Tuesday, February 04, 2020

Impie’s Homestyle Leftover Beef Fried Rice


The other night at O’maJ, among many other dishes, the greedy table also ordered a tomahawk. Of course we couldn’t finish it. I wasn’t on beef! As delicious as that tomahawk was, I only dared to take two small slices. We had plenty of leftovers from the superbly marinated and grilled tomahawk. I didn’t mind taking them home. I would put them to good use.

Took a look at the contents. There were many slices of meat, a bone and fat. And caramelized carrots. I decided to render those bits of fat and whip up beef fried rice. I could do bee hoon, but the man felt like rice, and I had many packets of frozen basmati rice that should be used soon. Never mind about ‘wok-hei’. I’ll never get that from an induction stove anyway, so my version would be an easy, edible homemade tasty rice more than zichar-style fried rice. #ImpieCooks2020


Used the cast iron pot to render the fat and the bone in the oven for three hours. We went out to watch a play (An Esplanade Huayi commission by Toy Factory Productions, ‘Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove’ 《竹林七賢》; it was terribly tedious) while the fat melted down beautifully. It was a great way to keep the pot oiled too. The whole point was to use the melted beef fat to fry the rice. Mmmmm.

Made a mixture of soy sauce for the rice. Sorted out the rice first, added in the melted fat, then tossed the meat, carrots and rice and eggs together. Turned out to be a perfect portion for three people. Served all the meat to the man and his good friend H who randomly joined us for dinner at the last minute. (We didn’t mind of course.) I separately did a hard-boiled egg for myself. Heh.

It was a good use of leftovers to do a one-dish meal; nothing went to waste. Cantonese XO sauce and fiery sambal belachan at the side lent more layers to the beef fried rice. I could only offer raw cherry tomatoes as vegetables. The men opted for plates, forks and spoons. I preferred to have the fried rice in a bowl and chopsticks. Whisky complemented this meal really well.

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