Fried rice with a twist.

I haven´t had much chance to cook in last few months, because I decided to put too much on my shoulders, work-wise. Teaching at two schools has already taken its toll on me; I have no time for some of my favourite activities, and cooking has always been one of them. That´s why I decided to dedicate the one-day half-term holidays to preparing my own meals. And it turned out to be great. Asian-inspired meals with a twist. I decided to share my fried rice recipe with you here in my neck of the cyber woods.

What do we need? You decide. The base is cooked rice with vegetables. You can use any kinds of vegetables, I opted for the classics; carrot, onion, garlic, red pepper, stalk celery, brussels sprouts... To be perfectly honest, a meat-free version tastes great. However, I decided to add one cheeky little chicken thigh into the mix, too.

The key is to prepare everything in advance, otherwise, you will go crazy really quickly; once you start frying, the process becomes super fast. Start with cooking the rice. I decided to use a black Asian rice which I prepared in my rice cooker. After I chopped up everything, I deep-fried the chicken thigh pieces and left them to drain. Then I threw all the veggies into the wok – everything must cook on a high heat, that´s what creates the delicious taste. Don´t cook them for too long, you don´t want them to get too soft; the slight crisp is what makes this special. When the veggies are done, add the rice to the mixture and keep cooking (frying) it on high heat. Then push it to one side, add a littlebit of oil and fry an egg or two on the side. Mix it with the veggies and rice, add the chicken and , if you want to spice it up a littlebit more, mix a soy sauce, hot sauce and a spoonful of peanutbutter together and add it to the mixture few seconds before you turn off the heat. Serve in a bowl and....enjoy!