I am not humble about my fried rice, which is probably the first thing I learned how to cook, and one of the few things I make that isn't adapted from a real chef or recipe book. This is a Thai style fried rice, so it has lots of fish sauce and is garnished with acid. I don't know if this is what a Thai fried rice is supposed to be like, but when I get it at restaurants (that don't suck!), it always comes with tomatoes and limes, so I am rolling with it. Also, the bottom is repeatedly crisped and mixed in, which gives a fun texture and makes it more possible to eat with chopsticks. If I were a menu writer, it would be called "Thai crab paella", but since people who call green beans "haricort verts" on otherwise English menus will end up on the same circle of hell as men who wear dress sandals, well, it is called a descriptive name.
The plating above is totally ridiculous and extraneous; virtually all crab is cooked immediately upon its arrival at shore, so you're not really getting extra freshness out of buying the crabs in shells as opposed to buckets.
Anyway, this is how you make it to serve 4, although I usually end up eating all of 1 cup of rice's worth myself over the course of about 3 hours, so you should def have sides or make more. (One cup of dried rice turns into 2 or 3 cups of cooked.) The rice is really important. I like to use jasmine because it tastes good and sticks together a lot more, so you can actually eat your final product with chopsticks, and basmati because it tastes good. You can really use any rice, but this is the most recommended.
Ingredients:
1 cup dry jasmine rice
1 cup dry basmati rice
Make the rice a day ahead so it can dehydrate in the fridge!
2 tbsps minced garlic
2 tbsps minced ginger
1 chopped shallot (optional)
16 oz cooked crab meat
Tamari soy sauce
Fish sauce (nam pla)
Toasted sesame oil
Sambal olek
2 cups frozen peas (optional)
High-heat cooking oil such as safflower or canola
Salt/pepper (probably won't use any salt)
2 avocados
4 tomatoes
Lime wedges
Chopped scallions
chopped cilantro (optional)
Cucumber slices (optional)
Procedure:
1) Make the rice a day ahead. Bring an equal volume of water as rice to a boil, and add the rice as well as a tiny bit of oil if you're worried about the rice sticking. Turn the heat down to a simmer and let sit for a while. You should come check it in about 10 minutes to make sure it doesn't already need more water. If it does, add more. Surely we all know how to cook rice? It should be done in about 15-20 minutes unless it is brown rice.
2) Prep for the stir-fry. Take out the rice, peas (if using), soy sauce, sambal olek, fish sauce, and sesame oil. Mince all of the garlic, ginger, and shallot (if using). Scramble the eggs in a bowl (or not, you can do it in the pan, doesn't matter).
3) Stir-fry. Heat a large (like, ginormous) skillet or wok on high with just enough oil to coat comfortably. Add 2/3 of the garlic-ginger-shallots to pan, stirring CONSTANTLY for about a minute or until soft. Add the rice, mixing it with the aromatics and breaking up any clumps. Keep the heat on high for about a minute longer, still keeping the pan moving, and then add the soy, fish, sesame, and sambal olek. Use only 1/4 tsp of the sesame, and combine the soy and fish sauces about half and half to turn the rice mostly brown, but with some white sections. Also, the sambal is hot stuff, be careful until you are experienced with it. Add a massive amount of black pepper and the peas.
4) Make the rice crispy. Turn the heat down to medium-high. We want to let the bottom of the rice get crispy, then mix it around and let another layer get crispy. Two layers is probably enough, depending on how crowded your pan is. Anyway, to kill time, check whether you want more of the sauces, clean up your mess a little bit, check your crab meat for bits of shell, prep the garnishes etc.
5) Final cooking. Add the eggs and scramble them away from the rice so that you don't have a clumpy mess. Add the crab to rice, and mix everything together. See if you want to add the leftover ginger or garlic (I almost always add more ginger.) Check your sauces and black pepper level one last time, and turn heat off. You can just leave the pan on the burner as you do garnishes. You also might want to toss your cilantro in at this point as opposed to topping the rice with it, and you might want to also toss in some sesame oil, but a really scant amount.
6) Plating. If you happen to have a crab body lying around, why not throw your rice in it? Otherwise, heap it on a plate, garnish with avocado and tomatoes slices, top with cilantro, scallions, whatev if you want.
7) Garnish variations: tofu, pomegranate, sauteed onion, shrimp, zuchinni whatever. However, the version I fully endorse is:
Mix of white basmati/jasmine rice
Crab
Avocado
Tomato
Peas
Scallions (added on top of plating)
Cilantro (tossed in pan at end)
