Peppery Fried Rice

This is just everyday “using up the leftover rice” fried rice that I learned to make in college, but elevated by the inclusion of slightly numbing Sichuan peppercorns. A surprisingly satisfying weeknight meal. You can use pretty much any vegetables as long as you have garlic and/or ginger, but the celery and carrots work well because it is basically impossible to overcook them (so you don’t need to pay close attention to how long you leave the rice on the stove).

2 cups cooked white rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 carrots, finely chopped
1-2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 thumb of ginger
4 cloves of garlic
1 cup of broccoli florets (optional)
1 bunch of green onions
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
Sichuan peppercorns (mixed with green peppercorns if you want)
Long pepper
Toasted sesame oil
Canola or other neutral oil

Chop the onion, carrot, and celery. Heat a pan, then add some neutral oil, and then add the onion when the oil is hot. Pulse the garlice and ginger in a mini food processor ( or dice them, microplane them, or otherwize pulverize them). After 3-5 minutes, when the onion begins to brown, add the carrot and celery (if you have them, if not it’s fine). After about two minutes, add the ginger and garlic as well as the Sichuan, green, and long pepper (ideally ground in a spice grinder or peper mill, but if you don’t have one that’s ok).

Once you smell the garlic cooking, push everything to the side of the pan and toss in the broccoli. After about two minutes, once the broccoli turns brilliant green, remove it and set aside in a small bowl (broccoli gets overcooked easily).

Add some sesame oil and then the rice - breaking it apart with your fingers as you do - followed by equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar. I use about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of each for 2 cups of rice; you need enough to turn all the rice brown. Let the rice crisp while you crack between one and four eggs into a bowl and whisk them together with a fork. Push the rice to the sides of the pan and pour in the eggs. Leave them for about a minute, until they start to firm up on the bottom, and then start scraping them with your spatula. When the eggs are almost cooked, start turning them into the rice.

When the eggs are cooked and thoroughly incorporated throughout the rice, turn off the heat. Mix the broccoli back in, and then serve topped with green onion.