I accidentally overcooked some rice and decided to just lean into it and make fried rice with bell pepper, banana pepper, bulb onion, and ginger. It's actually not even really rice. It's a brown rice noodle that's sort of like orzo. Although I'm going to go ahead and call it rice for all intensive purposes in this recipe because anyone recreating this is probably going to use rice rice. I'm also not going to explain what this thing that looks surprisingly similar to rice is every time that I need to mention it. Although you can mix and match rice, orzo, couscous, quinoa, or any kind of noodle or grain of choice.
I don't often make fried rice. It's one of those things that people will just automatically give you when you say that you don't typically eat meat! Although I find a bowl of rice kind if a cop-out as an entire meal. It's more like a side or an element of a dish. Fried rice is a fun thing to make every now and then when you have produce to use up! A lot of people add peas and carrots. I'm not particularly fond of peas, though, and I don't really like cutting carrots into pea-sized chunks. This might not be making anyone want to make fried rice. Although you're on this page because you already want to make it! So, add in whatever produce you do and don't want.
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Variations of Pepper Fried Rice
Although I don't make fried rice all that much, I make rice quite a bit. I tend to make it to accompany a larger dish. But there's almost an infinite amount of ways to make rice to suit your own needs and personal tastes.
This pepper fried rice consists of red bell pepper, banana pepper, bulb onion, and ginger with tamari and rice vinegar. Fried rice is a great recipe to mix and match your own produce and seasoning. Some staple ingredients include peas and carrots. Although you can use whatever fruits and vegetables that you have on hand or suit your own personal tastes and preferences
Cook rice according to the manufacturer's instructions. I have a basic article on What’s the Difference Between Types of Rice? with the difference between types of rice (white rice, brown rice, etc.), size of rice (short-grain, long-grain, etc.), varieties of rice (Arborio, Jasmine, etc.), what rice works with what dishes (paella, sushi, etc.), and a table at the bottom of the page with rice-to-water ratios for both the white and brown versions of rice. As well as another article on The Fundamentals of Cooking Rice.The basic ratio of white rice-to-water is 1:1 or 1:1½, for a softer feel. Brown rice tends to be 1:2. Fried rice tends to use a medium-grain white rice. I tend to opt for a brown rice with most things. Although you can use a variety of rice for this dish and it'll still turn out. Brown rice takes about 45 minutes in a rice cooker.
Fried Rice
Preheat a skillet on high heat.It can help to cool the rice during this time as cold rice tends not to stick together as much as heated rice. This is entirely optional. Although leftover rice reheats well at this point if you want to turn it into fried rice later.
Add produce to the skillet with a splash of high heat oil. Let fry, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, about 15 minutes.
Add rice to the skillet and let fry for about 3 minutes and then flip.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a separate bowl. Slowly pour the eggs over the skillet. It can help to pour it over chopsticks or the handle of a fork in order to break up the flow of the eggs.The goal is to get small portions of egg interspersed into the dish. This is the opposite of scrambling an egg for most other meals, where the goal is to have large, fluffy eggs. With fried rice, it's more about the rice than the egg.
Serve immediately.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
For a more more information on cooking rice, I have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Cooking Rice. Rice is surprisingly more difficult to cook in a rice cooker than the name would suggest and there are a multitude of simple solutions for common problems, like overcooking and becoming mushy or drying out. There are also some solutions for remedying these issues after the fact, instead of starting over.
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