Uni and Crab Fried Rice, Pampered with Extra Fresh Uni on Top

Went to a Taiwanese seafood restaurant a while back and one of the dishes that night was some sort of fried rice with orange bits throughout. Didn't quite realize what it was until I flip through the camera images days after, it was uni/sea urchin fried rice. The orange bits were fresh uni. 

Perhaps these tiny bits of ocean jewels were not enough for me, so I've decided to take the idea and make my own "luxurious" seafood fried rice (wink*).

Uni and crab fried rice -

Ingredients (3 to 4 portions)?

• 2 cups of uncooked white rice
• 2 thin/skinny type cucumbers
• 1 whole kernel corn
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 stalk scallion
• 6 ounces/170 grams crab meat
• 3.5 ounces/100 grams uni
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 red chilies (optional)
• Some white pepper powder
• Some cilantro

How?

Crab is in season now, you can buy a whole crab, boil, then scrape out the crabmeat yourself, or just use store bought packaged version. Give and take, if using whole crab, you get to add flavorful crab brain (kani miso), but of course the prep work is going to be much more strenuous.

If using freshly cooked rice, cook two cups of white rice using a little bit less water than usual. You can also use overnight leftover rice instead. 

Peel and cube the onion and cucumbers. Discard the scallion stem and chop the remaining into smaller pieces. 

Drizzle enough olive oil to evenly coat the bottom of the pan, about two tablespoons. Turn to medium high heat and add in chopped onion. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and give it a quick mix. Cook till the edges of the onion cubes turned slightly browned. Add in two finely chopped red chilies if preferred.

Add in cubed cucumber and corn kernels. Give it a stir and cook for another minute.

Add one tablespoon of fish sauce, mix a little. Gently fold in the crabmeat and 3/4 of uni. 

Add the rice to the mixture in two batches, easier to stir fry this way and make sure every grain has been coated with all the flavors. Toss in chopped scallion along with some white pepper powder. Taste and see if more fish sauce or salt is needed for extra saltiness.

Transfer the fried rice to a serving dish, top with remaining uni and sprinkle some chopped cilantro.

Truly a pampered fried rice meal.


Other fried rice recipes:

• Light version: smoked salmon fried rice 煙燻鮭魚炒飯
• This time, no chicken eggs, but salted duck eggs for Chinese fried rice 鹹鴨蛋秋葵飯
• Kimchi and shirasu fried rice with a hint of shiso, and of course the sinful egg yolk
• Sirloin fried rice with crisp red onions and a hint of Japanese seasonings (蒜香味噌牛排炒飯)
• Fried rice with shirasu and tuna floss - 雙魚炒飯