Tom Yum Fried Rice

TIP: Use cold leftover rice.  If cooking on same day, cook earlier than dinner time and place in the freezer till you start cooking.  Or in the fridge if you do it on the morning of.  The goal is cold rice.

4-5 eggs, lightly stirred with optional below.
Optional-Add 2 green onions chopped to eggs. Or 2 tbsp of fresh chives.
1 bag of broccoli slaw (Unsauced and found in produce dept-great short cut)
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 tbsp of Tom Yum Paste (see note below)
3 cups of cold rice
4 stalks of green onions
Soy Sauce to taste
Cold-pressed sesame seed oil

In a large wok/pan add oil of choice to cover the bottom of the pan.  Set heat on medium and when shimmering, add eggs.  Cook till just done, slide eggs out to a plate to reserve. 

Add more oil to the pan and saute the slaw, garlic, and onion on low heat as not to burn.  Add a couple of tbsp of water to steam slaw.  Cook till evaporated and tender.  About 5 minutes.

Add tom yum paste and stir it through veg.  Scrape to sides of pan leaving space in the middle.  Add a touch more oil, turn the heat on high and dump rice.  Rice will be a block but use a sturdy spatula to mash it down into the oil.  It will soften as it heats up. (gives your arms a great workout!)  Be patient and keep stirring/breaking up the chunks.  Also incorporating the veg into the rice as well.  Once the rice is well mixed and no chunks, add egg and green onions.  Stir to incorporate.  Then in a swirl around the pan, add a few circles of soy sauce and stir.  Taste.  Keep adding till you like the taste.  It usually takes me 2 tries.  (about 2 tbsp)

Remove from heat and give it a few swirls of sesame seed oil and stir.  Serve.

Notes:  You can make tom yum paste but it's so many ingredients and wasted in this rice as you might as well make the soup!  You can reserve some of the paste if you do make soup for this rice as I have done.  But for a quick dinner, I just use the ready made paste from my local Asian grocery store.

Also, be careful when you add soy sauce, you don't need much.  If you add too much, rice will be sticky and lose that fried texture.