Dinner at Piattini

While watching "Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network, Josh and I saw a segment with Donatella Arpaia raving about the gelato at Piattini. Since most restaurants we see on the show are located elsewhere all over the country, we figured we had to try this place because it's in our neighborhood in Brooklyn. Reviews on Yelp were very favorable, touting the service, great food, and perfect gelato.

We walked the twenty-some blocks to get there, and I was taken aback when I saw the front of the restaurant was completely empty. Bad sign. But the small dining area close to the swinging doors of the kitchen was nearly full. When we asked to be seated, it seemed like they had no idea what to do with us, and it took three different people coming by to tell us it would be a minute, that there's one table left. Half the restaurant was empty, but we got the ONE table left right next to the swinging doors to the kitchen. I was going into this with very high expectations based on the reviews and what I saw on Food Network, so I started worrying even more.

We had our menus, and finally placed our order. The bread was excellent, warmed on a grill with toasty grill marks to add texture. We had some issues with having water in our glasses. It appears that they were woefully understaffed due to the holiday weekend, or just didn't want to have more staff. We had to ask a couple times to have our water refilled. We got our appetizers quickly, Josh with his special of black figs with prosciutto. I got the baccala and potato pancake. While my pancake tasted good, I don't think it was worth $8 for one small patty half the size of my palm. Josh's saucer of freshly sliced prosciutto and two cut up figs was priced at $10. Our main courses arrived quickly as well. I had a spaghetti with spicy squid ink sauce and cuttlefish. It was great, just enough heat. Josh had the bucatini with pork jaw bacon and tomato sauce. Like mine, the pasta was perfectly cooked, having absorbed some of the flavor of the sauce, and the bacon wasn't too salty, and thinner than I expected (not in a bad way). I actually liked his dish more than mine!

For dessert, we shared pistachio gelato con brioche, basically, two scoops of gelato in a brioche bun. Very simple, but very delicious. The gelato was very good, some of the best I've ever had, but not by far, and the price tag of $8 was surprising. I was expecting $6 at most because we weren't eating in Manhattan. I've had gelato nearly as good from restaurants like Scuderia and Giorgione's.

So I think I need to go back to Piattini on a non-holiday weekend and see if the service is any better before I write it off entirely. The food was excellent, but pricey.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Yesterday, this recipe was posted on The Pioneer Woman. As soon as I read Ree's entry, I knew I had to make them. I love fleur de sel caramels and pretty much anything with the sweet/savory combination. My friends and I wound up deciding on having a pizza lunch at work at the last minute and bang! There's my excuse to make these brownies and bring them into the office!

A couple notes on the recipe:

1. It says to bake the brownies 25 to 30 minutes. After 25 minutes, I pulled the pan out, and it was still wiggly. Upon wooden skewer test, the pick came out coated in raw batter. Clearly not ready, and it wound up taking about 37 minutes for me to get the brownies where I wanted them, moist crumbs clinging to the skewer, not completely clean. My oven temperature is accurate, thanks to the oven thermometer I go by. If the brownies were supposed to be liquid when I pulled them out of the oven, then I didn't notice any problems with how long I baked them because they were still chewy and fudgy in the end.
   
2. I looked at the original recipe posting from Charlotte and it had 3 TBsp of gelatin required. A lot of reviewers commented that the caramel was extremely rubbery due to the huge amount of gelatin. I can see why Ree altered the recipe to just 1 TBsp + 1 tsp gelatin. Ree didn't mention putting the brownies in the fridge to set, as the other recipe said, so I popped the brownies with caramel topping into the fridge for about an hour. I tried to slice them at that point and it was a HUGE mistake. I have very sharp knives, and when I ran the knife across the brownies, it dragged chunks of brownie and strings of caramel with the blade. I gave up and put the brownies back in the fridge overnight. In the morning, it was perfect, so easy to cut. Because the flavor is so rich, I cut them into 1 inch squares, like petit fours.

These brownies taste divine. Bake them!

