jean-georges’ fried rice
This is a French chef’s take on fried rice, that Chinese staple that I rely on to make delicious use of leftover rice and assorted odds and ends.
Yang zhou fried rice is commonly found on restaurant menus, but one of my favorite combinations was (is? it’s been awhile) rice with diced ham, scrambled eggs, corn, tomatoes, and get this, ketchup mixed into the rice during cooking. A blogger named Pei sums it up better than I can. It’s also a little bit like Japanese omurice. Another wacky fried rice I make is with cashews, pineapple chunks, fresh hot peppers, greens, and a squirt of lime. And then there’s my grandmother’s version that starts with a well-seasoned wok and several cloves of crushed garlic in a puddle of hot oil. The garlic infuses the oil (and your clothes and maybe even your home) with that wonderful kicky aroma, which then coats each grain of rice that hits the pan.
Anyway, back to Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s fried rice. Mark Bittman wrote about it a year ago in the New York Times, and I finally got around to trying it. I was a little put off by having to cook everything separately but in the end, I couldn’t complain too much about the result. And since fried rice is a vehicle for improvisation and refrigerator-cleaning, I added some chopped up Chinese sausage that my mom stuffed into my suitcase after my last visit.
