Fried rice doesn't always have to be done Asian style. Today we're going to make a western style fried rice.

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked leftover rice
• 4-6 oyster mushrooms
• 0.5 onion, diced
• 1 sprig of fresh basil
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• a secret ingredient -- Oooh, how mysterious...

Method

Refer to my post on how to make basic fried rice for more detailed instructions.

• Break up the rice so it's not all clumpy.
• Add olive oil to a frying pan and turn heat to high. You have to use a frying pan for western fried rice!
• Sautée (not stir fry -- again, think western!) onions until soft.
• Add mushrooms and continue to sautée. Salt and pepper.

• Add rice, further breaking it up as much as possible. Keep frying until rice is loose and toasted.

• Secret ingredient time! There was some bułka tarta ("booka tarta") that my partner made left in a pan, so I scraped it off and added that too. Bułka tarta is bread crumbs toasted in butter. It's a common ingredient in Polish cooking, often added to vegetables. It's so good, it makes even simple boiled vegetables taste awesome!

Bułka tarta on vegetables.

• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Plate and add a sprig of basil.

In a Chinese-Polish household, sometimes we have leftover kasza ("kasha" -- buckwheat) instead of leftover rice. This recipe works great with that too, and kasza has more flavour and is healthier than white rice!