Five-Treasure Fried Rice (Kosher-Style Pork Cracklins)

How often have I had to compost outdated baby carrots, half a red pepper or some leftover broccoli? This recipe is just the solution to use up your veggie bits before they go bad! While typically fried rice is not the healthiest option, this recipe uses brown rice and lots of veggies.

I decided that the best way to try the recipe was exactly as it was described. Then if I liked it, I could try it with whatever veggies were around. I used fresh corn, and cut the kernels using an angel food cake pan to hold up the cob. It worked great. I did I still end up with some kernels on the floor, though.

A warning on this recipe: You need to use "very cold" cooked brown rice. So I'd advise making the rice a day ahead or in the morning, as hot rice does not cool quickly.

For me, the part that may not have worked right was getting the fresh ginger freshly grated. Does ginger actually grate? Or does it just turn into paste? I figured the paste was good enough, and mixed it in. Another issue I ran into was the rice sticking into chunks. As I stirred everything together, a big part of my task was breaking up the rice chunks. Not sure if there's an easy way to avoid that or not, but when it was all cooked, I didn't see any remaining chunks of rice.

I really really need to get a big pan. All the ones I have are medium sized. I realized pretty quickly that I was running out of room and ended up filling two pans. It was easy enough to do. Right before adding the rice, I put half the veggies in one side, and added only half the rice, bacon, oil and eggs to each pan.

This recipe was great! To me, it didn't have an overly "healthy" taste or texture. Brown rice works pretty decently in fried rice, and I think the edamame was a better choice than something like peas. Easy and yummy as leftovers as well.