Fried Rice: Sinangag

As promised, here's the first of many fried rice related articles! So, let's start with something super simple!


Sinangag, a Filipino garlic fried rice!

This one is actually a breakfast fried rice where Filipino's like to enjoy with eggs and something salty like dried fish or even with cured beef called Tapa. The latter becomes the ultimate breakfast combo of "Tapsilog" meaning: Tapa + Sinangag + Itlog or salty cured meat + garlic fried rice + egg!

Ingredients:

• Cold cooked rice (usually leftovers from the night before). You can use most types of rice, but I prefer Jasmin Long Grain Rice.
• Crushed garlic (approx. 1 clove per person or adjust to your taste)
• Salt (to season)
• Cooking oil (your choice! but I prefer Sunflower Oil as it's healthy and fries much better than Olive Oil)

Procedure:

1. If you haven't already, bash up your garlic! If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can chop it up and crush the garlic by scraping it against your knife and chopping board. You want to have the garlic quite mashed up so when it fries, it goes crispy!
   
   
2. Heat up your cooking oil in a frying pan or wok. You'll want to heat it up to about a medium-hot heat. Too high and you'll burn the garlic off the bat, so keep an eye on it!
3. Once warm to hot, add the crushed garlic (should come to a medium sizzle), stir and flavour the the oil. I love garlic so I've used crap loads here. Just adjust the amount according to your taste!
   
   
4. Once the garlic is just about to turn brown, add the cold cooked rice! Be sure to promptly mix them together, the longer the garlic sits in the pan, the more it cooks and increases the chance of it burning.
   
   
5. Stir fry until the rice slightly browns or until you're happy with it. Basically you'll want to flavour and toast the rice with the hot garlic oil.
   
   
6. Season to taste and serve!

 EASY!

Today, I'm having mine with a fried egg (with cracked pepper) and some nastar, an Indonesian pastry filled with pineapple conserve, for dessert. LOL talk about fusion!

Tasting Notes:
The earthy garlic aroma and flavour, unsuprisingly, are the first out the ranks but it is swiftly followed by a savoury crunch as you bite into a crispy garlic crackle. The sweet and tender jasmin rice balances the garlic flavour and provides a vessel for umami. Usually enjoyed slightly bland, but when consumed with salty comrades, it enhances the experience, more so than plain ordinary rice.

Yummo! What a nice start to the day... Now, where'd my coffee run off to?