Shrimp-Fried Rice

Honestly, Dollinks, I’ve never tasted a better recipe for Shrimp-Fried Rice! The blend of textures and flavors and tastes is inspired! If your city or town is fortunate enough to have a “Chinatown” or a large Chinese supermarket, you’ll find Chinese Sausages there, and possibly in your grocer’s freezer case. However, because you need only one sausage (and these come bundled), you can easily skip this ingredient as well as the shrimp, turning this recipe into a penny pincher as well as one vegetarians will love. Please don’t substitute a “regular” sausage for the Chinese one: The flavor and texture are completely different! You can use any rice left over from yesterday’s blog for Cabbage Rolls for the cooked rice this recipe requires.

Shrimp-Fried Rice:

¼ c. canola oil, divided

1-½ c. diced celery

3 or 4 chopped green onions (“spring onions”)

1 small white onion, diced

1 Chinese sausage, angle-cut into ½-in. pieces 

½ c. uncooked frozen peas

⅓ of a medium-sized iceberg lettuce (also called “head” lettuce), diced

4 c. cooked, cooled long-grain white rice (about 1-½ c. raw rice; see Note) 

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 c. small, fresh cooked shrimp

½ tsp. salt (or to taste)

2-to-4 tbsp. oyster sauce

Have all ingredients prepared and at hand before starting. Preheat oven to “warm.” Add 2 tbsp. oil to preheated wok; oil should be sizzling. Stir-fry celery and onions together for 30 sec. Add sausage, stir-frying 30 sec. Add peas, stir-frying 30 sec. Add lettuce, stir-frying 10 sec., just until heated through. Remove mixture from wok and keep warm in oven. Heat remaining oil in work. Stir in rice until heated through. Add egg, cooking into rice. Add shrimp, stir-frying just until heated through. Return reserved ingredients to wok, stir-frying well to combine. Add salt and oyster sauce, as desired. Serve immediately. Serves 6-to-8.

Note: See How to Cook Rice in Index.

Further Note: I just happened to have some (okay, a humungous amount) of pork on hand (see Miss Piggy Goes to Market, blogged April 25, 2012), so (in the interests of economy) substituted finely diced pork for the Chinese sausage and shrimp in this recipe.

Have all ingredients ready before starting

Stir-fry diced celery with onions

Remove first mixture from wok

... And keep warm in oven

Add cold rice to hot wok

Stir-fry until heated through

Add beaten egg and continue to stir-fry

Work just until heated through

Returned reserved ingredients to wok

Add seasonings, serving at once