Family's favourite fried rice

There is one meal that our whole family really, really likes - mamma's fried rice. That's because it can be varied in such a way that it fits the little picky eaters as well as their slightly adventurous parents. The picture below is a testament to the beauty of this dish: everyone eating calmly, finishing all the food (obviously not all the veggies, but what else is new...). 

The basic recipe is as simple as it is delicious, and I do want to stress that it originates from a Thai cookbook (that I bought in desperation after having spent five weeks while breast-feeding and eating my way through the menu of an excellent tiny restaurant by a remote beach, not knowing how I would survive when leaving the place).

Ingredients for the basic fried rice for 3-5 people; quantities approximate: 
4 cups (ca 1 litre) cooked rice (so less if un-cooked!)
4 chicken filets cut into small, longish strips
2 - 3 eggs
1 teaspoon of sugar
3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons of ketchup
vegetable oil (I use olive oil because that's what I always have in hand, but clearly a soy, canola or other neutral vegetable oil would be more authentic)

Shallots, spring onion and lime

Garnishes
The core garnishes are lime wedges, chili-infused fish sauce, fresh coriander and shallots.
Other vegetables that go well with this dish are cucumber, iceberg lettuce, spring onion, and green beans. (My addition of asparagus is not authentically Thai, but really tasty.)


How to do it
Prepare in advance: 

• Infuse fish sauce with chili, fresh or dried. I always keep a jar of this in the fridge, it lasts for months. 
• Marinate the chicken pieces in half of the soy sauce for a couple of hours before cooking. 
• Boil the rice, possibly even a day or two in advance or use leftover rice, as it becomes less of a sticky mess than using freshly cooked, warm rice.

Chili-infused fish sauce, with a touch of lemongrass. More for the looks than the taste, as it gets pretty hectic tastewise among the fermented fish and chili flavours....

Frying it up:
Pour some oil into the wok (or large, deep frying pan), crack and whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl and pour them into the oil, stir until scrambled. Remove from wok. Fry the chicken bits. When they are cooked through, add the rest of the soy sauce, the sugar and ketchup. Stir through, then add all the rice, start mixing it all together, and add the fried eggs at the end. Serve with a selection of garnishes and you are done!

I love these really small and skinny Asian asparagus; they are the size of the ones you would normally buy canned in Europe.