This is my first post for the Lasang Pinoy series, this time on rice. Quite appropriate for me as I work on resistance of rice to diseases. This is not so Pinoy though, but one I really like.
One of my favorite fried rice is Thai bago-ong fried rice from a Thai restaurant here in Los Banos. I’ve managed to copy it at home but this post is not about that. It’s Thai inspired in the sense that I was craving for it during the Christmas holidays but did not have all ingredients at hand. It started with me seeing a bunch of cilantro my mom bought the day before. I was already imagining Thai fried rice with sour green mangoes. Undaunted, I rummaged the ref and found some pork slices as well. I made me some Thai-inspired fried rice. I like to add eggs to my fried rice, but at that time we didn’t have any (We rely on eggs from the chickens we raise at home, but at that time, all the hens were nesting hence no fresh eggs).
Ingredients:
3 cups leftover cooked rice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup cooked chopped pork (we had leftover liempo slice)
1 tbsp tamarind base
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chopped cilantro/wansoy
Saute garlic in 3 tbsp cooking oil. Do not let it burn. Add the tamarind base, sugar and pork. Saute for a minute or two then add the water. Bring water to a simmer then add the rice. Mix well, make sure that rice is well heated through. Add the chopped cilantro (reserve some for garnishing).
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This is making me want to travel to Thailand soon! Got to get myself a new luggage (e.g. zero Halliburton) so I can splurge on a lot of spices and eat all I want…
los banos thai fried rice thai restaurant
Sawadee kha! My name is Gay a.k.a. A Scientist in the Kitchen. Science and cooking are two of my passions. I'm a corn breeder who also loves to eat and cook. My kitchen is in Phitsanulok, Thailand where I am based together with Pasta (yes, I love Italian food!) my black labrador retriever.
May be Thai inspired, but it sounds totally Pinoy to me!
It looks delicious!
Thanks for participating in LP-22, Gay. I look forward to seeing you in future LPs.
That looks good! I’ve never heard of adding tamarind base to fried rice but sounds very interesting!
JMom, you sure will here from me for more LPs
Lalaine, I wanted some sourness to my fried rice, it should have been green mangoes. But I didn’t have any so I used tamarind base like I use for my pad thai.
this photo made me drool for bagoong rice! sarap! and it’s lunch time! hmmm…thanks for sharing and congratulations for your first LP!
Using tamarind base in the fried rice seems like a great idea! Thanks for this recipe!
tamarind base?! now that’s something new for the new year.
(i think everyone’s surprised with it. you should call it ‘fried surpRICE” again, corny ako. sorry na…:P)
oooh yum.. you know what would make a great combination — your tamarind-flavored rice and lalaine’s bagoong one!!!
I LOVE FRIED RICE. I make all different kind mystelf. Shrimp, pork, beef, random veggies. I will try to make this myself.
I like hearing about how you’re being creative with the resources available. I just got back from Kota Kinabalu and picked up some local herbs that customs actually let me bring back and I am growing: galanga, duan laksa, turmeric, and lemon grass. I just recently found out I can get fresh turmeric in Quiapo – but I am still looking for sources of other ingredients.
Something you might try experimenting with for sourness is taking green mango and drying it until it is hard then figuring a way to turn it into a powder. This is a common souring ingredient used in central and norther Indian cooking.
I go through cooking binges playing with an ingredient until I feel I have some mastery of the flavors it can produce. I’ve yet to do that yet though with tamarind. As always thanks!
I don’t know what duan laksa is, but we have galanga, turmeric and lemon grass in the garden. Turmeric or luyang dilaw is usually used as medicinal herb or used in ginataang hito here in Laguna. I like to collect those kind of herbs. And here in Los Baños you could some of the herbs used in Asian cooking since there are a lot of international students.
I go through my phases too, there are weeks I could a lot of Indian cuisine, then Mexican, then Thai….