Dec 13: Garlicy Spam Fried Rice

The snow veered North so we got the reprive for the day. Tonight, is the night for snow.

Well... after the Spam Musubi attempt, I had rice, Spam and egg leftover.
Sounds like the perfect ingredients for fried rice, fried rice, like corned beef hash, is a dish originated from using leftovers.

Garlicky Spam Fried Rice
Spam
Egg
Celery
Green Onions
Bell Peppers
Onions
Peas
Cabbage
Garlic
Oyster Sauce
Soy Sauce
Seasame Oil

Sliced egg and Spam


Veggies - amount to your licking and type to your liking.


Forgot the garlic for a moment, but added a clove to the oil, before adding rice.


I like frying and seasoning the rice first. After a few minutes, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil is added. Mix and cover for about 2 minutes. Remove rice to a dish.


Next, the vegetables are lightly sauteed... covered with a lid and allowed to steam about 5 minutes.


The last step is to add all the ingredients, mix and cover for a couple minutes to steam and warm all the ingredients.


The finished dish... A better way to use brown rice and Spam.


The snow has arrived this evening. :-)

Dec 12: Mainland Spam Musubi

Weather forecast to day is for snow and cold temperatures (mid-20's) for the weekend lasting throughout the rest of next week. For some reason, spam popped into my mind. In particular, spam musubi. Spam musubi is a Hawaiian snack that has it's origin in Japanese and the popularity of spam on the Islands.

Spam musubi is just spam and rice wrapped in seaweed.

A typical recipe is found on allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spam-Musubi/Detail.aspx

For me spam is a once every two years type food. :-)

My version is a West Coast/Mainland version of Spam musubi... I'm using brown rice instead of white rice.

Spam Musubi (Mainland Style)
1 Can of Spam sliced 1/4 slices
1 T Oyster Sauce
1 T Soy Sauce
1/2 t Sugar
Brown Rice (2 Cups cooked in 3 Cups broth)

Sliced Spam


Marinade half the Spam while the other half was fried. I was worried that the marinade would over salt the already salty spam.


Pan Fry Spam


Four slices of marinaded Spam (on the left) and plain pan-fried Spam (on the right).


There are special musubi presses that can be purchased, but since this is just a trial I made my own with the Spam can, cardboard and foil. I lined the can with cling wrap to simplify the rice/spam extraction. [Note: A finished Spam Musubi in the background.]


1/4 cup of rice, is pressed in as the first layer.


A slice of Spam is added, topped with another 1/4 C o f rice and pressed again.


The naked musubi... The brown rice is not holding together as short grain white rice.
Nori is wrapped around the rice packet... Sealed with a little water on the edge.


After resting about 5 minutes... the packets are cut in half.
Some of the musubi contained a thin egg omelet... gotta have eggs with Spam. :-)


Surprisingly, the marinade added a lot more flavor to the Spam without creating a salt lick. It helps that the rice is only lightly seasoned. However, the rice was too "crumbly" to make a proper musubi, but did hit the spot. After making about 4 bundles, I gave up and packed it into the fridge.