Seafood Fried Rice

Chinese New Year is coming up soon (February 16th this year) and it's a time for celebration and to eat special dishes that will foretell your year ahead. My mother's seafood fried rice is perfect for Chinese New Year as it is full of crab, prawns and tobiko or flying fish roe and it is something that she only makes on very special occasions! It's a little bit fancy but when it's Chinese New Year, why not treat yourself?

I can't tell a fib, these ingredients are not your usual fried rice ones. But this is no ordinary fried rice (an inexpensive dish that is the ultimate leftover repurposing). This is a bit luxe because of the seafood used in it. If crab is a bit out of the budget you can sub it for another seafood that you like or one of those marinara mixes.

But the thing that really brings this together for me is the tobiko or flying fish roe. Unlike other fish roe, tobiko is comparatively inexpensive and you can get a largeish container fresh or frozen for less than $10. What it gives it is the most delicious texture and each bite of this fried rice has juicy little pops. Mr NQN usually doesn't like rice much but he loved this fried rice. And even my father loved it whereas he is usually a rice purist.

I learned recently that my father refers to my dog Mochi as "the cat". I'm absolutely sure that he knows that she is a dog but he has a strange sense of humour (super, super dry and I've never heard him ever laugh out loud or raise anything above a smirk). My father is also the breakout star on my Instagram stories videos with so many people messaging me about him because of his sense of humour. But apparently every time I come over with Mochi he asks my mother, "When is the cat coming over?" and "The cat is here"!

So tell me Dear Reader, how often do you eat or make fried rice? Do you like tobiko too? And are you doing anything this Chinese New Year? And who is the funniest member of your family?

Seafood Fried Rice

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 6

• 6 cups day old cooked rice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• Oil for frying
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 slices ginger
• 1/2 cup green onions
• 250g/8.8ozs cooked, peeled prawns
• 225g/8ozs. cooked crab meat
• Dash of white pepper
• 130g/4.6ozs. tobiko or flying fish roe

Step 1 - First sprinkle the soy sauce on top ofs the rice and mix together until evenly distributed. Add oil to a wok or large frypan and fry the beaten eggs as a thin omelette. Remove from the pan and set aside. Then slice up into thin pieces.

Step 2 - Add the carrot and fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the garlic and ginger as well as the cooked rice. Fry for 3-5 minutes turning so that all the rice is cooked (add oil if you need it). Add the green onions and omelette into the pan along with the prawns, crab meat and white pepper and cook for a further minute. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary and the white pepper. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a minute or two. Then add the tobiko and stir through the rice (do not cook the tobiko).