Beef and Pork Fried Rice : Quick & Happy Comfort Food!

Today we braved the rainy, spooky weather to toddle over to Guaranteed Rate field (tickets were 8 dollars each with fees) to check out the stadium and.. I guess see the White Sox play. The game was in a rain delay with hardly a soul in sight, a perfect opportunity to get close to the playing field, grab one of those S’more milkshakes (the only redeeming thing for the White Sox in an otherwise abysmal season), and just explore the stadium. We found it the place to be nice and clean but really lacking any character or real “Southside” identity – even as outsiders we quickly got the distinct impression the team (the owner) was kind of ready to move on from this location.

The best part of the experience was watching the Tigers beat the Blue Jays in a walkoff homerun on the jumbotron while waiting out the rain delay – even the White Sox fans cheered at that!

It’s been a busy weekend – and what better way to close out a Sunday than to clear up the fridge a bit and make some fried rice? I used the recipe for Shrimp and Pork Fried Rice from A Very Chinese Cookbook ..with some modifications. That’s kind of the spirit of the dish, isn’t it?

We are lucky enough to have some incredible Chinese BBQ places nearby so I have a ready stock of Char Siu in the freezer, and I also had some leftover ground beef from a rice bowl dinner earlier in the week, that would serve as a substitute for shrimp. Was also using basmati as I have a huge bag of it that sits sadly on our windowsill that needs to be used up. Didn’t have any bean sprouts but did actually have the other ingredients the recipe required (including the dried shiitake, hooray!) so I was on my way. Love how quick fried rice is to make – takes way longer to put the ingredients together than to actually cook them, so by the time I had things hydrated, sliced, and whatever else, the meal was good to go, just needed to add a bit of heat.

And so I did! Meal looked totally amazing, really nice contrasting colors and texture. The taste was nice, if a little bit basic (that I do not think would have necessarily improved by adding bean sprouts or unseasoned shrimp). It might be good to substitute the soy sauce for ponzu and add a bit of togarashi during the final mixing of ingredients in the wok to brighten things up. Looking forward to making more from this cookbook, while being mindful of when/where to add some extra sparks of tastiness where needed.

Bye for now! 🙂