Purple Vietnamese Fried Rice

By:Nagi

Revealed:7 Sep ’22Up to date:7 Sep ’22

That is the fried rice model of conventional Vietnamese pink rice, a plain tomato rice made by steaming in a pot. I added ham, peas and egg to show it into a fast and straightforward meal. Frying up the tomato rice with garlic provides further flavour which is on level!

Freshly cooked Red Vietnamese Fried Rice in a skillet

Fried rice all the time makes for an awesome fast meal if you happen to can incorporate sufficient “stuff” into it to fill it out from a vitamin perspective so you possibly can justify calling it “dinner” reasonably than only a facet dish. As we speak we’re turning to frozen peas, pre-chopped ham and egg for literal no-effort, no-prep add-ins to make this tasty dish I’ve referred to as Purple Vietnamese Fried Rice.

In case I wasn’t clear about it within the opening, this isn’t an genuine Vietnamese recipe! No less than, to not my information. It’s based mostly on a conventional Vietnamese dish, Purple Rice, which is a tomato-flavoured rice served with meats and different mains, considerably like Mexican Purple Rice. I’ve all the time cherished the flavour however I needed to show Vietnamese Purple Rice right into a extra substantial, can-be-a-standalone meal. So I believed I’d spin it right into a fried rice dish, and right here it’s!

Purple Vietnamese Fried Rice | RecipeTin Eats

What you want

Right here’s what that you must make this fast meal.

Ingredients in Red Vietnamese Fried Rice

Day-old cooked rice – Cooked rice refrigerated in a single day or frozen cooked rice (thawed) is greatest for all fried rice recipes to get the the proper texture. Freshly cooked rice is just too moist and your fried rice will clump and turn into sticky. The style is ok, however the texture shouldn’t be very best! Tip of the day: I all the time have baggage of frozen cooked rice within the freezer for this function. I get the jitters if I’m out!

If it’s an emergency and also you’re all out of day-old cooked rice (it occurs): Cook dinner rice of alternative, unfold out on a tray to speedy cool on counter. Then refrigerate for so long as you possibly can till cooled.

Rice kind: I’ve used jasmine rice which is standard in Vietnamese cooking. Nonetheless, any plain cooked rice can be utilized (white, brown, basmati).
Tomato paste – For the tomato flavour and pink color.
Ham (or bacon) – I take advantage of pre-chopped ham bits for comfort (being that it is a fast meal) and in addition as a result of I like that they’re chunkier than chopped sliced deli ham.
Fish sauce – The soy sauce of Vietnam! It has a extra advanced, deep flavour than soy sauce. It smells pungent by itself however when cooked out what stays is a scrumptious and incomparable savoury flavour. Having stated that, I did discover that utilizing simply fish sauce for the seasoning was a bit fishy even for my style so I’ve used a mix of half fish sauce, half soy sauce.
Soy sauce – As talked about above, I discovered utilizing a mix of fish sauce and soy sauce works greatest for this dish. Use gentle soy sauce or all-purpose soy sauce, not darkish soy sauce, which is just too intense and can overwhelm the dish. Extra on completely different soy sauces and when to make use of which right here.
Butter – My fats of alternative; extra flavour than utilizing plain ol’ boring oil! Should you’re considering, “butter isn’t an genuine ingredient in Asian cooking!!!”, don’t neglect Vietnam was as soon as colonised by France, the land of bread and butter! (Banh Mi is one other tasty legacy of the French occupation)
Garlic – I doubt you’ll ever see a fried rice recipe on my web site that doesn’t embrace garlic!
Eggs – To get some further protein into this dish, and since delicate golden curds of scrambled egg littered by pink rice each seems and tastes nice.
Frozen peas – Some veg and color! Be at liberty to substitute with any chopped greens you want (eg. carrot, corn, zucchini) or throw in a handful of quick-cooking leafy greens (child spinach, kale, cabbage).

The way to make Purple Vietnamese Fried Rice

Use a pleasant huge pan to provide your self loads of house for tossing the rice with abandon so you may get good caramelisation on the rice. It additionally makes it simpler to shove the rice to at least one facet to make room for scrambling the eggs within the pan with out interference.

Aromatics and ham – Soften the butter and begin by sautéing the garlic for simply 10 seconds to flavour the butter, however don’t let the garlic go golden but. Subsequent, add the ham and prepare dinner for 30 seconds. Now add the peas (nonetheless frozen is ok) and prepare dinner for one more 30 seconds. By this time, the garlic ought to have turned nearly golden and the ham may also be on its solution to getting some good color on it.
Rice and tomato – Subsequent add the tomato paste and rice. Cook dinner them for two minutes to prepare dinner out the uncooked flavour from the tomato paste. In the meantime your ham may have properly bronzed.
Seasonings – Add the fish sauce, soy and sugar and prepare dinner for an additional 1 minute till the rice begins to caramelise. Don’t shortcut this step – caramelisation = further flavour!
Scramble eggs – Scrape the rice to at least one facet of the pan. Soften a bit of additional butter (actually simply 1 teaspoon is sufficient) within the cleared house, pour within the eggs and scramble them. With the warmth of the pan this can take simply 1 minute or so.
Toss the cooked eggs by the rice.
Performed! That’s it, you’re carried out. Time to eat!

Function a meal – or a facet

I’ve been making this for myself as a fast lunch however it might additionally make an awesome facet for a Vietnamese or Asian unfold. Generally I additionally throw in a handful of bean sprouts and finely sliced cabbage to freshen issues and kick up the vegetable quotient of my bowl. It’s a reasonably versatile dish on this regard, although you don’t wish to go overboard lest you dilute the flavours. As a result of we are able to’t have that!

I hope you give it a go. Let me know what you assume if you happen to do! And don’t neglect my tip of the day: maintain baggage of cooked plain rice in your freezer. It’s tremendous useful to have rice on cue to serve with all of your stir fries or (extra relevantly to immediately’s recipe) to make a fast fried rice on demand, whether or not this Vietnamese fried rice or any of my different ones! – Nagi x