Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Arroz Frito Con Huevo y Jamon (Egg & Ham Fried Rice)

This is my grandmothers version of fried rice, very simple, straight forward, and delicious. It's good for a quick breakfast, lunch or dinner...Wait isn't fried rice Chinese? Well Cubans eat it to, it's part of some of the Chinese influence from early Chinese migration to Cuba and Fried Rice became popular. There are tons of variations of fried rice, there is no correct way of making it, it can have almost anything in it, some people use it as a way to get rid of leftovers, and use up old rice.

Some general rules though are to use leftover cold rice that way your fried rice has the right texture. If you use fresh cooked hot rice it will become sticky and clumpy when frying it together with the other stuff, and fried rice is suppose to be a little loose and not feel wet. If using the same day, make sure to cool the rice first.

Ingredients:
-3 eggs (beat the eggs with a pinch of chicken bouillon, a little soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sugar, or if you don't want to just salt)
-2 cups leftover cooked cold or room temperature rice
-1/2-1 cup chopped pork ham
-1 onion minced
-4 clove garlic finely minced
-soy sauce to taste (I used 1 tablespoon)
-1/2 cup or 1 cup peas (for color)


Directions:
(1) Get beaten seasoned eggs, and heat oil on medium high heat in a pan, add eggs and cook them like scrambled eggs, kind of swish them a little and be gentle, make them sort of like a omelet. Set aside and chop em up a bit.
(2) Add more oil to pan not a lot, heat it up on medium high and add onion, garlic, and chopped ham, sautee together until fragrant and onion is slightly translucent.
(3) Add rice and break the rice up, you don't want any clumps of rice, it should be a little loose, when rice is heated through and well mixed, drizzle with some soy sauce (about 1 tablespoon more or less to taste), fold in cooked eggs and peas.
(4) Your done! Very simple. I had this for breakfast this morning with some "Cafe Con Leche" (shot of Cuban coffee diluted in a cup of hot milk)
P.S. You can use leftover "Lechon Asado" instead of ham (Cuban Roast Pork marinaded in citrus then roasted yum... recipe for that some other time in my home we usually do it with lime but sour oranges are the best I'm waiting to go visit a friend to get some sour oranges from their garden for a good cuban roast pork).

6 comments:

Núria said...

He, he! I call this arroz chino and cook it nearly the same way... a delish :D

Nathan said...

What do you do different, so do you add "green onions"

Traciy Curry-Reyes said...

great recipes. my husband is mexican and I am black and
I love to fuse soul food and american cooking with mexican and other latin recipes for a genre of cooking that I like to refer to as Mexi-soul.
http://blackandmexicancouples.blogspot.com/

Nathan said...

Traciy,

WOWZERS, I clicked on your profile and you have SOOOO MANY blogs, are any of them cooking related? I just say your comment thanks for the compliment.

Anonymous said...

Hello

No most of them are about movies based on true stories. I am thinking of starting a spanish language blog as well. I love cooking though, but most of my recipes were passed down to me or told to me by my husbands mexican family.

Ivonne said...

I guess all Cubans learn to make fried rice Cuban style, and although the ingredients vary, the one thing I always see is the eggs.