Post-Wedding Photo Shoot

Josh and I scheduled a post-wedding photo shoot back in January, setting it for a day during Josh's spring break. We felt that we didn't have much time to take formal photos with the craziness of our schedule and Josh's wish not to see me in my white dress until I walked down the aisle. By the time the ceremony even started, it was full dark outside, so we didn't have the opportunity for outdoor pictures.

We were so lucky with the weather today. There were a few snags on the way to the shoot, the big one being Josh forgetting his wedding ring, but luckily we weren't too far away from home to turn around to get it.

Josh had wanted to take our engagement pictures in Central Park, and I wanted to take them in Grand Central Terminal, and we couldn't agree, so we wound up doing them in Battery Park instead. For this photo shoot, we figured we'd go to Central Park so Josh would get what he wanted several months ago. We started the shoot at Bethesda Terrace, one of the prettiest attractions in the park, and ended with a shoot on a crosswalk outside of the park, with our photographer practically standing in traffic. I didn't realize that the cherry blossoms were already blooming, so we got to take some gorgeous pictures underneath a stand of them.

I think we got some really great pictures. I can see why a lot of couples do their formal portraits before the wedding. It was nice to take our time, and not have to worry about getting to the 120 guests waiting to spend time with us.

I also didn't have to worry about keeping my dress clean for a ceremony, because it was already done!

Chicago: Day 4

Lake Michigan

We started our day with lunch because we slept so late (the bed was so much better than sleeping on a floor, and I needed to catch up on lost sleep from the past couple days). We set out to tackle the two remaining food goals on Josh's list: Chicago hot dogs and Chicago deep dish pizza. First, we headed over to Portillo's Hot Dogs. My cousin had warned us that there would be more condiments than hot dog in a Chicago hot dog, and he was right. A standard hot dog, for less than $2.50, comes with mustard, relish, chopped onions, sliced tomatoes, pickle, and sport peppers on a steamed poppy seed bun. It was a messy meal, but very, very delicious!

After that, Josh and I walked up the Magnificent Mile, which is really just like Fifth Ave in NYC, lined with stores that have way-too-expensive products for sale. We went up to Giordano's for pizza, but the place was PACKED. Absolutely insane. There was no way we were going to wait that long for pizza when we had dinner reservations at 6. So we swung over to Gino's East, figuring it wasn't as popular as Giordano's, and hell, there was a LINE to get INSIDE. So we called in an order to Giordano's and walked around until the pizza was ready (about half an hour because it's so deep). We picked up our small pizza, which weighed a few pounds at least, and brought it back to the hotel to eat. After all that anticipation, we thought it was going to spectacular, but it turned out to be very disappointing. The best part of the pizza was the sauce. The cheese was this very thick layer under the sauce and so bland. The crust was very thick, but not tasty. I thought it was a dough lasagna.




Dinner was at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion. They're not just in Chicago, and actually have locations all over the country. I had the prix fixe, and the best parts were the appetizer and dessert, not that the short ribs were bad, in fact, they were extremely tender and yummy. The ahi tuna sashimi was amazing. It was umami on a plate, sweet and savory and salty all at once. It was so so good. I could have eaten six plates of the stuff. The dessert was a strawberry cheese cake with kaffir lime essence. The crust was amazing, and the cheesecake was so light. Josh had the Alaskan halibut, which came with a vegetable roll. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing spectacular either. I thought my meal was better!



And so ended our culinary adventures in Chicago. We had a really great time, and the city and its people were so incredibly kind. The architecture of the historical buildings we saw was gorgeous (see above). We had the nicest bartenders and servers at all the restaurants we dined in, and we would be happy to eat and visit Chicago again!

Chicago: Day 3

We spent the second half of our trip to Illinois in downtown Chicago, staying at the Hotel Sax in the River North area. The hotel was really great, a boutique establishment with fantastic staff and lovely decor. We booked our room through Priceline and got the lowest price, the "run of the house" rate, which meant that we didn't get to choose what type of room we got. We would be assigned any room that happened to be available. When we got there, we were going to be placed in a room on the sixth floor, but the clerk changed it to a higher floor with a river view without our asking. After a couple days of sleeping on the floor, a real bed was a very welcome sight for us!

