Aligue fried rice

Fried rice with crab fat folded through off the heat, so it coats rather than cooks.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains shellfish.

Ingredients

• 800 g cold cooked rice, grains separated
• 150 g crab fat
• 8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon calamansi juice
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 0.5 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. THE CRAB FAT GOES IN OFF THE HEAT. It is the one thing in the pan that must not fry: over direct heat it seizes into orange grains and goes bitter, and what you want is a glossy coat on every grain of rice. So the rice is fried first, the pan comes off, and the aligue is folded in last.
2. The rice must be cold and a day old, with the grains separated under your fingers. Warm rice makes porridge of any fried rice, and this one has a rich coating to carry.
3. Fry the garlic in the oil over a medium heat until pale gold, 2 to 3 minutes. Take half of it out onto paper to use as a topping.
4. Heat up to high. Rice in all at once. Press it flat, leave it 30 seconds, turn. Repeat for 4 minutes until it is hot all through and some grains have begun to toast.
5. Butter in, tossed through until just melted. Salt and pepper.
6. PAN OFF THE HEAT. Wait 30 seconds, then the crab fat in, folded through in long strokes until the rice is uniformly orange.
7. Calamansi juice over it, folded once. The acid is not optional -- aligue is very rich and without it the dish is heavy after three mouthfuls.
8. Reserved fried garlic and spring onion on top. Serve immediately; it is best in the first five minutes.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes