Fried Rice and Spicy Turkey

I had just finished from a job and decided to stop by my parents’ house to wait out the traffic. I decided to get something to eat but ‘cause I was too lazy to fix something from scratch I decided to pop some fried rice I saw in the freezer into the microwave. While the rice was turning in the microwave I said a silent prayer so “PHCN” doesn’t strike and render me with cold rice. I actually found myself doing a “victory dance” when the sound of the microwave went off. “Abeg! Hunger no good.”

I grabbed a spoon and went at the rice viciously right there in the kitchen. But after the first 3 spoons, I realized the food tasted really good. I mean if I had known the food was that good I would have been more ceremonial about it, maybe I would have fried some plantain, set the table or something…’cause it deserved it and more. After I was done eating I got to find out it was my brother’s girlfriend who cooked it. Since my daughter’s birthday was coming up in a few days I thought it wise to get the recipe from her by all means.

I wasn’t throwing a party but I wanted to cook something special for the day. I knew it would be my first time cooking fried rice but it dint matter ‘cause it was just hubby and the kids that would eat it. Besides, no matter how it turns out, they will eat it with love. Hehe! But, everything changed when I realized we would be entertaining guests on my daughter’s birthday. I was thinking of going for another option but hubby insisted on fried rice. He was nice enough to help me with a few things and he was also my number 1 taster… even though he had no clue on how fried rice was made. At the end of it all it was delicious…and the guests thought the same too. Yaaaaay!

Ingredients:

• Rice
• Vegetable oil
• Seasoning (stock cubes, curry, thyme, salt)
• Veggies (carrots, green pepper, red chilli pepper, red bell peeper, sweet corn, spring onions, long green beans )
• Onions and garlic
• Liver

For the fried rice:

1. To parboil the rice – wash the rice and pour it into a pot of already boiling water for about 10 minuites. Rinse and drain the rice, then set aside.
2. Chop all the vegetables, liver, onions and garlic.
3. When the rice has been parboiled, rinse, drain and set aside.
4. In an empty pot, pour some vegetable oil to cover the base of the pot, add chopped onions and garlic and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add stock cubes, salt, thyme and curry (this gives the fried rice the unique colour it has) and stir fry for another minute.
5. Then pour in the parboiled rice and stir fry for about 5minuites.
6. Add the turkey stock into the rice and add some water till it gets to the same level of the rice just incase the stock didn’t. This stage should be cooked on the lowest heat possible.
7. In an empty pan, pour some vegetable oil and heat up for about a minute and add onions and garlic and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Then add the vegetables excluding the sweet corn and stir fry for 5minutes. Then add the chopped liver and continue to stir fry for 2 minutes.
8. When the rice is soft to your liking and the water is dry, add the stir fry vegetables and the sweet corn into the rice and stir for a minute.

For the spicy turkey:

1. Wash and season your turkey, then boil till soft. Set aside the stock from the boiled turkey.
2.  Blend some red bell peppers and red chilli peppers, with onion and garlic and boil to get rid of excess water. Pour some oil in an empty pan and when hot, pour the pepper into the pan and fry, add some seasoning and stir for about 3-4 minutes and set aside.
3.  Deep fry the turkey in very hot oil. We just want to give the turkey a golden brown colour. Then stir fry the fried turkey in the pepper for 2 minutes.

Note: I washed the turkey the day before, and spiced it up with a blend of onions; garlic and seasoning, then popped it into the freezer till I was ready to boil it the next day. This allows for a tastier turkey.