This week, I wanted to share one of my favorite “shelf cooking” recipes.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of shelf cooking, the basic premise is to use whatever ingredients you already have (on your pantry shelves, in your refrigerator, or in your freezer) to create meals.
Shelf cooking is a common practice among those participating in no-spend challenges, but it is also a strategy embraced by people with less access to stores or who spread out grocery trips because of transportation or time constraints.
I frequently shelf cook and like to imagine I am embarking on a personal “Chopped” challenge on the days that my ingredients seem especially disparate. (If you haven’t watched an episode of the Food Network show, Chopped, before, I encourage you to check it out! Professional chefs are tasked with making an appetizer, entree, and dessert showcasing a selection of mystery ingredients selected for them; some of the dishes are really impressive!)
While I haven’t declared a formal no-spend month for this January, I am still trying to reduce my grocery spending for “regular” days (when we aren’t hosting friends or relatives for dinner or getting takeout to celebrate a birthday or special occasion).
So this week, I needed a quick weeknight meal and I wanted to use the odds and ends I had in my fridge.
Because I had a large container of leftover basmati rice, I immediately thought of fried rice.
Making the Rice
Fried rice is a great meal for using up leftovers. On this particular occasion, I had the following items in my fridge:
- A small container of leftover chopped peppers
- A full bunch of celery
- About a cup and a half of near-wilted spinach
- A large container of fully cooked basmati rice
- A small container of leftover rotisserie chicken
- Plenty of extra firm tofu
- Sauce ingredients (hoisin, soy sauce, ginger paste, sriracha, a little rice vinegar, and sesame oil)
I also decided to add, from my pantry:
- One can of corn kernels
- A small can of water chestnuts
The Process
I started out by sautéing the raw veggies (peppers and the leafy ends and smaller bits of celery (I saved the bigger stalks for snacking)) in my dry wok before pushing the veggies to the sides and adding in a container of drained tofu.
I crumbled the tofu and spread it in an even layer on the bottom of the wok to get a little color on it and seasoned the tofu with a little black salt and turmeric (to give it an egg-like color and flavor).
While that cooked, I chopped the rotisserie chicken and added it. I let that cook for a while and mixed my sauce ingredients in the meantime.
I opted for a simple sauce (soy, rice vinegar, hoisin, a little ginger paste and a small squirt of sriracha with garlic powder and about two tablespoons of cornstarch). I mixed the ingredients together with a splash of cold water until the cornstarch was fully dissolved.
Once the veggies and tofu seemed cooked enough, I added in all the rice and broke it up (since cold rice tends to clump together).
I then added the sauce and stirred everything around to coat the rice and veggies. At this point, I also tossed in the canned corn and water chestnuts.
I let this cook, stirring occasionally, to let the flavors meld and the sauce absorb into the rice. I also wanted to get a little browning on parts of the rice, so I let it cook for a few minutes at a time before scraping the rice from the bottom of the pan and turning it over to allow new rice to contact the hottest part of the wok.
Ideally, I would have served this with thinly sliced green onion, but I didn’t have any.
I served the rice as-is and added just a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flake to my own bowl (since I like things spicier than the rest of my family).
I have also made fried rice before with other veggies (zucchini, broccoli or cauliflower, carrots, frozen edamame, etc.) and without meat. You could use other meat, if desired, or double the tofu for a more filling plant-based meal.
There were no leftovers, so I would say this dinner turned out to be a success!
What ingredients do you add to your fried rice?