Comfort Food: Thai Edition

Working at a thai restaurant has its definite benefits - free food, a well-developed appetite for spicy things, money - but last night, I would have put "learning how to make basil fried rice" at the top of any list of things I enjoy about my job.

As you may know, we just got pelted with about 17 inches of snow from a storm that lasted the better part of two days.  Despite the temperature and the high winds, the Boyfriend and I spent much of our time outside helping dig his bandmate's car out of the snow and voluntarily trekking across the city just to see what Minneapolis looks like at 6 PM on a Saturday night.  (We both work jobs that mean we've not gotten a regular Saturday night off in years, although with most of the shops in our part of town closed by 5 PM, we got a bit of a skewed impression)  We're naturalized Minnesotans like that.

All this pushing, and digging, and jumping (over plow-driven drifts), and shuffling left us absolutely exhausted by the time we got home at 7 PM.  Like, wanting-to-go-to-bed exhausted.  In this kind of situation, fried rice is like a SWAT team bursting through the door to rescue you.  Like North Korean propaganda videos being set to funk music.  I tell you, it was made for this.

Fried rice has a lot of different varieties.  In a standard thai restaurant, it is usually done plain with a little seasoning sauce (think soy sauce), with a handfull of yellow curry powder, with several dollops of sri racha sauce, or with lots of pineapple and other sweet goodies.  However, its true perfection is only realized in its "Holy Basil" incarnation: garlic, onions, garlic, scrambled egg, seasoning sauce, garlic, a pinch of sugar, powdered chilis, and a ton of fresh thai basil.  It's greasy, warm, savory, spicy, and wonderfully fragrant.  In other words: comfort food of the first order, especially when garnished with some chopped fresh tomatoes (hooray for local hydroponic farms!) and followed with homemade sorta-cafe mochas for dessert.

Ok, Story Time Over:
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup uncooked rice
2-4 eggs, depending on how much you like egg
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. vegetable or soy bean oil
2-3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh basil, or more if you just really like basil (the grocery store was closed by the time we got home, so I used about 1/5 cup dried)
1/4 to 1 tsp. of crushed dried chili peppers, to taste (think of "medium" as 1/2 tsp, "hot" as 1 tsp, and "thai hot" as 3/4 to 1 tbsp.)

Start the rice in your rice cooker/pot.  Once that's done, do the garlic in the oil over medium heat, being careful not to brown it; crack your eggs into the pan, and scramble them with your spatula; toss the onions in for 30 seconds (or add them with the garlic if you don't like the taste of partially-raw onion); once the eggs have set, add your rice, sugar, salt, and soy sauce, and toss until everything is mixed well and the rice has turned a golden brown; add the basil and chili peppers, and keep tossing until the basil wilts.  Enjoy immediately, and retire to the couch with sorta-mochas and a (mac)book.