Thai Chili Peppers — in Fried Brown Rice

I picked up some Thai Chili peppers because I couldn’t resist the beautiful crimson hue. What I was going to do with them, I had no idea…

Then one night I was craving one of my favorite Indonesian dishes… fried rice topped with a fried egg.  Not having a recipe, I decided to just wing it and see what I could come up with.

I started with a combination of canola oil and hot chili oil in a non-stick frying pan. I added chopped one Thai chili,  some onion, celery and carrots… sauteing until they began to sweat.

I then added some thinly sliced purple cabbage and sliced mushrooms (I would have added green onions, but I didn’t have any) and continued stirring until they began to wilt. Lastly, I added in some pre-cooked brown rice and stirred until well mixed.

In a separate bowl, I mixed together some soy sauce, a little oyster sauce, garlic paste, ginger paste, mirin rice wine and some thai sweet chili sauce. I whisked them all together and then poured into the fry pan — blending with the rice mixture.

Once mixed, I seasoned with salt and pepper and fried an egg in a separate pan. I made sure to leave the egg over-easy so that I would have some delicious yolk to spill out over the rice.

Note: While your rice is cooking, make sure you stir often and watch your heat level! The rice absorbs the oil and can quickly become stuck to the bottom of the pan!

I grabbed a bowl, added my rice and topped it with the egg and the end result was delicious!

A simple dish that is easy to make and doesn’t really require a recipe. You can just throw together left over rice and whatever vegetables you have on hand. Not necessarily super low fat, because the oil is essential to prevent the rice from sticking and to add moisture back into the dish. The fried egg adds a nice topping for some additional protein, but I also like to add cubed tofu to the rice (to keep it vegetarian) or sauteed shrimp and it’s just as good — with or without the egg.