Fried Rice

Fried rice is, at its starting point, a means of using up leftovers and the last bits of things. Not enough of the individual ingredients to make a meal of any of it, more like culinary bits and bobs. Put it all together with a soupcon of imagination and the joy of it is that you end up with a dish that is much greater than the sum of its parts - tasty, nutritious and very quick to make. It's great late in the week when you can't be bothered to necessarily spend a lot of time cooking but you still, as ever, want to eat something desirable.

The following is my version from last night, decided on because I had some steamed basmati rice left from dinner the night before as well as couple of small pieces of bacon and some celery in the fridge. I like to put some capsicum in usually but I'd cooked them all the night before so I added some peas for sweetness. It's not hard and fast - what recipe is? - use whatever goes together but do try and have variety in texture as well as flavour in every final mouthful. The measures are all approximate.

Fried Rice

2 cups of cooked white rice

2 eggs, beaten

Medium onion, diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

3 rashers of unsmoked bacon, cut into slivers

3 stalks of celery, sliced a bit thicker than a pound coin

1 tbspn light soy sauce

2 tbspn vegetable oil

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a wok till very hot then add the beaten eggs, swirl round the base till they set - should be almost immediate - then take the omelette out and chop into squares. Heat the rest of the oil then add the onion and garlic and cook till translucent and fragrant. Add the bacon and cook till softened and the fat starts to rend. Add the celery, stir briefly then add the rice and stir thoroughly - I find my little chinese shovel indispensible for this. When all the elements are well mixed add the eggs and the soy sauce to season and serve when it is steaming hot.

There are lots of variations on this theme - use ginger and tuna instead of bacon, add roasted cashews or slivers of almonds, spring onions are good, even thinly sliced discs of carrot for more colour. And sliced chilli of course if you fancy a little heat.

If there's enough it's good cold for lunch.