Rice for breakfast
My daughter Emma is a great eater, she eats almost everything, is willing to try anything, and most of all: eating brings her joy and pleasure, and she knows what she wants. It all starts at breakfast. For us, this is the most important meal of the day, because we can either share a quiet moment or have a conversation – depending on our mood and how we feel that day. If I want to make Emma particularly happy in the morning, I cook basmati rice the night before. Then the next day I make fried rice with it. My daughter would choose this fried rice over jam on toast any day. That might seem somewhat strange to a European palate, but when you really think about it, fried rice is actually the perfect breakfast for young people with lots of learning and growing to do. I cook the basmati rice the night before, which I then spread out on a tray and leave to dry. The grains of rice dry out slightly on the outside overnight, which means they’re already nice and crispy when you fry them later. The next morning, I cut up things like carrots and celery into small cubes, adding a few thinly sliced spring onions and some freshly grated ginger. This is all fried with the rice in peanut oil at a very high temperature and only for a short time. Then I take it out of the pan and place it to one side. Next, I whisk two eggs with some soy sauce and fry the mixture like scrambled eggs, stirring it constantly. When the egg begins to thicken, I add the mixture of rice and vegetables back into the pan and mix it with the egg, still stirring constantly. The result is a substantial breakfast with carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals and, most of all, a dish which is like life itself: full of flavour. What’s more, fried rice doesn’t take much longer to make than jam on toast.