Blistered Green Bean Fried Rice

From The Wok: Recipes and Techniques

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked white or jasmine rice (12 ounces/340 g) (see Notes)
• 5 tablespoons (75 ml) peanut, rice bran, or other neutral oil
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 8 ounces (225 g) yard-long or green beans, trimmed and cut into ¾-inch pieces
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced (I successfully substituted finely-minced white onion)
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced (about 2 teaspoons/5 g)
• 1 to 3 fresh Thai bird chiles (to taste) (I’ve successfully substituted banana pepper), thinly sliced, plus more for serving
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) light soy sauce or shoyu
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) fish sauce, plus more for serving
• 1 ounce (30 g) Thai or sweet Italian basil leaves, roughly torn
• Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
• Sugar

To Serve

• 1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
• 1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

Process

1. If using day-old rice (see Notes), transfer it to a medium bowl and break the rice up with your hands into individual grains.

2. Heat a wok over high heat until very lightly smoking. Add 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of the oil and swirl to coat. Reduce the heat to medium. Pour the eggs into the center of the wok and cook, swirling the wok, until the eggs are puffy and golden brown around the edges, about 30 seconds. Use a spatula to release the eggs from the bottom of the wok, carefully flip, cook for another 15 seconds, swirling, then transfer the eggs to a paper-towel-lined bowl and set aside.

3. Return the empty wok to high heat until smoking. Add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of the remaining oil and swirl to coat. Add the green beans and cook, stirring and tossing occasionally, until deeply blistered and charred, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the eggs.

4. Return the wok to high heat until lightly smoking. Add the remaining tablespoon (15 ml) oil and swirl to coat. Add the rice and cook, stirring and tossing, until the rice is pale brown and toasted and has a lightly chewy texture, about 3 minutes). Add the scallions, garlic, and chiles and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

5. Return the beans and egg to the wok, using the spatula to break up the egg into small pieces as you toss everything together. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, and basil. Season with salt, white pepper, and sugar to taste. Transfer to a serving platter and serve immediately with lime and cucumber.

Impressions

This was awesome. I wish I’d made twice as much (we had the ingredients for it). The combination of soy sauce and fish sauce was nice. The squeezed lime was really great. And the textural contrast of the fresh cucumber slices (and hot peppers - I used what looked like a banana pepper from the CSA) was nice.

Normally we would have just used lemon juice rather than fresh squeezed lime. I think that would have been fine, but the lime was really great, too.