Fried Rice

I didn’t think I was still traumatised by my burnt leg accident or that I would be. I had been back in the kitchen countless times and even after I came back from the A&E. But after I wrote Truth and reading it over and over again, I felt that Belle was right. I wrote it when I had been off my painkillers and that I am no longer in pain. Reading truth made me relived those painful moments and made me recalled every thoughts that I had then.

Last night, I felt terrified to even enter my kitchen. Everywhere I looked at reminded me of that day. I was even shaking when I grabbed the wok to make scramble egg last night (yes another Tuesday- another dirty pan and another time when I had to resort to my wok- this time it was 1am) it all seemed like a déjà vu to me.

Then I thought to myself, Probably this was what I needed, a closure… A confession! An acknowledgement that I failed myself in order for me to truly pick myself up once again.

For dinner tonight, after surviving on yoghurt and granola for the past few days, I decided to make minced Turkey padprik fried rice. This is a healthier version, the meat to rice ratio is higher, so arguably low carbs and full of vegetables. Ingredients are as following:

11/2 cups of cooked rice
4 Red Chillies (only because my red chillies will expire soon) -£0.60 (Tesco)
500G Minced Turkey – £2.45 (Tesco)
Tesco Carrot, Cauliflower and Brocolli – £1.10 (Tesco) – Cut it into smaller pieces
3 Tbs of Chilli Sauce
3 Tbs of Tomato Sauce
3 Tbs of Oyster Sauce
2 Onions (Sliced)
1 Tbs of Crushed Chillies (only because I like my dish spicier)
Salt for seasoning
Some Lettuce as a garnish

Methods:
Heat a tablespoon of oil on to pan/ wok, when the pan/ wok is warm add in onions and then add in carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. When the onions and vege soften add in oyster sauce, chilli sauce, tomato sauce and crushed chillies.

Leave it for 10 mins on medium heat.

Add in the minced Turkey, mix all the ingredients together, add in salt to season the meat.

Make sure that the minced Turkey is almost cooked before adding in the rice.

As it is already late at night and I don’t have any kafir lime leaves, I didn’t add it to the dish. To my horror I didn’t have garlic either and didn’t want to add garlic powder instead.

It is really easy but at the same time flavourful. Enjoy!!!

So this morning, I almost didn’t make it for my coach back to Sheffield. I was crashing at a friend’s house since my bestfriend has a rule on me having to find an alternative solution if I am coming back home past 12 am- it make sense, in order for me to get into her apartment I would have to wake everyone up. I must have set five alarms and must have deleted all of it. Luckily, I managed to wake up at 9.40 am which gave me sometime albeit still in a rush- with the slight delay on Hammersmith & City line (and lets not forget with a massive hangover)- I made it to my bestfriend’s place by 10.10 am.

When I saw her (she was working at home today), I told her that I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time talking to her etc. since I had to ‘rush pack’ my suitcases and proceeded almost instantly to Victoria Coach Station. By the time I left hers it was 10.30am (yes, I didn’t get to shower but managed to take some ibuprofen before I left). I made it to the coach station by 11am and my megabus to Sheffield was at 11.30am. It did give me some room to breathe.

The journey wasn’t as smooth as it should have been- traffic congestion on M1 which ended up with the journey delayed by 51minutes. By the time I reached my apartment- I was so knackered and was not really up for any extreme culinary adventure. In the end, I decided to cook fried rice which I had freshly invented- coriander shrimp paste, anchovies fried rice. The ingredients are as following:

Ingredients (For 4 People):

2 Bowls of Boiled Rice- At least cooked overnight or left to cool at room temperature for an hour or so.

4 Eggs (Tesco Minimum box of 6- £0.89)

Birds Eye Garden Peas 400G (only use a cup) – £1.60

Tesco Anchovy Fillets In Olive Oil 100G – £1.69

2 Tesco Brown Onions Loose Onion (1 Onion- Sliced finely and 1 Onion – Roughly Chopped) – £0.16 (each)

4-8 Tesco Finger Chillies – de-seeded (4 for mild spice, 6 for spicy, 8 for extremely spicy) – £0.90

2 tablespoons of light soya sauce

1 tablespoon of fish sauce- £1.39

1 tablespoon of olive oil

A handful of fresh Tesco Coriander (leaves and stem) – £0.70

1 tablespoon of Seasoned Pioneers Thai Shrimp Paste – £1.99

4 cloves of Tesco Garlic Each – £0.30

(Total Cost for Ingredients Minus Olive Oil and Light Soya Sauce= £9.78)

Cost per Serving: £2.45

Methods:

Blend together 1 onion- roughly chopped, bird chillies, 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a handful of fresh coriander, 1 tablespoon of shrimp paste and 4 cloves of garlic– add water when necessary while maintaining a thick consistency of the paste- the colour might be a bit off-putting but the smell and the taste is spectacular (put it aside for the time being).

Mix three eggs in a bowl- as if you are making scramble eggs, but remember to season with salt and pepper! Heat up oil in a wok and fry the eggs. Put it aside.

Sauté the blended mix and then add in the finely sliced onions, anchovies and peas. After 5 mins or when the onions soften, add in the boiled rice and the scramble eggs. Mix everything together. Add in few dashes of dark soya sauce, Season with salt.

Fry an egg just as a condiment.

The result is as following: