Special Fried Brown Rice (Yangchow Fried Rice)

Wash the brown rice and cook in an electric rice cooker by adding number of cups of water specified by the electric cooker. Rice should be just cooked and not wet. Keep warm in the rice cooker.

Pre-heat fan force oven to 160C or 320F. Line a non-stick large baking pan with baking or parchment paper. Grill the leg ham or shoulder ham pieces in the oven for around 20 minutes or until brown and crispy on both sides. Cut into 2 cm (0.8 inch) pieces with a kitchen scissor.

Combine chicken with marinade in a large bowl and mix well.

Crack all the eggs into a medium bowl, add the salt and ground white pepper. Beat all the eggs well with a fork.

Heat up a medium non-stick frying pan with some extra virgin olive oil on medium to high heat. Add half of the beaten eggs mixture into the frying pan, turn the heat to medium. Move the frying pan around to distribute the egg evenly, pan-fry for about 2 to 3 minutes or until the bottom of the omelette turn slight brown.

Turn the omelette around and pan-fry for roughly the same time. Remove omelette onto a plate. Covering the plate to keep warm. Repeat with remaining egg mixture by adding a bit more extra virgin olive oil. Cut into thin strips.

Heat up a large non-stick wok with 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, stir-fry and separate the minced chicken on medium to high heat until no longer pink. Remove from wok and set aside. Clean wok with kitchen paper towel.

Heat up another 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and stir-fry the garlic on low heat until lightly golden. Then add the peas, spring onions and pale or medium dry sherry and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Return the chicken to the wok.

Add the steamed brown rice in step 1 and the shoulder or leg ham pieces into the wok, toss and combine well until the rice is heated through.

Add the omelette to the top of the fried brown rice and serve.