Paella Fried Rice the ultimate hybrid

Shrimp or hot dogs, favas or peas, it’s all OK

These are strange times for cooks. It’s a boomandbust situation, even for those of us who aren’t struggling to pay for groceries, who are in full health and who have the ability to have provisions delivered. When we do stock up — generously, gratefully — we are suddenly rich with possible meals. But we have to get creative as the supplies dwindle. There are recipes for times like this, though, that can be tailored to whatever you have on hand, that are quick enough to be made easily after a day of Zoom calls and homeschooling, when patience is thin and tempers are, perhaps, a bit high.

There is, for example, fried rice. It’s the ultimate catchall for the scraps that accumulate in the crisper drawer, for the bitsandbobs, for leftovers. We almost always have cooked white rice left over, and those driedout grains are perfect for frying, holding their shape without getting mushy. I often make a facsimile of Chinese takeout fried rice, studded with peas and bits of scrambled egg, but fried rice is a blank slate. In this version, I borrow ingredients and flavors from Spanish paella and cook it in a heavy castiron pan so some of the bits get crispy, like paella’s socarrat.

Unlike paella, this fried rice is made with precooked rice (you can use short or long grain), but like paella, it’s seasoned with saffron (and smoked paprika) and laced with cubes of chorizo and plump shrimp. I add cooked fava beans at the last minute, but fresh or frozen peas would be a great substitute. In fact, there are lots of ways to spin this dish — you could use another cooked grain in place of rice, another protein instead of shrimp, another type of sausage (or even bacon or hot dogs) instead of chorizo. You might want to add other vegetables. Mushrooms? A handful of baby spinach? Some cubed zucchini?

This “everybody in the pool” approach could fail you if applied to other recipes, but fried rice is the great equalizer, especially if you bear in mind some fundamentals: Add the meat first, giving it time to render in the oil, then add the onion (or green onion, or baby leeks, or anything else in the allium family), along with any other vegetables or protein that need a bit more time to cook. Stir the rice in so it gets coated with oil, then use the back of your spatula or spoon to press it down into the pan and let it cook, undisturbed, for a few moments until it begins to crisp up. Scrape it up, stir in the fava beans or peas (or other quickcooking vegetables) and hustle the pan to the table. Another meal down, another day done.

Jessica Battilana