Lighten Up Your Classic Chinese Take Out

Chinese food is most definitely my least favorite Americanized ethnic cuisine.  Perhaps this is because as a child, I refused to stray from an identical order each time: fried chicken fingers, white rice, and wonton soup.  Still, this recipe caught my eye as looking healthy, tasty and not too hard to make.   I have to say it didn’t really stick out in the scheme of things, but I will take some of the blame for that.  I will certainly try a fried rice again once I invest in a wok and a few more staple Chinese ingredients.

Tofu Fried Rice

From Cooking Light

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked basmati brown rice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 (16-ounce) package firm tofu, drained, pressed and cut into (1/2-inch) cubes
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 medium shallot, sliced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons sake (rice wine) – I substituted rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

I added two extra tablespoons of soy sauce and an extra tablespoon rice vinegar because I didn’t have hoisin sauce or sesame oil and I had seen this done in another recipe.  I don’t recommend doing this; the recipe was good enough, but lacked flavor complexity.

Directions:

1. Press tofu with your hands and paper towel to remove excess water.
2. Cook rice according to package directions.   Meanwhile, cook tofu over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet with Pam or a similar cooking spray.  Set aside in a bowl.
3. Cook the eggs for 1 minute or until done, breaking into small pieces.  Add to tofu and set aside.
4. I another large, nonstick skillet (or better yet a wok!) heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium heat.  Add onions, garlic, peas, carrots, shallots and ginger.  Sautee for several minutes.

   

5. While vegetable mixture cooks, combine sake, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and sesame oil. Add cooked rice to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add tofu, egg, and soy sauce mixture; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  I also wasn’t able to do this correctly because I don’t have a large enough skillet; I had to move to a bowl and add rice last which also could have changed the flavor. 

 Serves 4   391 Calories, 14g fat, 22g protein, 38g carbohydrates 3g fiber

Johanna