Vegetable Bacon Fried Rice

Adapted from a recipe in the Food Network Magazine
Ingredients:
2 Tbl. vegetable oil
1 lb. thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 Tbl. sugar
4-5 Tbl. soy sauce, separated
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Your choice of the following vegetables:
1/2 head broccoli, florets and stalks cut into 1/4-inch pieces
bamboo shoots
onion, cut into small pieces
water chestnuts
small corn
mushrooms, quartered

5 cups cooked long-grain white rice or jasmine rice (Make the day before and refrigerate so it is cold when you are ready to use it.  It seems to work better that way!)
1 1/2 c. low-sodium chicken broth
4 large eggs, lightly scrambled
Spicy mustard or chili-sauce, for serving (optional)

Directions:
Dice, slice and cut up all the veggies and the bacon and place them in separate bowls so they will be ready to go when you start stir-frying.  The key to stir-frying is to have everything ready and measured out because once you start it goes really fast!

Diced onion, sliced garlic and minced ginger.

Diced baby corn.

Chopped broccoli.

Sliced bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

Quartered mushrooms.

I have found that using a kitchen scissor is the best way to cut bacon, especially if it is just a tad bit frozen still!

4large eggs lightly scrambled.

Begin stir-frying by heating up the vegetable oil in the wok.  I use an electric wok and set the temperature at the suggested 375 degrees.

Once the oil is nice and hot, add the bacon and stir-fry until golden golden and crisp, about 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle the sugar over the bacon and toss.  Add about 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (be careful–the oil will bubble up) and continue to stir-fry until the bacon is glazed, about 30 seconds.

Transfer the bacon to a bowl with a slotted spoon.

Add the onion, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes to the drippings in the pan and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute (I left out the red pepper flakes because HD was going to be eating this too).

Add the vegetables of your choice and stir-fry until tender-crisp, 3-4 minutes.

Add the rice, the remaining 3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce, broth and glazed bacon.  Toss to heat through.

Ok, here is where I’m going to tell you to do something that my pictures don’t!  In the pictures below, I made a well in the stir-fry and added the scrambled egg.  I then proceeded to let it cook there, which took awhile.  I began to get nervous that I was going to scorch the rice and veggies on the bottom.  Since my wok was so full with stir-fry, it was really hard to get the egg to scramble without mixing it all into the stir-fry.  My suggestion would be to scramble the egg in a skillet on the side while you are stir-frying the vegetables and then add it already scrambled right after you add the rice and bacon.  I think this would be much easier!!!  

Vegetable Bacon Fried Rice