bacon fried rice

fact: i grew up a rice-vore.  i used to eat rice at every breakfast, lunch and dinner.  growing up, my breakfast was mainly fried rice and fried eggs.  yes, rice for breakfast. it is completely normal. rice is fuel for us filipinos, we eat it at every meal.  and why not?  it is what gave our ancestors the energy to go out and work on the farm at the break of dawn. i may not eat it as often anymore, but fried rice for breakfast for me is bliss. it means i could go on for a long while without feeling hungry. on many days i dream of the wide variety of fried rice and egg combinations served in the philippines.  we call fried rice, sinangag and egg, itlog.  they are the two basic components to many creatively named combinations such as tapsilog (tapa-beef jerky, fried rice and egg), longsilog (longganisa-pork sausage, fried rice and egg), hotsilog (hotdog, fried rice and egg), tocilog (tocino-sweet cured pork, fried rice and egg) and bangsilog (fried bangus-milk fish, fried rice and egg).  i'm sure there are many more.

last saturday i decided to reward myself with a good breakfast- bacon fried rice and fried eggs.  ok, fine. plus another piece of bacon on the side.  basilog, or is it baconsilog?  anyhoo, i ate it in front of my husband who gave me weird looks. "rice for breakfast?"  but i didn't care, it was a delightful feast specially whilst enjoying a good cup of coffee. life is too short, indulge once in a while.

BACON FRIED RICE

2-3 cup day old rice (above, i used a combination of brown and white rice)

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup frozen peas

3 slices bacon, cut 1/2 inch long

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika

coarse salt and ground black pepper (to taste)

heat wok. add bacon and cook until browned.  discard all but 1 tablespoon of the oil.  

add onions and sauté until soft then add garlic.  

cook garlic, stirring, for about a minute.

add rice to the wok and toss, breaking the clumps in the process.  

add the soy sauce, black pepper and  smoked paprika.   

taste a spoonful and adjust seasoning as you prefer.  

move the rice to the sides and create a space in the middle of the wok.  pour the beaten egg in it.  

stir the egg gently as you would in scrambled eggs and when cooked, toss it with the rice

add the green peas and toss again.

remove from heat.

serve with a fried egg on top.

there is nothing like a spoonful of fried rice and runny yolk.

yumm!

Custardy Oven Pancake with Mixed Berries

First, I have to say that I suck at baking.  I am intimidated by it because I have a mixer phobia.  Any cake, or pastry that calls for the use of a mixer is just unnerving to me.  And how unfortunate is that for my two year old who seem to have a sweet tooth!

But today while staying home sick and catching up on reading my pile of magazines, I stumbled on this recipe which to my delight seemed doable.  I figured I could use this "free" time to experiment and eat it all by  myself... well at least if it isn't successful I could only punish myself and not the entire household.

It is a pancake. Wait a minute, a pancake is still a cake, right?  Right?!  Thankfully, it was a success and neither did I get a stomach ache after chowing down half of it for my lunch.  Yes, I'm a mess right now... pancake for lunch!

So here is the recipe.

Custardy Oven Pancake with Mixed Berries
Serves 4

2 large eggs
about 2 1/2 tablespoons honey, divided
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup raspberries, divided
2 tablespoons butter
strawberries
blackberries

1. Set a 10 inch ovenproof frying pan in oven and preheat to 425 degrees.  Whisk eggs, 2 tablespoons honey, and lemon zest in a bowl to blend.  Add salt and flour, and 1/8 cup milk and whisk until smooth, then whisk in remaining milk.

2. Mash 1/2 cup raspberries with fork and set aside.

3. Remove pan from oven; add butter and swirl until melted Pour in batter.  Scatter raspberry paste in batter. Reduce heat to 400 degrees and bake pancake until deep golden, 30 minutes.  Let stand 10 - 15 minutes to firm up (pankace will shrink).

4.  Combine strawberries, black berries, remaining raspberries and 1 tablespoon honey in a bowl; let stand at least 10 minutes. Add honey to taste.

5. Spoon half the fruit over pancake and serve the rest on the side. Cut pancake into wedges.

T.G.I.F.

After a long week, Friday is finally here!
My two year old has been calling every day Saturday (she only knows Tuesday and Saturday right now) and it made me long for the weekend even more.

So T.G.I.F.!  And to celebrate, I made myself a nice breakfast this morning .. Egg in a basket, couple slices of prosciutto and some fruits.

I would post a recipe for the egg in a basket but the picture pretty much tells all you need to do - cut a hole in a bread, heat a pan, throw the buttered bread in, crack an egg inside the hole, flip and bam!