, rice and sesame oil. At the beginning of the month, there would be chicken pieces and fresh ginger; by month end, it would just be eggs with dried powdered ginger. Either way, it was still delicious.
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Ginger, sesame & egg-fried rice
Ingredients
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 large piece of ginger, sliced into large strips
1 spring onion, sliced
3 cups cooked, cooled rice*
½ cup frozen peas, thawed
3 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
salt
* Use refrigerated rice from the day before – it holds its shape better.
Ideal for winter, the dark sesame oil adds warmth and depth to a simple stir-fried rice dish. This was one of my favourite meals to make in college, as it looked happily colourful and I always had all the ingredients required to make it: eggs, ginger, peas (from the bag sitting in the freezer), rice and sesame oil. At the beginning of the month, there would be chicken pieces and fresh ginger; by month end, it would just be eggs with dried powdered ginger. Either way, it was still delicious.
Cooking Instructions
- Heat a wok (or frying pan), add the oil and bring down to medium heat.
- Add the ginger and spring onion and stir.
- Add the rice, stir through the ingredients, and then add the peas.
- Shimmy the mixture over to one side of the pan, add the egg and stir to break it up while it cooks.
- Once the egg is cooked, mix it through the rice.
- Add sesame oil and salt to taste, stir and serve hot.
About the Author
Ming-Cheau Lin was born in Tainan, Taiwan and immigrated to South Africa when she was three years old in the early 90s, growing up in Bloemfontein. Now based in Cape Town, she is a freelance copywriter and runs a food blog butterfingers.co.za as a platform to share insights into Taiwanese culture through recipes and stories – her work has been featured in local food, lifestyle and opinion spaces, and won a Getaway Blog Award in 2012. She’s a social activist – offering talks on embracing empowerment as a woman of colour, being mindful in a multicultural environment with a focus on the harms of cultural appropriation and stereotyping.
“It is important to normalise our culture, our traditions of food, to stop exoticising (thus othering) our norms so we can stop being seen as foreigners in South Africa.”
She also has an international City & Guilds diploma in patisserie and worked for the late master of preserving Oded Schwartz at Oded’s Kitchen (in the kitchen, at food markets, admin and marketing).
Ming-Cheau has a BA in creative brand communications, specialising in copywriting and has worked in well-known advertising agencies as a copywriter for seven years. She also co-founded, volunteered and skated for the Cape Town Rollergirls NPO (a women’s roller derby league) as its Marketing and PR Chair for four years till early 2016.
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