Shrimp & Ham Fried Rice

For this week’s Cooking from a Cookbook Challenge, I have my athamma’s (mother-in-law) recipe. She had a dairy in which she noted down recipes from cooking shows, friends and family. This particular recipe, I do not remember if it is from her dairy or I asked her for the recipe. I am guessing it is the latter as she made this recipe very often. In fact, this was one of her signature recipes. She liked prawns a lot and as far as I remember, whenever she made fried rice it was always with shrimp or prawns.

Six years ago in January, she lost her battle to cancer and according to Telugu calendar, tomorrow is that day. According to English calendar, that dreadful day is next week. For these two weekends I decided to post her recipes in her memory.

I was going to make shrimp fried rice but Mr.U wanted me to add some ham too. So I cut the shrimp in half and substituted the rest with ham cubes. I also substituted green peas with beans and carrots. This is a very quick recipe if rice is cooked ahead of time.

Total Time: 42 - 45 minutes (Most of the time is for cooking the rice)
Preparation Time: 30 minutes (most of the time is for cooking the rice)
Cooking Time: 12 - 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Measuring cup used here is rice cooker measuring cup

• 2 cups Rice
• 2 ⅔ cups Water

Shrimp Mixture

• ½ lb. Shrimp (I used 41/50 count raw frozen peeled and deveined, tail on shrimp. I removed the tails)
• 1 Carrot chopped or 1 cup chopped Carrot
• 30 French Beans chopped or 1 cup chopped French Beans (regular beans can also be used.)
• 4 small Green Chilies chopped
• 3 – 4 Green Onions or approx. 2 tbsp. chopped Green Onions
• 6 oz. Ham cut into small cubes or 1 ½ - 1 ¾ cup small cubes of Ham
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¼ - ⅓ tsp. Black Pepper Powder

Scrambled Egg & the Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. Oil
• ½ medium sized Onion chopped or ¾ - 1 cup chopped Onion (I did not measure chopped onion. This is an approx. measure)
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• 2 Large Eggs lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp. Soya Sauce (I used all-purpose seasoning)

Preparation:

• Cook Rice: Wash the rice and cook it in a rice cooker. It can also be cooked on the stovetop. I used 1: 1 ⅓ cups of rice to water ratio but 1: 1 ½ cups rice to water ratio can also be used. Once the rice is cooked, let it sit for 10-15 minutes.  Then remove the lid and let the rice cool.
• Chop & Dice: Chop all the vegetables and ham as required. Peel the carrot and chop it. Trim the edges of the beans and cut it into small pieces. Cut the green onion and keep the green part and white part separately. Chop the green chilies and dice the ham.
• Clean Shrimp: Thaw the shrimp by keeping it the fridge overnight or do as I did, running it under warm tap water. Transfer the shrimp to a bowl and run it under warm water.  Remove the tail of the shrimp. Wash several times.  If the shrimp is smelly, add little salt and about 1-2 tbsp. of yogurt and rub it into the shrimp. Wash the shrimp several times. Lime can also be used instead of yogurt but I prefer yogurt. Today my shrimp was a little smelly and I washed it with salt and yogurt.
• Shrimp Mixture: In a nonstick pan heat 1 tbsp. of oil. Add shrimp and sauté for a minute until shrimp turns orange in color and is opaque. This should take about 1 – 1 ½ minutes. We do not like over cooked shrimp but athamma would have a cooked it a little longer as she liked well cooked and browned shrimp.
• Add carrots, beans, green chilies and green part of the green onions. Sauté for couple of minutes until beans and carrot are tender.
• Add salt, pepper and mix it.
• Add cubed ham and cook for a minute or 2 until ham is warm. Ham should be added at the end as over cooked ham loses its taste. Since it is already pre-cooked, it does need to be cooked for a long period of time.
• Turn of the heat and keep it aside.
• Fried Rice: In another pan or transfer the shrimp mixture to a bowl to use the same pan make the rice. Heat a pan with 3 tbsp. of oil. Add onion, white part of the chopped green onion and sauté until soft. Add salt and mix well.
• Add beaten eggs and scramble the eggs. Do not overcook the eggs. This should take about 2-3 minutes.
• Add rice, salt and stir well. Continue cooking for couple of minutes.
• Add shrimp mixture, mix well and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.
• Add soya sauce, mix well.
• Taste the rice and adjust salt and pepper if required and cook for minute or two until fried rice is done.
• Serve rice hot.

Suggestions:

• Left over rice can be used for this preparation. Or rice can be cooked 1-2 ahead of time to speed up the preparation.
• Shrimp mixture can also be prepared ahead of time and can be refrigerated for up 2-3 days.
• Ham can be substituted with another ½ pound of shrimp
• For chicken, cook the chicken with onions and then add the beaten eggs.
• For vegetarian version, shrimp and ham can be substituted with green peas and more beans and carrot. Egg can also be skipped.

Recipes I posted this month in 2011, in 2012 and in 2013.
Events: This post is for Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.