We took a walk in the lovely warm weather that afternoon to scope out the area, and walked by Frontera Grill, only to find a line of a at least 30 people waiting for the restaurant to open. Josh didn't want to wait for a table yet because he wasn't hungry. We went back to the hotel, and Josh didn't feel hungry until nearly 7:30, which meant a 2.5 hour wait at Frontera. We put our names down and went to check out Roy's Hawaiian Fusion in the meantime, figuring that if there wasn't a wait at Roy's, we'd go there and try Frontera the next day. The wait at Roy's was an hour, so we went to a great wine and cheese bar/restaurant called Bin 36 in our hotel. They had an extensive cheese list, with prices starting at $2, and a great wine selection. A couple bucks would buy you a tasting of the cheese, enough for two people to split. It's not a lot of cheese, but if you want to try a bunch of cheeses, it's better to stay small and spend your money on a variety. There's a wine market inside the restaurant too, so if you like a wine, you see its bin number in the menu and find the number in the market, where each wine has an information card that you can take with you to remember for the future.




We wound up waiting just under two hours for our table at Frontera, and managed this by taking seats at the chef's bar, which is pretty much a bar in the area where food gets picked up. You don't actually see much cooking, and we did not see Rick Bayless either. Aside from that, our experience was excellent. You get a little dish of assorted roasted/spiced nuts (bottom left pic) and they're so wonderful. Spice, with a little kick, but no lingering burn. We ordered three appetizers, the Flautas de Carnitas de Puercocrispy (rolled tacos filled with Maple Creek pork carnitas, caramelized onions and black beans), serviced with spicy tomato-arbol chile sauce and arugula salad; Trio Trio Trio (a tasting of three ceviches: blue marlin, tuna, and shrimp & calamari); and Tostaditas (warm, just-made tortilla chips) served with two salsas (garlicky three-chile and roasted tomatillo with serrano and cilantro). They were all tasty, and generous portions. We did not come close to finishing the chips, and I wound up taking them back to NYC, and they were still crispy and tasty a couple days old.



For our entrees, Josh had Pato en Mole de Xico: red-chile rubbed Gunthorp duck breast with Xico's famous fruity, dark-chile mole served with Gulf-style white rice (studded with plantain and raisins), quick-cooked spinach, and plantain tostada (pic on left). I had Tacos al Carbon: wood-grilled chicken sliced and served with roasted pepper rajas, two salsas, frijoles charros, guacamole and homemade tortillas (pic on right). It was the first time we had mole, and it was fantastic, a mix of sweet, smoky, and savory flavors perfectly balanced to turn into a totally new taste.

For a celebrity chef who commands lines down the block for tables, the pricing wasn't bad at all. The bill came to $110 for all our food plus the three cocktails we had. We didn't have room for dessert because we were so stuffed!

Chicago: Day 2

Our second day in Illinois started with brunch at a place called Wild Berry. They had these decadent dishes, such as strawberry cheesecake pancakes. I wasn't feeling like having something really sweet, so I got a skillet dish instead. It was really good, and Josh tried to be all slick, telling the waitress to bring him the bill at the end, but everyone heard him and started the "who's paying the bill" argument way early. In the end, I grabbed it and we wouldn't let it go.

After brunch, we took a walk around this large park/nature conservancy. If you're a resident of the county, your party gets in for free, but if you're from outside it, you have to pay $5. It was really gorgeous and sunny that day. However, the sun tired Josh out and he took a nap when we got back to my aunt's place. He napped for about four hours. My cousin and I went to Gurnee Mills, once famed as being a two-mile long outlet mall. It has changed since we last went there, and it's a hybrid of regular mall stores and outlet stores. I got a good deal on sunglasses at the Banana Republic outlet (Josh and I were squinting rather terribly at the park) though.

We went out for Chinese food that night, which turned out to be very mediocre. The regular chef was on holiday because of Easter and they were very short-staffed.

