Chinese veg Fried Rice - Chinco Star Rice

I am one of those people who is not very open minded when it comes to other cuisines. Whenever I make a non Indian food, I tend to change the herbs or spices or vegetables to suit my palette. On the top of it, I am so skeptical about what they have used to make a dish that I seldom dine out in a non-Indian restaurant. I am not fond of dishes which lack in heat even though I don't like extremely spicy food myself. But, chinese food is a totally different story. I loved it when I was in India at the indo-chinese places. Again, indo-chinese is more to suit Indian palette and that could be the reason. I however do not prefer to eat in chinese restaurants after learning about Oyster sauce usage in almost everything they serve. But this incident happened when I didn't know anything about Oyster sauce and I didn't ask the lady at the restaurant if they had used it in this dish. Here goes the inspiration for this dish....

When I was studying in U of H, one of my fellow students and a friend Chetan, took me to this chinese food place called "Chinco Star" which was right opposite of main campus. Being a person who always packed lunch, I had no idea what to eat there due to my diet restrictions. Chetan told me I could eat the veg fried rice they served but to tell them not to put eggs and mushrooms (I don't eat mushrooms either). I was actually very hesitant to eat it, but was so glad I tried it. It was rice sauted with soy sauce and lots of broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts and bok choy. I loved it so much that I went there couple more times to eat this rice. I don't know if it was the crispiness of all the veggies that kept my attention or their sweet sauce which, along with the hot sauce we ate made it so wonderful. I have tried to get that effect couple of times, and this is how I make this. I usually add hot sauce and sweet and sour sauce into the dish instead of serving it with them.



Ingredients:

1. 1 cup short grain rice. Cooked till done and the grains separated and cooled really well. You can use day old rice too.(Here I used long grain rice since that's what I had on hand)
2. 2 cups of cut vegetables. Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, water chestnuts, celery, bok choy.
3. 1 medium red onion diced.
4. 3-4 garlic cloves chopped finely.
5. 4 TBSP Vegetable or Canola oil.
6. Soy sauce - 1 - 2 TBSP depending on your taste.
7. Hot sauce - 1 - 2 tsp depending on your taste.
8. Salt to taste. Don't add too much salt in the beginning if you are using regular soy sauce.
9. White Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste. (I used black since that was what I had.)
   
10. Sweet and Sour sauce - 1 - 2 TBSP depending on your taste.
11. Red wine vinegar - 2 TBSP. You could use rice wine vinegar or just distilled white vinegar too.

Method:
In a wok, heat oil and saute garlic and when done, add onions. Add a little bit salt and cook till onions are cooked. Add carrots, saute them for couple of minutes and then add the rest of the vegetables. Add Pepper powder now. (You could microwave the broccoli and cauliflower for couple of minutes and keep aside to reduce cooking time in the wok) If you are using canned water chestnuts, add them at the end when you are almost done cooking other vegetables. When you are cooking the vegetables stirring, add the vinegar in splashes. Once all the veggies are cooked to your liking, add soy sauce, hot sauce and sweet and sour sauce. Mix well. Adjust the salt and other seasonings. Now add the rice and mix quickly and turn off the heat. Serve warm. Left overs can be warmed up and served.

This goes to Vaishali's It's a Vegan World - Chinese!!

Happy Cooking!! Pin It