The other week, I got all excited about cooking Leon founder, Allegra McAvedy's Egg Fried Rice with Ginger Dressed Broccoli, before realising I had pretty much none of the vital ingredients, namely broccoli. I was however, still in the mood for a bit of egg fried rice, and never one to stick to a recipe anyway, decided to simply take inspiration* from Allegra's creation, and work with the ingredients I already had.
The key to the flavours in the dish are the holy trinity of eastern cooking, soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil, which my dish fries with the egg, along with a kick of chilli, rather than use as a dressing. You can serve this as a side dish with a stir-fry, or some barbequed meat/tofu, but I prefer it alone, as a light lunch, or something quick to knock up post-pub, and therefore like to add a teaspoon of chinese five-spice for depth of flavour.
I pretty much always have a bag of spinach kicking about in the fridge, which I threw into this dish to give it a bit of greenery, and was really pleased with how it worked out. The rich green leaves added a wonderful colour and flavour without altering the texture of the dish so as to make it into a rice stir-fry, as opposed to fried-rice.
Following the Pizza Express school of thought, egg + spinach = Florence, which is of course, where this dish gets its intercontinetal name.
Ingredients (serves 2)
150g dried basmati rice (or 300g of leftover cooked rice)
1 egg, beaten
2 large handfuls of spinach, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of chinese five-spice
1inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Directions
Add the rice to a pan with 300mls of water and bring to the boil with the lid on. Lower heat to minimum, and cook for 8-10 minutes until all the water has soaked up. Leave lid on and set aside.
Heat the oil in a wok and add the ginger, chilli, garlic and spring onion and cook on a high heat for 2-3 minutes. Throw in the egg and chinese five-spice, and stir constantly to scramble for 1 minute.
Add the cooked rice, spinach and soy sauce and stir well to combine, still frying on a high heat for 2-3 minutes.
Serve immediately.
*Inspired by, not nicked.
Image via Inspired2Cook