Chicago: Day 1

My cousin's baby girl and a gigantic remote that is probably intended for the near-blind.

Josh and I took a trip to Chicago to visit my relatives and his friend from college. We planned to spend the first two days of our trip staying with my family and the last two days of our trip staying in a hotel in Chicago to see some sights and hang out with his friend while accomplishing some specific food goals.

1. Have a Chicago hot dog
2. Have Chicago-style pizza (NOT from Uno's, because those are all over the country)
3. Have steak from a steakhouse that is local to the Chicago area
4. Have dinner at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill

We wound up accomplishing goal number 3 our first night in Illinois. My aunt and uncle took all of us to The Backyard Steak Pit in Gurnee. Apparently, my dad really liked this place when he visited a couple years ago, saying it was as good as this other place (the Corner House) we used to go to when my relatives lived in Wisconsin.

I ordered a ribeye steak, medium rare, but I think it leaned more towards medium. Josh's hickory-crusted bone-in ribeye steak was perfect though. The steaks did come with accompaniments, and it was a very casual place. I didn't think it was the best steak ever, but it was a pretty good deal for the price.

"Remodeled" Kitchen

I love my kitchen. It's huge in comparison to most NYC apartment kitchens and cooking has been a pleasure during our time in this apartment. Josh and I went to Ikea the other week to shop for a cabinet to store our wedding china, and instead of buying a cabinet, we bought two kitchen cabinets and placed them back to back (after 2 days' worth of painful assembly) in the middle of the kitchen for ideal efficiency.

I liked cooking before, but with this new work space with fantastic storage, I wish I had more time to cook! Now the two of us can cook at the same time without stepping over one another. With more surface area, I'm able to do prep faster and I could even use half of the space to serve food! Our old kitchen island cart served its purpose well, and it's now along the wall (strange that we have enough room for that in the kitchen too) serving as miscellaneous counter space. We tried giving it away, but nobody has room in their kitchen for it!

No excuses

Now that the wedding is over, there is no excuse for my crappy blogging!

I will start blogging more frequently; maybe that should be my New Year's resolution. Currently, I'm in California visiting my cousin and her family, most importantly their new baby girl who is absolutely adorable. I missed out on the blizzard by a day, despite the way I was tempted to accept the offer to take the next flight out for a first class ticket and $600 towards my next flight.

I miss Josh and the kitties though. I can't wait to go home!

Butterball

After the late-night emergency room debacle on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I caught a cold and still went to work Thursday and Friday. My bosses kicked me out early today and I have been spending the afternoon catching up on DVRed shows, but felt like I should be doing something productive.

I made butter.



Glorious fresh butter.

I remember shaking a jar of heavy cream in my first grade classroom, every student taking a turn shaking the jar and eating the butter we all helped make. Yes, I had to Google the directions, but they're pretty simple. Put heavy cream in a jar, fill it about halfway, and shake. The shaking will eventually create whipped cream that practically fills the jar and there's no more liquid-y sloshing, but you keep shaking and the sloshing returns because the butter has separated from the buttermilk. Pour out the buttermilk, and then pour in cold water to shake a bit, pour the (now) cloudy water out and repeat the rinsing until the water is clear. Take out butter and mix in salt if desired and you have fantastic, fresh, soft, and creamy butter.

I didn't have any homemade bread to do the butter justice, but it tasted pretty good on the store bread I did have. I plan to make a loaf of bread this weekend just because of the butter.

Updating the kitchen

Josh and I finally unloaded the trunkload of bridal shower presents we received, and it made this huge stack on the dining table, so I set off on a kitchen cleaning spree (only got to half the kitchen, calm down) so I could rearrange the counter items and make room for the new food processor and toaster oven. I has been over a year since I had a toaster oven, as we chucked the crappy one we had for four years because it had the dumbest crumb tray (it swung out from the bottom on a hinge!) in history, and we didn't want to have a possibility of bringing roaches from our old apartment to our nice new one.

