Fried Rice for Midnight

My oldest son has leukemia, and during the first portion of his treatment he was on rather large doses of steroids. This meant his appetite was also unbelievable, but because of the chemo if he could manage to get something down he would crave very specific things. It was odd - but I did everything I could to manage what he could eat.

He went through a fried rice phase (and fajitas, and Thai soup and Pho and omelettes and tacos and....you get the idea) - it lasted almost a month. No kidding - I made fried rice 6-8 times a day (often in the middle of the night!) for a month. If it can put it into rice (and even if it SHOULDN'T go in rice!) - I gave it a try - in an effort to make sure that it was just exactly right. I have 10-12 different distinct dishes that came out of that - but this is the very quickest and easiest. It's named because it's easy enough to crank out in ten minutes at midnight when your eyes are only half open and your kid's trying to convince you he's starving to death.

Anytime I make rice I double up to have extra on hand. If you find Jasmine or Asian rice - great! Most of the time all I can get is plain old white rice. It's still good. We still often keep cold rice in the fridge, and we crank this out for either a quick after school snack or an easy supper (with chicken or pork thrown in) every week or two.

And by the way - he's in full remission -he can make his own great Fried Rice (at) Midnight now - and often does!

3 cups cold cooked rice (it does HAVE to be cold)

2-3 green onions, minced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 Tbl soy sauce

1/2 Tbl black vinegar (rice wine is ok - but black is better)

1 tsp fish sauce (skip it if you can't find it - but we like it)

1 tbl sesame oil

1/4 cup minced cilantro - optional

Siracha hot sauce - to taste - optional

1 Tbl olive oil

1. Over medium high heat in a large skillet or wok, heat olive oil. Add beaten egg. Allow to cook on one side for about a minute or until set. Flip. Cook for just a few seconds - you should see it puff visibly. (If it doesn't - who cares?). Remove from pan.

2. Add rice to pan. Fry for about a minute. Add onion. Give the rice a good stir and let fry for about two minutes total.

3. Add soy sauce, vinegar and fish sauce to the pan. Continue to stir fry for about another minute. Add cooked egg to the pan and break it up into pieces as you continue to stir fry for a final minute or so. Stir in cilantro and remove from heat.

4. Remove to a platter, and drizzle with sesame oil.