Asian mince on rice recipe

I can't take credit for the incredible taste sensation that is this recipe. That's all thanks to my friend Lin Chu, who is one of the best cooks I know.

And I didn't actually get the recipe directly from Lin, but via another lovely friend of mine, Anna.

This Asian mince on rice recipe is such a hit in our household, L requests it most days. Whenever I make it, we have enough leftovers for us all to eat it again for lunch the next day. To reheat it, I just put a little bit of water in the bottom of a pot, throw in the leftover rice and mince and heat it through until everything is simmering.

I made this recipe tonight for dinner and L actually said, "Thank you for making it, Mummy."

The original recipe from Lin Chu didn't have quite so many vegetables as the one I'm sharing. Just one carrot and some herbs. But I bulk it out with more carrots and green vegetables from the garden, either silverbeet/spinach or zucchini. I've even thrown in a grated beetroot from our garden once. It didn't ruin it, but it didn't add anything either.

This is a great recipe for hiding liver in because the marinade disguises the flavour really well. You really can get away with quite a lot of additions with this recipe, as long as your basic sauce stays the same.

It's also a good dinner to prepare earlier in the today because you can mix up the mince and marinade, and set your rice soaking, then all you've got left to worry about at dinner time is prepping the vegetables and cooking everything.

Ingredients

• 500g pork or beef mince (and a few tablespoons of grated liver if you're game)
• 1T Thai sweet chilli sauce
• 1T sesame oil
• 1T grated fresh ginger
• 1T soy sauce
• 1t fish sauce
• 2t brown sugar or 2 cubes palm sugar
• 2T oyster sauce
• 2 spring onions, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 zucchinis, grated; or a head of spinach or silverbeet, prepared like this
• 2T chopped coriander, mint, basil (or mixture) - tonight I made it with parsley because I've got heaps of it growing around the place
• 1/4c cashews, roasted

Method
1. Mix mince (and grated liver) with sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Leave for at least five minutes, or all day in the fridge.

2. Heat a wok and fry mince mixture over high heat until cooked through.

3. Reduce heat and mix in oyster sauce, carrots, silverbeet/spinach/zucchinis, spring onions, herbs and cashews.

4. Cook for another couple of minutes.

Serve on plain Basmati or Jasmine rice.

Serves four to six.