bento friday: a favorite

A fried rice bento, lamb style

We are fortunate enough to have a source for local organic lamb, so once a year our freezer fills up with the stuff.  On Monday, Husband surprised me with pan-roasted lamb chops, spiced zucchini, and wild rice when I got home from work. 

Tasty. 

Strategically, there were two small lamb chops left over after dinner, so these were set aside for some bento action.  Lamb fried rice is something I've gotten pretty good at, and it's one of his favorites.  Like most of my dishes, it's pretty ad-hoc and not necessarily all that authentic.  But it's yummy.

Lamb Fried Rice

With sesame oil in a big fry pan, stir-fry whatever veggies need using up, diced small.  Onions, carrots, zucchini, peas, mushrooms, ginger, green beans, bean sprouts, bell peppers, cabbage, spinach, garlic... whatever, really. 

Push the veg to the outsides and plunk a pat of butter in the middle.  Scatter day-old rice over the butter and ignore it for a while.  It's really important to use day-old rice, because fresh rice is far too sticky.  Resist the urge to stir.  

Resist, I said!

(I over-stir.  It's a problem.)

When it's gotten a little browned and crunchy, go ahead and stir around a bit.  When you're satisfied with the crunchiness factor, stir everything up together and again push it all to the sides. 

Re-butter the center of the pan, mix an egg up with some soy sauce, and dump it in.  Stir *constantly* with chopsticks as the egg cooks, to make little scrambly bits.  

Little scrambly bits.  That's a technical term.  

Finally, toss in your diced lamb (or whatever meat), let sizzle for a very short amount of time, and mix everything together.  Finish with generous quantities of soy sauce, a healthy squirt of Sriracha, and some more butter.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds. 

Yum.