Cook’s notes
Fried rice is sinangag in the Philippines. Before garlic fried rice became the norm with the rise of silog breakfast dishes, sinangag was cooked differently.
Used oil — where chicken or pork or seafood had been fried — was the key to a flavorful fried rice. Let me explain. When you brown meat in oil and dark bits get left behind after the meat or seafood had been scooped out, those dark bits aren’t discarded. That’s flavor — wonderful flavor — so why be wasteful? In fact, in French cooking, wine is added to deglaze the pan and those dark bits are scraped to form the base of the sauce for the dish.
In my grandmother’s time, those browned bits that got left behind in the oil after frying chicken, meat or seafood were essential for cooking sinangag. Not only did they give the rice a richer color, they added so much flavor too.
But what if no chicken or meat or seafood was fried in oil? Well, that’s the thing. Sinangag was traditionally served with a fried main course — never with soups or stews like sinigang or kaldereta. White rice — newly cooked — was the partner for such dishes. So, unless there was fried chicken or fried pork chop or fried fish, there was no sinangag.
But that was then. This is the age of the air fryer, no oil with browned bits at the bottom of the frying pan, so cooking good sinangag requires a different approach to infuse the oil with flavor. There is a technique. I use this technique when cooking garlic fried rice and I’m using it here, again, for something even better than garlic fried rice, and it’s all in the Instructions section below.
But, first, a few tips…
- Use cold day-old rice. This is non-negotiable. The rice has to have dried up sufficiently to be cooked into fried rice. The best way to prep the rice is to place your leftover rice in a covered container and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The next day, with you not doing any additional work, the rice will be at its prime to be cooked into sinangag.
- It takes about 15 minutes for the shallot slices to turn golden brown and crisp. You’ll need to stir them occasionally. My trick is that when most of the shallot slices have turned golden, I turn off the heat and let them continue cooking in the residual heat for another minute or so, and stirring a few times.
- Unlike frying shallots, it only takes about eight to nine minutes for the garlic bits to get good color. I turn off the stove at that point and let the garlic continue to cook in the still-hot oil.
- While you are likely to use all the crispy shallots to serve your fried rice, there might be more garlic than you will need. Transfer excess fried garlic into a jar with a screw-type cap. If you have food grade silica gel, drop in a packet. Should keep for a day or two. Remember that the garlic was not dehydrated prior to frying so there’s still a bit of moisture in those bits. Moisture hastens spoilage so use within a day or two.
- Cool the excess oil, pour into a jar, cover tightly and store at room temperature. Use it to fry eggs, tofu, vegetables, mushrooms… Anything that will soak up flavor.
The ultimate Filipino fried rice (sinangag)
Ingredients
- ½ cup cooking oil
- 2 to 3 shallots peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 head bulb garlic, peeled and chopped
- 4 cups day-old rice
- salt
- pepper
- ¼ cup thinly sliced scallions
Instructions
- Pour the cooking oil into a frying pan with the heat set to LOW.
- As soon as you turn on your stove, before the oil starts to heat up, immediately spread the shallot slices in the pan.
- Fry the shallots with occasional stirring until golden brown and crisp (see notes). Scoop out and spread on a stack of paper towels.
- Leave the oil to cool to room temperature.
- Spread the chopped garlic in the cooled oil and set the heat to low. Cook with occasional stirring until golden brown and crisp. Scoop out and spread on a stack of paper towels.
- Pour off the oil leaving only about two tablespoonfuls.
- Reheat the oil and add the rice. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of salt and a generous pinch of pepper.
- Cook the rice with the stove set on HIGH until heated through.
- Taste the rice, add more salt and pepper if needed, and toss to distribute the seasonings evenly.
- Serve your fried rice topped with crispy fried shallots, crispy garlic and thinly sliced scallions.
Spicy sesame garlic noodles
