Recipe: Dragonfruit Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked Jasmine Rice

3 large eggs

1 large red Dragonfruit (Pitaya)

1.5 tsp chicken bouillon powder (Preferably Lee Kum Kee brand if you can find it)

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

2 tbsp thinly sliced white part of a scallion/ green onion

thinly sliced scallion greens for garnish

sesame seeds for garnish

Prepare the Rice

You can use leftover rice if you have but there is a way to cook jasmine rice and have it be ready for fried rice immediately! I figured this out after doing a lot of research and testing on getting the perfect fried rice texture.

First you need to wash your rice until the water runs clear. After draining the rice, bring about a quart of water to a boil. Add your rice in and set a timer for 8 minutes. Give it a stir occasionally to prevent sticking and burning on the bottom. While you are waiting you need to get your steamer set up ready. You can use any large pot and fill it with about an inch of water, then elevate a steamer basket so it’s not touching the water. Bring that water to a boil and you now have created a steamer when you close the lid.

Once the 8 minutes is up, immediately drain the boiled rice and transfer it to the steamer basket. Put the steamer basket into the pot with boiling water, making sure the water is not going to touch the rice at all, we just want the steam to finish cooking the rice. Cover the lid and let steam on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Once the 5 minutes is up turn off the heat and remove the rice, it should be thoroughly cooked and not sticky, perfect for fried rice. You can fry it up immediately, it does not need to cool overnight! This is a really cool technique that can be used for any other rice dish you want to make!

Prepare the Dragonfruit

Wash the dragonfruit and slice it in half lengthwise down the middle. Using a spoon, carefully scoop out the insides and cut up into small cubes. Save the two halves of the skin to use them as serving bowls!

Making the Crispy egg topping

Add about an inch of oil in a small saucepan (you can use olive oil or canola oil) and turn the heat on medium. Crack an egg into a bowl and whisk it until fully combined.

Once the oil comes to temperature ( you can check by putting a wooden chopstick in and seeing if small bubbles form around it, or you can carefully flick a little bit of water in and if it evaporates and sizzles immediately then it’s ready) slowly drizzle the beaten egg into the hot oil, the slower you do this the finer the egg strands will be. While drizzling carefully stir with a fork or chopsticks. The egg will foam and bubble so if it gets too crazy, then stop drizzling and finish the rest of the egg in the next batch. Continue stirring and once the egg looks golden brown, remove the egg strands from the oil and onto a plate lined with paper towel to drain any excess oil out. Repeat if you have more egg left. Set aside and add on top of the finished rice.

Fry the Rice!

In a large cast iron pan, heat up about 2 tbsp of olive or canola oil on medium high heat until oil is shimmering. Beat 2 eggs and scramble it into the hot oil. Break up the egg into tiny pieces, add a pinch of salt, and fry until golden brown. Add in the scallion whites and cook for another minute with the eggs. Add in your rice and break apart and stir into the eggs and scallion. Sprinkle the chicken powder and white pepper over the mixture and cook for 2-3minutes on high heat. Add in the dragonfruit cubes and stir into the rice. Cook while stirring frequently on high heat for another 1-2minutes and serve in the dragonfruit bowl topped with the crispy egg, scallions, and sesame seeds!