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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Not Authentic


This is a major disclaimer for two reasons. First because I don't want anyone in middle America to mistakenly believe this is "Chinese food." Second because I would like to ward off the inevitable hate mail that is sure to ensue if I tried to pass this off as authentic. And this is as far from real Chinese food as you can get.

But I had a craving for fried rice and I've never made it before. I've made other actual honest to goodness authentic Chinese dishes before, but something about fried rice intimidates me. (In my defense, I would bet a million dollars that fried rice isn't an authentic Chinese dish to begin with, but I digress). So I took a short cut. A nonauthentic, cheater cheater pumpkin eater short cut. I bought packaged fried rice. (GASP - THE HORROR!) My only saving grace is my willingness to admit my secrets and not try to pass this off as anything more then it is - an easy weeknight meal that tastes good!


Cheater Pork Fried Rice
1 lb pork tenderloin, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 maui onion, diced
1 3/4 cup water
1 package fried rice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced

1) Cook pork in large skillet with olive oil over medium high heat until cooked through. Remove pork from pan.
2) Add onion to skillet and cook until softened.
3) Stir in water and fried rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook covered 12 minutes.
4) Combine eggs and green onions. Pour over rice and cook 2 minutes covered.
5) Stir in red pepper and pork and cook until heated through.

Serves 4.
Each serving has:
Calories 358.1
Total Fat 13.5 g
Cholesterol 195.8 mg
Sodium 450.0 mg
Potassium 613.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 16.2 g
Protein 36.9 g


13 comments:

  1. Fried rice is authentic! Well, Mama Monkey has always made it at home, and I don't think she would make fake Chinese.

    I really think one day you should come over to my mom's house with me, and she could show you her tricks because you could actually learn and remember them, whereas I'm just useless in the kitchen. ;)

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  2. i got mad love for cheater fried rice.

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  3. Hey! Shortcuts work. You need to take them now and then. It LOOKS like really fried rice!

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  4. Fried rice is Chinese & Vietnamese meatloaf, so there sure are many versions...now including cheater one ;-)

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  5. Who cares if you got some help from the store? I say sometimes you've got to make your life easier. :) And it looks really good! Now I am wanting fried rice. Thanks!

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  6. I don't care if you think this is not authentic, it looks amazingly good and pork fried rice is DH's fave. Starred! Totally making this!

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  7. yum! sometimes easy and fast for a weeknight dinner involves shortcuts. we've all been there ;)

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  8. So who really cares if it's authentic or not - if it tastes great, isn't that all that counts.

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  9. Allrecipes has a pretty good and easy fried rice recipe. I think the secret is - using day old rice.

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  10. Fried rice is authentic and it's so versatile that you can't really make it "wrong". Even though there are some typical combos (just like there are typical pizza combos), you can really put in anything you want.

    The keys are to use leftover rice (ideally because it's drier and less likely to give you mushy fried rice) along with whatever meats and veggies and seasoning (usually soy sauce and/or salt) you want!

    Great job, that looks delish!

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  11. Authentic or not, it still looks really good.

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  12. I'm happy to see you cheat a little. It almost makes you more perfect in my book.

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  13. I wouldn't call it cheating - just being creative with a prepackaged meal! I love the sound of this dish, may just have to pick up a packet of fried rice and give it a go.

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