After much tidying up, here is our right-hand kitchen counter. I love that we have real counters and I no longer have to stack the toaster on the microwave like we did in the Park Slump apartment. I used the toaster to make broiled figs with fennel seeds and wrapped in prosciutto appetizer (see here for unedited fig photo), and the food processor had its maiden voyage when I made my turkey meatloaf. By the way, the 14-cup Cuisinart classic food processor is HEAVY. And the Boos cutting board from Annette and Mark was involved in the making of all of today's edible delights. It is a fantastic cutting board, the stuff of dreams, and I like to think that it makes me a better cook.

My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress"

I watch "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC, which features the Kleinfeld, the salon with the biggest selection of gowns in NYC, even after finding my wedding dress. My dress didn't come from Kleinfeld, although I did have an appointment there. The show makes it seem like the consultants and managers will be your buddy and lower prices if you make a sad face, but when I went, I found out that dress prices start at $2000, and they push you to purchase way before you need. My knot.com calendar was telling me I had until March/April to purchase a dress for a late November wedding. My consultant was pushing me to purchase the first week of January, saying that I was already late.

Perhaps that's the way Kleinfeld works, as so many of the post-purchase brides they show at first fitting talk about how they're not sure if they remember their dress, and worry whether they'll still like it, because it's been A YEAR since they saw their dress. I bought my dress elsewhere for less than $1000, and it has attributes that would sell for over $3000 at Kleinfeld. It's so ridiculous how some brides on the show want a ballgown but want to stick to a $2000 budget. One particular bride was told that if she wanted a ballgown, she'd have to up her budget, but she could've found one at a less ritzy salon easily.

My least favorite episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" is titled "The Art of Negotiation," where one bride, Melanie, bought a dress a year earlier, but cancelled it because she had second thoughts. For once, I took Kleinfeld's side. Melanie wound up choosing the same dress she purchased in the first place! Why didn't she come back to the salon and try the dress on again before cancelling the order and losing the 50% deposit she already paid? It turns out the dress increased in price from $5000 to $6300 since she first purchased it, and Melanie and her mom are outraged. They complain that they should've been told that the price would increase when Melanie called to cancel the order, that Melanie cancelled the order the way they told her she should. How was the store supposed to know that Melanie would come back and want the same dress again (crazy bride, anyone?) and that the price would actually increase? In the end, the store didn't want to lose the sale, so they discounted the dress down to $5000 and gave her a free veil worth a couple hundred bucks. But ha ha, Melanie pretty much paid $7500 for the dress because of the deposit she spent on the first dress.

A wedding in Flushing

Josh and I attended our friends' wedding last night out in Flushing. The traffic was horrendous. A trip that should've taken only half an hour took an hour and a half. Josh kept saying that we were going to miss the ceremony, but we got there just in time to see the bridal party lining up.... from behind. As they departed, I realized that I should take some pics because there was no one else with this perspective of the bride and her father.

It was my first traditional Chinese wedding banquet for someone NOT related to me, and it was a lot of fun. I loved the ways they incorporated modern ideas, and it was so cool that their dog was allowed to walk around the ballroom during the reception. I do think that our waitperson was looking down her nose at us for not eating all the very traditional dishes. Hey, I did my part, eating double portions of jellyfish and shrimp in Japanese mayonnaise, but I draw the line at abalone.

The bride did stop by our table quite often and when she took a picture with us, she said, "You're neeext!!" and also shared the tip not to let the small projects slip by the wayside, or it will bite you in the butt closer to the wedding. I think I'd better get started on knitting Josh's yarmulke.

To change or not to change?

I've been pretty frustrated with Verizon customer service over the last three months, and have found out that the early termination fee is prorated based on how many months you've been in your contract, so I'm seriously considering leaving for another carrier. That said, I've been looking at Sprint and AT&T as my replacement. I crossed T-Mobile off the list when I visited a store and all the phones were fake display models. I heard some bad things about their new 3G service, and the fact that you aren't allowed to try out the phones makes it seem like they're hiding something.

