Italian-style Fried Rice

Submitted by Orborborb

I admit I didn't originally intend this to be an Iron Chef submission, but I did just invent it and it does feature tomatoes and it will be one of the most delicious things you ever make.

Ingredients:

• a cup of rice
• a cup and a half of chicken broth
• a tablespoon or two of olive oil
• a medium white onion
• about 3/4lb of ground beef, 15 percent fat recommended
• a can of whole italian tomatoes, about two cups once chopped, san marzano variety recommended
• parsley, about half a cup once chopped, italian parsley recommended
• salt and pepper
• some peanut oil for the wok
• two eggs
• parmigiano reggiano

Method

• I figure you don't need any photos of this. Cook the rice with about a cup and a half of the chicken broth, less than you would normally use. When the broth has been absorbed in 10-15 minutes the rice will still be undercooked. You want to make sure that the rice won't get mushy later on.

• Chop up the tomatos, onions, and parsley like so. Squeeze the tomatoes before chopping to get rid of most of their seeds and juices, and don't use any of extra juice in the can, you want everything to be as dry as possible.

• Fry the chopped onions in a tablespoon or so of the olive oil until translucent, and add the crumbled ground beef and plenty of salt and pepper.

• After the ground beef has cooked for a minute or two, add the tomatoes and parsley and stir it all together. Simmer uncovered for a few minutes before adding the rice.

• Add the rice and, stirring frequently, cook until the rice is done and the whole mixture is dry and beginning to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Remove from the heat. At this point you could refrigerate some or all of the mixture to fry up later. In this case I went straight ahead and fried it all up.

• Toss everything into a wok in which a dab of peanut oil has been heated until it just starts to smoke. Lightly beat two eggs and pour that in as well.

• You want everything to get a nice browned crust on the bottom, a very hot wok and a dry mixture makes this possible. It's better if you don't overcook the eggs, but don't worry too much about this, the browned crust is the most important thing. If you mixture seems too wet, just let it brown a bit before adding the eggs.

Serving

• Serve in a white bowl on a white counter with a glass of white milk and some white parmesan cheese on top, and take a flash photograph!

• A nice ale or glass of red wine would also go well with this. In fact, adding some red wine to the beef and onions at the beginning of the recipe would probably be delicious as well.