Rice & Egg Bowl

A few weekends ago I invited a friend around for Sunday brunch. She came with a backpack full of eggs and fresh herbs and sambal oelek, and proceeded to cook us all bowls of egg-y, rice-y, herb-y goodness while I sat on the kitchen bench. My friends rock, I know it.

Indeed, I enjoyed the eggs-over-rice style meal that she made us so much, that I’ve replicated it a few times in the last couple of weeks. Now that our chooks have (finally) started laying (!!), we’ve got plenty of the freshest eggs to go around, so any dish that showcases them in all their splendour is just what I’m after.

This Rice & Egg Bowl is all kinds of versatile; make it for breakfast, make it for lunch, make it for dinner. Lately, I’ve been eating it for lunch when I want something quick and hot and flavoursome to eat, without too much effort. As a bonus in these busy days, it comes together really quickly – case in point, I prepared this lunch for myself while working yesterday, and it barely disrupted my flow at all.

This Rice & Egg bowl may be simple, but it is also perfect in that simplicity. Most of the flavour comes from the abundance of fresh herbs, and the sambal oelek. If you’re not familiar with sambal oelek, it’s a spicy sauce that is a staple in Indonesian cooking. You could replace it with sriracha, or harissa, or whatever you have on hand, but if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend sambal with this dish (in Australia you’ll easily find it on most supermarket shelves). And you may ask yourself – do I really need eggs fried in a shit-ton of butter? The answer is yes. The answer is always yes. Why? Because they taste really fucking good that way.

Enjoy!
Sarah x

Also HI THERE to all my new subscribers (thanks The Design Files!). Glad to have you here. Please do cook and comment – I love the feedback.

Rice & Egg Bowl

This simple bowl is easy to throw together. If you don’t have any snake beans lying around, sub with green beans, or even thinly sliced zucchini or broccoli. The ingredients amounts below are for one, but can be easily doubled or tripled if cooking for more.

Ingredients

6 snake beans
2 tsps sesame seeds
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tsps sesame oil
1/3 cup long-grain white rice
1/3 cup fresh coriander
1/3 cup fresh parsley
2 eggs
1 – 2 tbsps butter, to cook
Sambal oelek, to serve

Method

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet (my method is 1/3 cup rice to 2/3 cup water, bring to the boil then simmer with the lid on until all of the water is absorbed).

Chop the coriander and the parsley leaves. Set aside.

Top and tail the beans, then slice on the diagonal into pieces approx. 3cm long. Blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain. Heat the sesame oil in a shallow pan over a medium-high heat. Add the blanched beans, the minced ginger and the sesame seeds and cook for 3 – 4 minutes, tossing regularly to ensure the ginger doesn’t burn. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan that you used to cook the beans, melt the butter over a medium-high heat. crack both eggs into the pan and cook for about 4 minutes, then flip and cook for a further 2 minutes on the other side.

In a shallow bowl pile the rice, the cooked beans, and the herbs together. Top with the two fried eggs, and a generous spoonful or two of sambal oelek. Eat immediately.

Serves: one