I hear tons of bad things about AT&T, but all my cousins have that service and don't have a problem, and when I had it for two years, I didn't notice anything bad. I hear really bad things about the iPhone, but it wasn't even on my list of phones because I want a keyboard. My brother highly recommends Sprint and his smartphone doesn't have problems when he's visiting me in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I'd hate to stay with Verizon because they have a monopoly on NYC - it makes them seem more evil to me in a "Ha ha, you have no choice" way.

Lo and behold, I discovered this site that shows users' cell phone signal strength and dead spots. It pretty much shows that no service is flawless in NYC. I'm thinking of a Blackberry Curve 8900 or the new Palm Pre from Sprint at this point, unless AT&T gets a new iPhone that has decent coverage, a realy QWERTY, and MMS capability.

Remembering SF

We finally framed three of the photographs we bought in SF this past weekend. These were done by Sarka-Trager Photography and we actually met Richard Trager when we purchased the photos. I think these photos are my favorite souvenir from SF (as we've consumed almost all the wine we shipped back home), and every time I walk by, I think of that lovely day at the Ferry Building.

I can't wait to go back! But you know, gotta save money for the wedding and all.

Frozen yogurt at home

Yesterday, Josh and I were shopping in Red Hook and on the way back, I begged for him to swing by Park Slope so I could buy some frozen yogurt from Oko. Oko's froyo is fresh and tangy like Pinkberry, but is made from Greek style yogurt, which results in a richer taste and consistency. The frozen yogurt was delicious, a large (I shared with Josh, so I'm not a total piggy) topped with strawberry, kiwi, and mango.

When I got home, I searched for a froyo recipe similar to Pinkberry and immediately, this one popped up in Google. The recipe is actually from David Lebovitz's cookbook, Perfect Scoop, so I'm not going to display the recipe here due to copyright issues. I'm explaining myself because I'm tired of people accusing me of plagiarism because they didn't bother seeing I linked to the actual recipe.

The recipe is super easy and requires just Greek yogurt (I used Fage) and granulated sugar. I skipped the vanilla extract because I wanted the plain flavor that I normally order at Pinkberry or Oko. I was concerned that the granulated sugar wasn't going to dissolve in the thick, cold yogurt, but the next day, the sugar was all gone, leaving me with a sweetened yogurt base to pour into my ice cream maker.

Twenty minutes later.... a dreamy, rich frozen yogurt. It's definitely not Pinkberry because it's way richer, so I think it's more like Oko. The results, topped with strawberry and a drizzle of honey, got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from Josh and my tastebuds.



It's so dreamy, it gets a fancy photo-edit-makeover!

Cupcake success!

Josh and I split the cupcakes and brought them to work today. The recipe was extremely accurate, as I came out with 49 cupcakes (Bakerella said it'd produce about 50). The cupcakes were fine at room temperature, and I ate the last one with my afternoon tea, finding that it didn't seem as sweet as I remember from yesterday.

Josh says we're definitely going to make these for our annual NFL Draft Day party. I have plans to make it a little easier though, provided that I can find a football cookie cutter of appropriate size. I have a lot of ideas for flavor combinations and I can't wait to get started!

Bakerella's Cupcake Bites!

I am addicted to Pioneer Woman's blog, and read about Bakerella's visit to PW's home for a baking demonstration. These little cupcake bites grabbed my attention and I spent the last week preparing and gathering supplies, determined to attempt them despite the fact I have a freelance project due tomorrow.




This is not a recipe that can be completed on a whim for instant gratification. On Friday, I baked the coconut cake, which was half of Ina Garten's coconut cake, poured into a rectangular pan. According to Bakerella, you can use cake mix and canned frosting, but I hate the way cake mix cakes taste. I figured that if my attempt was successful, it better taste good. On Saturday, I tossed chunks of the cake into the food processor in a few batches to get fine crumbs. Then I mixed in cream cheese frosting, also from Ina Garten's coconut cake recipe to get a sticky sort of dough, and rolled it into balls.



