Have you ever ordered fried rice from Green Papaya and requested it to be made with brown rice? No? Do it. It’s seriously one of the best fried rice dishes I’ve ever had. Something about the nutty-ness of the brown rice and the crazy mashup of whatever seasoning they use makes it one of our all time favorite places to go.

One problem: replicating it is pretty tough. (My nubcake colors shining through! Hahaha)

As I stared at the plate, trying to figure out why it was so delish, the rice called out to me. “Not brown rice!” Okay, that was actually Ry thinking out loud as he tried another bite. I agreed with him, though. It definitely didn’t look brown. So we headed for chinatown, in search of answers.

After meandering a few stores, we found one that said “red rice”. It also looked convincingly like the fried rice from Green Papaya.

So we picked up a bag, along with some veggies, and made our way home to try and whip up the dish. I had no clue what it was flavored with, but assumed there was ketchup due to a distinct tomato-ey flavor, as well as the red tint on the rice. A google search for “red fried rice” came up with a bunch of links, but I decided to go with the one from Group Recipes. It seemed the closest to what we were looking for. No pineapple, no curry, no red peppers, just fried rice.

What it was missing, however, was the part where they tell you how to cook red rice. So another search brought me to the eHow page that said 1 cup of water for every 1/3 cup of red rice.

Look at all that excess water. Yikes. Long story short, I ended up with some super mushy rice. I think I’m cutting the water down to about 3/4 cup per 1/3 cup of rice next time.

For the most part, I followed the recipe, just veggie-ing it up a bit.

First cut up all your carrot, broccoli and garlic.

Toss them all in a pan and saute for a few minutes, then add the rice.

Eek! You can totally tell how mushy the rice is from this photo.

Add the sauce (shoyu, ketchup and oyster sauce) and mix well.

I waited until the end to toss in the tofu, so that it wouldn’t get destroyed from the excessive mixing and scraping. Cook it up until the veggies are nice and soft.

Honestly? The taste wasn’t so bad. However, we both agreed, it was an incredibly far off and long shot away from the Green Papaya fried rice. We also agreed to ask the people over at Green Papaya what they put in their fried rice. (haha)

If anyone has any tips, let me know!

Here’s the recipe, as adapted from Group Recipes:

Red rice:
1 cup uncooked red rice
2 1/4 cup water

1 Tablespoon olive oil
5 cloves garlic
1 head broccoli
1 large carrot
1/2 block fried tofu

Sauce:
1 Tablespoon shoyu
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon ketchup

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Combine rice and water in a pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook on low for 30 minutes.

Heat olive oil  in a pan over medium heat and saute garlic for a few minutes. Add broccoli and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes. Add rice and sauce, mixing well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add tofu and give one final stir before serving.

Tags: Copy Cat, Main Dish, Rice, Tofu, Vegetarian