Friday, September 18, 2009

Vegetarian Ketchup Fried Rice

Since I'm not currently packing bento boxes I thought I would dust off an old family recipe for "Ketchup Fried Rice". Ketchup!!! Really? Yes, it's an island thing. And before I switched to soy I used to fry this baby up with...SPAM!

I no longer eat meat (hold the "SPAM is not meat" jokes) I substitute with other protein options or just eat it with egg. In fact, you can use this recipe as the filler for "Omurisu"

Ingredients:
1 cup of chopped protein: TSP, Tempeh, or wheat meat

2 C Ketchup (more or less to taste)
3-4 C day-old Cooked cold rice
Sesame oil
Cooking oil
Tabasco, optional

1 medium Round onion chopped
4 Eggs
Chopped green onions for garnish

Cooking Instructions:
Chop the Spam into 1/2 inch pieces, fry with a little cooking oil on medium/high heat. Use a large frying pan or wok. Add the chopped round onion, cook until the onions are tender. Add the sesame oil. This is for flavor and to keep the rice from burning and sticking. Immediately add the cold rice. Keep stirring and tossing to heat up the rice, when the rice starts to get hot and loosen up, slowly add the ketchup. Keep stirring until the rice is covered with the ketchup and until the desired taste is achieved. When done, set aside. Grab another frying pan and fry the eggs. When the eggs are done, scoop some of the rice in a bowl, top with an egg and garnish with the chopped green onion. Serve with Tabasco. Adjust the amount of sesame oil to your taste. Use cooking oil instead if the rice is sticking and you don't want to add too much sesame. This recipe will not work with freshly cooked rice.


I recently featured this recipe in Saba Man's bento box. He ate it with gusto and didn't miss his beloved SPAM.