I made this Mince beef fried rice for lunch today because 1) I was in a hurry 2) I had a bowl of delicious Basmati rice from last night. I wanted to make fried rice but didn’t have chicken, only minced beef… I looked in my Asian Cookbook Collection and found a few recipes, all different and involving lots of things I didn’t have. So I created this.
Wendell was here for lunch and added this one on the “I want more” list.
It is so simple to make, it’s ridiculous. All you need is a few basic Asian ingredients you definitely will have in your pantry if you like Asian food.
To make this a balanced lunch I cut a Lebanese cucumber and already washed lettuce I had prepared yesterday (I like batch processing ;) and stored in the fridge in a cheap freezer bag. I didn’t want to make a sauce for it to avoid it rubbing against my fried-rice’s very nice taste. So I simple squeezed lemon on the salad and cucumber, and on the fried rice too. It was very nice.
While I was cooking this Mince beef fried rice, Léonore was feeding coco with home made dry bread with home-milled grains. He liked it.
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbs palm sugar grated or a 2 cm knob
- 1 tbs dark soy sauce
- 3 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- A twig of Vietnamese mint washed and patted dry
- 2 scallions (or spring onions) washed and patted dry
- a dash of neutral oil (canola, peanut)
- a 2 cm unpeeled knob of ginger
- 1 garlic clove
- 500g mince beef
- 1 egg
- 500g cooked rice (from the night before is even better. I keep mine outside the fridge if it is only for one night, it better).
- In a small bowl crush coriander seeds.
- Grate palm sugar using a Microplan grater (they're the absolute best) over the bowl.
- Tip both soys and fish sauce and mix well until sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
- Cut Vietnamese mint and scallions in bits the size of half the length of your thumb.
- In a non-stick frying pan or a seasoned wok, pour a dash of oil. While it is on high heat, using a Microplan grater, grate garlic and ginger (don't peel), keep a few millimeters for the final touch. Stir until fragrant.
- Tip the meat. Using a wooden spatula, break it in little parts.
- Once the beef is cooked (grey) push it on one side of the pan. Tip the pan to get the oil on the other side. Break the egg in the free part of the pan with the oil. With the spatula, move the egg, scramble it until nearly all cooked.
- Mix egg and beef well. Tip the sauce. (you're still on high heat) and stir well.
- Tip rice. Stir well and break clumps with spatula. Let the meat caramelise a bit.
- Tip scallions and mint. Grate the last few millimetres of ginger. Stir for another minute and serve with a squeeze of lemon.
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