Thank you so very much RickM, I will try it. The bean soup sounds good too.
It happened again! I wrote a long explanation for JB how to make fried rice, and it never appeared! Fortunately I saved it on my email. So here it is JB, it is long, but I hope clear.
@JB, it is very easy to cook fried rice. Only thing that you need to have is cold rice, rice that you cooked the day before or in the morning, or even for lunch. I use Jasmine rice, when I cook it, I rinse it until the water is clear. Then I cook it in the rice cooker. Usually I cook 1 cup at a time. It will make 3 meals for me, unless I am very hungry, then I eat 1/2 of it. The other half I put in a Ziplock and put it in the fridge.
It will get hard. So when I want to make fried rice, I take it out of the fridge. Then I decide what to use for the fried rice. You can put anything you want in the fried rice. Leftover chicken, pork, turkey, any vegetables that you have. Ham. Whatever.
My favorite fried rice is very simple. It is my sister's creation. It is only with shallots, lots of shallots (2 huge ones, or 3 medium ones, or 4 small ones), or a medium onion, sliced thin, 1 or 1/2 hot pepper (also sliced thin after taking the seeds out) and salt.
I use a wok, but if you do not have a wok, you can use a skillet, a rather large one so you have room to stir the rice easily. Heat the skillet on medium heat, when hot, add 2 tablespoons of oil, then fry the sliced onion or shallots, the hot pepper, stir until the oil turns reddish because of the hot pepper, add some salt [to your taste] then you squeeze the rice to break up the lumps, and add it to the wok or skillet, turn the heat up, and start stirring, and pressing the rice, so the rice will lose its moisture, and when they start dancing around, taste for saltiness, adjust it, and turn the heat off and it is done.
Usually after I transferred the rice into a plate or bowl, I would turn the heat back on high and add some oil, and I fry an egg or 2 to eat with the fried rice. I like to fry the egg/s with crispy edges and the egg white done, but the egg yolk still soft.----
It is a long recipe, but it is easy when you do it, I just want to write it in details. If you have leftover chicken, ham or whatever, you add them before you add the rice. If you want to add raw shrimp, after cleaning the shrimp, I wash the shrimp with a little baking soda and rinse it well, and I add some soy sauce, wine, and a tiny bit of starch. Or if you want to add raw pork, beef, or chicken, slice them thin, add a tiny bit of soy sauce, a tiny bit of starch (like 1/4 to 1/2 of a teaspoon)--You can barely see it on the meats, and wine.
By covering the meats with those 3 items, the meat will retain their moisture and make them tender and not dried out. Fry whatever meat or meats you want to use with some oil, and take it/them out when they are cooked, place them in a container. You can also add peas or fresh corn before you add the rice.
After the rice is jumping around [this indicates that the moisture is gone from the rice], then you add the shrimp, or whatever you have put aside back into the skillet and mix everything. You can also use soy sauce, some even use ketchup. Whatever you want.
Here in the cafeteria they make soup from leftovers, in Asia, they make fried rice.----
If you have any questions, please ask me.
