oil on medium heat until translucent and fragrant. Once cooked, stir in red pepper flakes to provide some heat to the dish. Next, make a well in the center of the pan and crack the egg directly into the pan. Scramble egg separately from onion mixture and once semi-cooked, mix the scrambled egg into onion mixture. Next, stir in rice with the egg and onion mixture. “Fry” the rice for 30-40 seconds thoroughly incorporating the egg and onion mixture. Once fried, toss in soy sauce and sesame oil and continue stirring and cooking rice mixture for another 2-3 minutes. The amount of soy sauce is completely up to the preference of salt levels and color for rice. Once the rice has cooked for a bit, sample rice and add salt and pepper to taste. 

One thing I really like about this recipe is the cooking time. All in all, cooking the dish takes about 5 minutes outright. This is perfect for a quick impromptu meal. Next, there is no need to buy specialty Asian products to make the dish. The majority of the ingredients are already in your cabinet (or maybe in some takeout packets) or can be purchased at your local market. 

Also, this fried rice is so customizable that it can accompany the main meal as a side dish or simply be the main. In this recipe, I used leftover white rice from a Venezuelan takeout meal and a little bit of chicharrón (fried pork belly) from the same leftovers. I cut up, mixed in, and reheated the pork with the cooked onions. I also added some frozen Asian-style veggies (carrots, water chestnut, broccoli, snap peas. ). I mixed them into the finished rice from frozen just to heat through in the pan. With these simple additions, it served as a full meal.

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