Recipe Venture - Shallot

I realize that the shallot isn’t exactly exotic as vegetation goes, but I had honestly never cooked and eaten one before and I had a serious craving for some fried rice, so I went for it. Besides which, I celebrate the entire nightshade family of vegetation and shallots are a part of that, it seemed wrong that I’d never used them

It’s an easy to find little vegetable that was located in my Acme’s cold vegetable section next to the leafy greens. A large one was a bit smaller than a fist, and resembled a really big garlic clove with the papery skin on. Peeling of the skin, that resemblance continued – there were basically two really gigantic cloves inside the paper. I diced it up and it seriously made me blink and tear… I don’t know if that’s normal or if I just had a particularly strong one. The flavor is great; slightly milder than onion and a bit garlic-like.

As I was making my fried rice, I added a can of Bumble Bee tiny shrimp to the mix which you won’t see on the recipe. That’s because they completely disintegrated, leaving only a faintly fishy flavor behind that I didn’t care for (and Ted swears is all in my head – he couldn’t taste them). At any rate, I do NOT recommend the tiny canned shrimps.

Other than that, it turned out great – and must have been pretty good because Ted and I couldn’t keep our forks out of the wok while he was finishing up the meat dish he prepared for Kyle and himself to go along with.

As for me; I had my fried rice and half a baked butternut squash with Splenda brown sugar and ‘I can’t believe it’s not Butter’ spray. Noms!

Vegetable Fried Rice


• 1 cup ‘Texmati’ rice
• 1 small square package of frozen peas
• 1 large shallot
• 1 bunch of scallions (green onion)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 4 tbsp. soy sauce
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• Pam non-fat cooking spray

1) Set out the frozen peas to thaw a bit, you don’t need them soft – just loose in the bag and not a solid block of ice. Run under warm water if necessary.
2) Cook the Texmati according to package directions; takes about fifteen minutes and yields 3 cups of cooked rice.
3) While rice is cooking, chop up the shallot small and cut the scallions into small rings.
4) Coat a wok with Pam cooking spray (I like the butter flavored one) and sauté the scallions for about three minutes.
5) Add the frozen peas and continue to sauté until their color begins to turn bright green.
6) There will be liquid from the ice on the peas – this is okay, the rice will suck it all back up later.
7) Add the cooked rice back into the wok and stir together.
8) Push the rice mixture to one side, and crack the two eggs into the bottom of the wok.
9) Scramble the eggs on the bottom of the pan, then mix in with the rest.
10) Add the soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic.
11) Add the scallions.

Mix all together – and enjoy!

Cook time: About a half hour
Serving: 1 & ½ cups
Calories: 330
Fat Grams: 5
Fiber Grams: 19