Vegetarian Wok Dishes

★★★VEGETARIAN WOK DISHES★★★

I promised to try and update this more often. So here's the next entry. This time I'll introduce you to a brand new recipe (I just tried it out a few days ago) as well as to a recipe that's pretty standard.

- fried rice
- stir fried rice noodles with hoisin sauce



The fried rice recipe can also be used when you want to add meat or seafood. The base is the same and you can just add more stuff to it. I'm just putting it under the vegetarian tag/label.

Standard Fried Rice

I think fried rice is a pretty standard dish in the Asian cuisine. You have it in almost every country. There are many variations and you can basically toss in whatever you like really. I'll write out the basic recipe for you and then write in a note below what else I include in it most of the time.

RECIPE:

2-3 cups of rice 

(I usually use leftover rice which is pretty dry really - if you want to use freshly cooked rice, don't add too much water when you cook it so it doesn't turn out too soft and sticky!)

2-3 eggs (depending on how big they are, the eggs I get here are huge so 2 are more than enough)

1 onion

salt/soy sauce/Maggi liquid seasoning

pepper

garlic powder

margarine or cooking oil

Optional:

green onions (this looks nice)

chopped carrot (tiny cubes)

sweet corn

green peas (frozen ones usually)

bacon (chopped small)

sausage/wiener (cut into bits)

fish flakes

shrimp flakes

curry powder

dried basil

dried herbs de Provence

sweet chili powder

How to:

But some margarine or oil into a wok or frying pan (I don't use butter because I hear if you heat it up beyond a certain temperature AND leave it heated too long it becomes carcinogenic? or at least unhealthy... margarine is the better alternative - but not light margarine or the kind with stuff added to it apparently, yeah pretty complicated...whatever). Add the chopped onion and turn on the heat. Stir until all of the margarine has melted and the onions start turning glassy (not brown!).

If you're including meat (bacon, sausage or similar), add it in now because it needs more heat than the rest and longer to cook. If you are keeping this vegetarian, move on to the next step.

Dump the rice in and stir. I use a wooden spoon or a spatula to do this. If the rice is sticking together separate it with that gently until it separates into grains or at least smaller bits. Be careful not to mash it or you'll get, well, mashed rice. If the rice is dry this is easier!

Add some seasoning here. Not too much because the final seasoning happens at the end. Again, there are many possible spices you can use here. Some curry powder is nice but that depends on you. I usually just add pepper, garlic and some liquid seasoning. My family prefers the Maggi liquid seasoning so I use that but it's perfectly fine to use soy sauce as well. Stir well so that the spices are spread evenly.

Then, make a small crater in the middle. Just shove the rice out of the way until you can see the bottom of the pan or wok. Then crack an egg into that crater. Use the spatula to stir it - just like hen you make scrambled eggs really - until it becomes solid and is no longer liquid. Ideally it should have turned into well, fine pieces of scrambled egg. Mix it into the rice. Repeat this with the other eggs. The result will be little bits of egg in your rice. They'll be dry and there won't be any sticky egg thing going on and it won't burn :) !

Once you're done with the egg,  you're pretty much done. Unless you want to toss in vegetables and/or fish or shrimp flakes. This is the time to do that. Once you've put everything else in you wanted to put in, season one more time after you turn off the heat.

Colors are an important feature of fried rice ;)

The result should look a little something like this. It takes me about 10 minutes to do this by the way. So there is no burning or anything going on. Remember to stir well so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan!

The second dish is something I came up with only recently. It's inspired by things you probably encountered before but I added my own personal twist to it.

Stir fried rice noodles with hoisin sauce seasoning

RECIPE: 


about 150gr of rice noodles [bún in Vietnamese] (this is the weight when they're dry and uncooked) - if you don't have rice noodles, I'd recommend harusame if you can get that or vermicelli/glass noodles (shirataki might work, too but I haven't tried that)
1/2 onion is enough for this but use a whole if you want to
mushrooms of your choice (or no mushrooms if you don't like them)
1 carrot (or other vegetables if you like but I think carrot fits the best)
green onion (optional, again just because it looks nice)
roasted sesame (optional)
1 tablespoon dark hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon ketjap manis (optional)
soy sauce
cooking oil
sesame oil 

fried tofu (optional)



How to:


Heat the oil in a pan or wok and then add the onions. Once the onions turn glassy add the noodles. In this case I used leftover noodles. Stir and then add the seasoning. You can vary the amounts if you like it differently - also the saltiness of the hoisin sauce tends to vary by brand so be careful with that. Same with all the other seasoning really like oyster sauce and so on. If you want to add a bit more color and a salty-sweet flavor, you can add ketjap manis. This is an Indonesian seasoning if I'm not mistaken.


After that it's just tossing the vegetables in and stirring well so the sauce coats everything. Add some sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds to add a softer flavor as well and then add green onions if you like. If you have some deep fried tofu, you can cut it into thin strips or bits and add it as well. It'll soak up the sauce nicely.


Done!