This Spicy Shishito Pepper and Shitake Mushroom Fried Rice is an easy 20 minute dinner that’s perfect after a long day at work. It has a slow building heat that sneaks up on you in the best way possible.
This shishito and shitake fried rice is another one of those recipes that I made up on a whim…sensing a trend yet? My cooking style is very much a feel thing. I’ve always been really bad at following recipes exactly because I just like to throw things together and taste as I go.
In honor of Mother’s Day this weekend, I’m gonna give you guys a little background into the amazing moms in my family who taught me all that I know about food. First and foremost, I want to thank my Mom for teaching me to cook with my instincts. She’s given me A LOT over the years (still not sure why since I’m told that I was a pretty bossy kid) but I think this is one of her best gifts. She allowed me to be curious about flavors and indulged my many requests to recreate things I saw on 90’s PBS cooking shows.
My Mom, Grandma and Great Grandma:
My mom learned to cook from many generations of Jamaican moms before her. And my great grandma actually lived until I was 20 years old, so I was lucky enough to experience family gatherings where 4 generations cooked together in this same passed down style. Whenever my mom and I talk on the phone now, we recap new meals we’ve cooked. You can almost definitely count on her saying “so the recipe called for X but I replaced it with Y”. And then I say “You know what else would be really good in there…”. My mom and I haven’t lived in the same state in years, so it’s pretty special to be bonded through food and family history with her in this way.
It’s sort of funny because I always see people writing up family cookbooks with beautifully handed down recipes. Part of me wishes that we had something like that but a bigger part of me knows none of us could follow a recipe if we tried! My grandma used to make banana fritters for me as a kid. I don’t like bananas AT ALL, but these fritters are still one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! She mashed up overripe bananas with spices, flour and baking powder and suddenly I had a warm, gooey after school treat. To this day, when I call her for the recipe she says “Recipe? Just add a little of this and a little of that, you know how it’s supposed to taste”. Sometimes she also says “I made those for you?”. I let that one slide though, since I’m the oldest of 10 grand kids and I assume some of my childhood memories seem pretty distant at this point haha.
More Mother’s Day Love:
Just want to say Happy Mother’s day to all of the amazing ladies in my life! To my awesome mother-in-law, aunts and friends, thanks for being such positive forces in my life and for being FANTASTIC moms! Also Happy Mother’s Day to all of the busy mom readers out there supporting my blog. THANKS SO MUCH!
On to the recipe:
Shisito peppers and shitake mushrooms aren’t foods I grew up eating since my mom only knew how to cook Jamaican food at that point. I distinctly remember being very against mushrooms as a kid because they’re FUNGUS. Really happy that I got over that little hiccup though! I love mushrooms now, especially shitakes. They have a very deep, almost beefy flavor. They taste especially delicious when they have a chance to form a golden crust.
Also, if you’ve never tasted shishito peppers, they’re a real treat. They have a slight bitterness and a slow heat that sort of gets you at the end. They aren’t overwhelming spicy though. My favorite way to cook these is to let them blister in the oven. The first time I tried these was on a mother daughter day trip to Philly. We saw Once the musical and had a yummy vegan meal at Vedge. The shishito peppers were perfectly charred and served with a cool dip.
If you’re looking for a twist on your everyday fried rice, this is it! It makes a great meatless meal or side dish. Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments!
Spicy Shishito Pepper and Shitake Mushroom Fried Rice
Rate this Recipe:Ingredients
- 2 cups brown rice (pre-cooked)
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 4 eggs
- 10 shishito peppers
- 8 oz shitake mushrooms
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs fresh ginger, grated
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1/8 cup soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 red bell peppers, sliced
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 2 tbs water
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add shisito peppers to one side of a lined baking sheet and shitake mushrooms to the other side. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Bake peppers and mushrooms for 10-15 minutes until blistered and golden. Remove stems and chop peppers (it's ok to leave the seeds in there).
- Whisk eggs with half of the chopped scallions. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat skillet or wok to medium high heat. Spray with cooking spray to coat the pan. Add eggs, scramble until cooked through about 2-3 minutes. Remove eggs from the pan.
- Add sesame oil, garlic, ginger and the rest of the scallions to the pan. Cook for 1 minute while lightly stirring. Add red peppers, carrots, brown rice, soy sauce, chopped shishito peppers, roasted shitake mushrooms, water and eggs to the pan. Stir it all around, so that the rice gets coated in the sauce. Enjoy!
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