Veggie Porridge with Side Dishes (Brussels Sprouts, Sausage, and Eggs)
My breakfast gets an upgrade when my best friends visit.
Vegetarians: Can substitute the sausage and eggs with tofu.
Ingredients: Zucchini squashes, yellow carrot, cucumber, green onions, half of a red bell pepper, Brussels sprouts, pork Hungarian sausage (you can use any meat you like,) one cup of raw rice or precooked, eggs, salt and pepper
Steps:
Vegetarians: Can substitute the sausage and eggs with tofu.
Ingredients: Zucchini squashes, yellow carrot, cucumber, green onions, half of a red bell pepper, Brussels sprouts, pork Hungarian sausage (you can use any meat you like,) one cup of raw rice or precooked, eggs, salt and pepper
Steps:
- Fill a medium pot with 1/3 water, boil, then add the halved or quartered Brussels sprouts. Let boil for a couple minutes, scoop out the veggies keeping the water in the pot.
- In the same pot, add the all veggies (see chopped size in picture) except the red bell pepper and the bottom halves of the green onions (Okay to go all in; I prefer to throw in those later.) Let boil.
- Add the rice now if raw, otherwise let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes before adding cooked rice.
- When the rice is in the pot, the lid needs to be slightly open to avoid spilling over.
- I dry-fried the precooked pork Hungarian sausage. Oil will come out - keep this gold for porridge.
- Preheat oven for broil. Sprinkle olive oil, salt and pepper over the cooked Brussels sprouts and mix. Let broil for 15-20 minutes, or until you see some browning.
- After 30 minutes of simmering, add cooked rice and the sausage oil (vegetarian: use 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil instead,) let simmer for about 5 minutes.
- I pan-fried the eggs in the same pan I used to dry-fry the sausage so no extra oil added. Season with some salt and pepper. (I always poke the yolk because I like it evenly soft.)
- Add red bell pepper to porridge, let simmer for about 5 minutes, then mix in the rest of green onions.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. Let boil for a couple minutes and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Brunch ready.
Alternative: Fried rice instead of porridge.
Fennel Zucchini Fried Rice
Meat is optional. Here I used plain boiled pork jowl slices (see second example on Stew page,) but you can use whatever you like. Sometimes I use takeout leftover to make fried rice.
Ingredients: ~3 cups cooked rice, fennel, zucchini, carrots, onion, eggs, pork slices (optional,) soy sauce
Plain cooked rice works and 1 day old or longer even better than freshly made. My rice here is comprised of jasmine rice, pearl barley, and buckwheat kernel.
Ingredients: ~3 cups cooked rice, fennel, zucchini, carrots, onion, eggs, pork slices (optional,) soy sauce
Plain cooked rice works and 1 day old or longer even better than freshly made. My rice here is comprised of jasmine rice, pearl barley, and buckwheat kernel.
Steps:
Dice all the veggies. If you don't have fatty pork to make lard, you can use olive or other cooking oil of your choice. I dry-fried the pork slices over low heat first to render some oil. When the slices are of a nice light brown color, turn up to medium heat, add onion and cook for a minute so it turns slightly golden brown and the flavor comes out, then mix in all veggies. Stir and evenly spread, then add a little bit of water (~1/2 tablespoon,) cover and steam for a couple minutes.
Make space in the pan, crack two eggs, scramble, add cooked rice, mix well, break up the cold thick clumps if your rice is fresh out of fridge. Add splashes of soy sauce to taste. I used about 4 splashes. Adjust per your portion. Mix well.
Seafood also makes great fried rice.
Shrimp Fried Rice and Green Sides
Fried Rice Ingredients: Cooked rice, shrimps, sugar snap peas, green onion, eggs, shallot, kaffir lime leaves, unsalted butter (optional,) olive oil, salt and paprika
Side dishes: 1 bunch radish flowers and 1 bunch broccolini. Both stir fried with garlic and some salt - see Vegetables page for general steps.
Steps:
The shallot, green onion, and kaffir lime leaves are like the green garlic and onion in the shrimp dish on the Seafood page - cook those first. When I add the shrimps to the pan, I also add the sugar snap peas. When those are cooked, I made room in the pan for the eggs and mix in the steam rice as illustrated above. Salt and paprika to taste.
Side dishes: 1 bunch radish flowers and 1 bunch broccolini. Both stir fried with garlic and some salt - see Vegetables page for general steps.
Steps:
The shallot, green onion, and kaffir lime leaves are like the green garlic and onion in the shrimp dish on the Seafood page - cook those first. When I add the shrimps to the pan, I also add the sugar snap peas. When those are cooked, I made room in the pan for the eggs and mix in the steam rice as illustrated above. Salt and paprika to taste.
