How To Cook: Japanese Garlic Fried Rice

To cook is love. :)

In this age and time, cooking is a luxury we spend our time on. We'd rather drive out to the new hipster cafe in town, and have nice looking food served on our table. 

How about whippin' up something simple like say, Japanese Garlic Fried Rice?

"It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it." - Julia Child

I'm not at all a pro in the kitchen. But I truly believe that a good tasting dish from the kitchen comes from a happy heart. A must -have disclaimer is that, I cook by way of "agar-ism" aka estimation. ;)

You'll need:

- 2 cups of short grain rice (cooked the night before)

- 3 eggs

- 3 stalks of spring onions

- 1 carrot

- 1 clove of garlic

- Cooking oil

- Salt & pepper to taste

All that you'll need

Instructions:

1. Finely dice carrot into even cubes.

2. Finely chop the spring onions.

3. Finely slice HALF of your garlic (as garnishing for your fried rice later).

4. Finely chop the remaining half of your garlic.

5. Whisk eggs.

Pre-cooking tips:

1. Cook rice with lesser water (as compared to if you were to cook normal rice).

2. The egg functions to give color to the fried rice, to make it beautifully yellow-ish.

3. I bought a rather big carrot, so I only used half of it.

4. How much garlic you want depends on how much liking you have for garlic. I used more than a clove. Also, how much garlic you want as garnishing as compared to the portion used to be stir-fried with the rice depends on how much garlic garnishing you'd like to have.

Ok, let the photos begin!

Heat up the pan/wok with "more than usual" cooking oil and fry the thinly sliced garlic (meant for garnishing) until golden brown. Set aside and drain the oil with kitchen towel.

Next, with the same oil, stir fry the finely chopped garlic until almost golden brown.

Then, pour in the overnight rice.

Mix well the garlic and rice.

Then pour in the whisked eggs (photo below refers).

All these while, remain at medium to high heat.

See how yellow the eggs make the rice look? Mix well and make sure the eggs coat the rice nicely.

You can add a pinch of salt & pepper to taste here.

Once the eggs coating the rice has somewhat dried up (cooked), pour in the diced carrot.  

Stir fry for about 2-4 minutes, or until doneness of carrot is as per your liking.

Beautiful colors of the dish can be seen now. You can choose to add in more salt and pepper to taste at this step...

Once the fried rice is almost done, pour in spring onions.

Remember to leave some spring onions for garnishing!

Stir fry for another 1-2 minutes and the dish is ready!

Lunch is served! ;)

Note: There are no hard and fast rules to cooking. Always remember - cook from your heart!

P/S: The original recipe was adapted from Taste of Malaysia's Japanese Garlic Fried Rice. Google it up! ;)