I couldn't find a cutter closer to what Bakerella recommended as ideal, although the one on the right is one of the substitutes she suggests. I would push a dough ball through the cutter, enough to form the "cup" part of the cupcake and push it back out. You can see the two different shapes I got in the picture above. The cutter on the right produced a better mound on top of the cup, but it was harder to get a clean release when I pushed the formed cake out. The cutter on the left, which was easier to use, was taller and a bit wider, so there wasn't as much left to form the mound. I will keep my eyes open for a better cutter!



Today, I did the dipping, using Merckens chocolate melting wafers. I had a lot of problems getting the coating right. No problems for the bottoms of the cupcakes, but getting the green coating to overlap with the brown without running down too much was a big issue. In the end, I let the chocolate cool a bit so it was thicker and would harden faster, which made the M&M and sprinkle decorating even faster. I managed by having Josh assist with the decorating.

We each ate one and it was delicious, very sweet though. I have a lot of ideas for future flavor combinations. You can avoid this whole two-color coating dance by leaving the cake balls in round form and dip them in one color, like little truffles. I left the finished cakes in the fridge, but just noticed that the green coating was starting to crack for some, so that's something to worry about. According to Bakerella, you can refrigerate if you like eating them cold, or store in airtight container at room temp.

Fried Rice

Jennie asked me for my fried rice recipe a couple weeks ago. The terrible friend that I am, I still haven't written her back. Sorry Jennie! The problem is, there is no real recipe. It's more of a, "Put in as much garlic/scallions/eggs as you want" method. Feel free to adjust.

Mise en place:
Cooked rice (leftover rice from the day before is best because it's less sticky, but I rarely plan that far in advance for fried rice), scallions, garlic, white pepper, scrambled eggs (broken up into little bits), Spam, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken marinade sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand, totally optional. My mom puts it in hers and I recently got a bottle, but I'm not sure if it makes a difference).

Mince the garlic. I used about 5 cloves because I cooked 5 cups of rice for today's batch. Dice the Spam. I used the whole can, but you can use less if you like. I think you'd normally see roast pork standing in for the pig portion of fried rice, but I never liked that because roast pork can be harder to chew. Spam is just right. Slice the scallions. I used a whole bunch, white and green parts. Of course, adjust to your taste. My brother doesn't even like scallions in his fried rice at all.

I don't have a wok, and you might not either, but you can still make fried rice! I used the 8-quart stock pot that came in my Cuisinart pot set. I once tried using my Le Creuset buffet casserole pot, because it was more wok-like, but I made a big mess without the higher walls of the stock pot. I dumped in a few tablespoons of vegetable oil, heat at medium-low, and then tossed in the garlic. Let it sizzle for about 20 seconds (you don't want it to brown, there's still a bunch of cooking to go). I apologize for the crappy camera work; the kitchen doesn't have very good lighting, especially over the stove, and I was afraid of dropping the camera into the pot.

In goes the rice. Because I used rice that was cooked the same day, it was harder to mix in with the garlic. I felt like such a weakling because my arm started to hurt from tossing the rice around, trying to break it up.




After the rice and garlic have mixed together, add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and chicken marinade sauce. I use just a little soy sauce and chicken marinade because I like the oyster sauce flavor more. As you can see, I put a big dollop of oyster sauce in. If you don't like oyster sauce, leave it out and add a little more soy sauce instead. Then stir to combine. I hope you have a strong cooking arm! I think this may have gone better if I used a shorter spoon.


Now that your rice is a tannish sort of color, add the Spam and scallions. I guess I'm not really frying anything, as much as heating everything up. Stir to combine and sprinkle in some white pepper to your taste. If it's just Josh and me, I make it spicier, probably using at least a teaspoon in this batch.


Now add your scrambled eggs. For this much rice, I scrambled 4 eggs earlier in the day after I made breakfast. I like to cut down on the amount of dishes I have to wash wherever possible. Stir in the eggs and you're done!



And there you have it! Easy fried rice! I like to add peas sometimes too, and would have done so tonight, but I only have one box and I need it for tomorrow's meal, smashed peas with turkey and ricotta cheese.