Our Casa’s Chaufa

It’s inexplicable to me that over the near sixteen years you all have been following my adventures in both restaurant and kitchen that I’ve never written up our version of one of the most classic dishes of Peruvian chifa cooking. Yes, I’m talking about the arroz chaufa, or fried rice, the name taken from the Chinese chao fan, meaning, also, fried rice. It’s one of those dishes that nearly global – pretty much any culture out there that uses rice has a fried version of it that makes use of leftover rice. Since we almost always have leftover rice (we usually make a big pot of rice and then just keep it in the refrigerator, using it as we go over the course of a few days, chaufa is a common enough quick lunch around here.

Starting from the right, our leftover rice, some eggs, some canned (usually frozen and thawed, but there weren’t any in the supermarket this week), and diced up or finely chopped bell pepper, red onion, garlic and ginger, some chorizo sausage (usually bacon, but I had a chorizo in the fridge), pork (or chicken, beef, mushrooms, tofu, seitan, tempeh – whatever you want to use), and green onion, and some sesame oil and soy sauce. Not pictured, a couple of small chilies, and some salt, pepper, cumin, and a teaspoon of MSG.

I could do this in the wok, but I find it easier to just do in advance in a separate small skillet – lightly whisk the eggs with a little salt and then cook them to make soft scrambled eggs, turn them out on a cutting board and let them cool a bit, then just roughly chop them up.

In a couple of tablespoons of oil sauté the pork or other meat with some salt, pepper, and cumin, over high heat, until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes, depending on how big your pieces are. Remove from the wok (or big skillet) and set aside.

In the same oil, probably with a splash more, sauté the ginger and garlic until fragrant, about 30-45 seconds (we’re keeping the heat really high here – I’ve got one of those “super burners” and have it on maximum under the wok during this entire cook).

Add the sausage or bacon and cook until it just starts to brown, less than a minute.

Add the red onion and sauté for about a minute. We’re constantly stirring and tossing here, making sure nothing sticks or burns.

Add the peppers and the MSG, continue for another minute.

If there’s not much oil visible, add a splash more – if there’s not enough, the rice will just stick rather than fry. Add the rice and basically just keep tossing and stirring to heat it through – remember, it’s already cooked. If it starts to stick, add some more oil. All told, from starting with the pork to finishing with the rice, with this being about a kilo of cooked rice, I probably used somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of a cup of oil.

Add in a good glug of soy sauce (about a 1/4 cup here) and 1-2 teaspoons of the sesame oil – it’s all to taste. Combine well.

Add back in the meat, the egg, peas, green onion, and the chopped chili(es) if you’re making it spicy – again, to taste on that one. Toss and stir to combine well and reheat the meat and egg. Nothing needs to be cooked more, so it’s really about 30 seconds just to heat everything through.