Easter Recipe Special: Scallion-Cilantro Fried Rice with Golden Raisins

This fried rice is light, fresh and very tasty. While there are multiple ingredients, it is the scallions/green onions/chives/shallots that really star in this dish. Cilantro/coriander is the perfect partner with the raisins bringing a hint of welcome sweetness.  

You’ll need:

• Vegetable oil
• Fresh ginger
• Garlic
• Hot pepper
• Scallions/green onions (white or purple head variety)
• Cilantro/coriander
• Cooked, cooled rice
• Toasted sesame oil
• Salt and ground black pepper
• Scrambled eggs (optional)
• Golden raisins (preferably, but the dark ones will do too)

Prep the ingredients:

• The cooked cooled rice, should be loose and not clumped together
• Chop the scrambled eggs into small pieces and set aside.
• Mince together equal amounts (by volume) of ginger and garlic along with hot pepper to taste. Try to get it as fine as possible but do not opt to grate the ginger or garlic.
• Cut up the scallions/green onions and in doing so, separate the onion part (white/purple tops) from the green part. You should have a pile of the heads and a pile of the tender green parts.
• Cut up the cilantro/coriander, making two piles, one of the chopped stems and the other of the leaves. Much of the flavour of cilantro is in the stems, so always include them when cooking.
• If the raisins were refrigerated, bring them up to room temperature simply by placing them in a bowl at the start of assembling the ingredients.

Make the fried rice:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large pan until very hot but not smoking. Add the ginger-garlic-pepper and reduce heat to low. Cook until fragrant, and the rawness is cooked out. Raise heat to medium and let continue to cook until they start to brown lightly, then add the cilantro stems and onion part of the scallions and cook together for 1 minute.
2. Add the rice with salt and pepper to taste along with a few sprinkles/dashes of the toasted sesame oil and toss well to mix everything. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes, tossing the rice 2 – 3 times.
3. Sprinkle the following ingredients over the rice, in this order – raisins, eggs, scallions and cilantro and toss well to mix. Cook for another 3 – 4 minutes and immediately remove pan from the heat. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Optional toppings:

• If you like, garnish with chopped extra scallions or cilantro, just before serving OR
• For some crunch, roughly chop some toasted walnuts (or your favourite toasted nuts) and sprinkle on top just before serving.

NOTE

It’s a long holiday weekend so make ahead whatever you can so that you spend less time in the kitchen and more time relaxing and having fun. Fried rice is always easy with leftover rice, therefore, save time by cooking the rice a day or two ahead of making the dish.