FOODlog #80: Petai & Spinach Fried Rice

My Mum cooks really good fried rice. She can basically use any savory ingredient or even leftover dishes and make a really good fried rice dish.

The other day she cooked fried rice for lunch and dinner with just a few ingredients but it was super delicious. She made 'Petai' & Spinach Fried Rice.

'Petai' or in English known as stinky beans are a type of local bean in Malaysia that's often cooked with 'sambal' and also fried rice. It's called stinky beans because it does make your breath smell like garlic after eating it. But this beans have a good health benefit of which is it cleans your kidneys which you'll definitely notice it when you use the toilet the next day. 'Petai' is a super food if you ask me.

Anyway, let's get back to the fried rice. First you'll need to saute some garlic in oil in a wok or pan for a couple of minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Then the 'petai', carrots, and some minced pork are cooked for a couple of minutes followed by spinach and another couple more minutes. You could also use other proteins like chicken or beef slices to replace the pork. Make sure to season at every stage with salt as you add the ingredients in.

Next, some beaten eggs go in and a scrambled and cooked. Add in then cooked white rice preferably overnight rice and wok fry it for another 4-5 minutes. Season the rice with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and salt to taste as well as MSG if you'd like it to taste restaurant quality.

Key things to remember when cooking fried rice is that the fire needs to be on high heat at all times or else it'll start steaming instead of frying which will end you up with soggy fried rice instead of rice that every grain is individually separated, fragrant, and delicious.

If you have any leftover fried rice, just heat it up in a pan and you're ready to go. A super versatile dish that you can use a few ingredients to make a 1 pan wonder. And not to mentioned super easy to clean up too.