Negi to tamago no shami chaahan / fried rice with green onions, egg and shami dried shrimp

A quick fried rice with minimal ingredients. One of my standard lunches when there is leftover plain rice.

<Ingredients>

(Serves 1)

1 bowl steamed rice (warm, cold or frozen)
1 egg
4-5 green onions
1 tbsp shami Chinese dried shrimp
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil (not in photo)
Salt & pepper, to taste (not in photo)


<Directions>
1.

Add a small amount of water to shami, and microwave for 15-20 seconds.
When sufficiently cool, remove entrails. (Save liquid.)

2.

Chop shami, thinly slice green onions, and lightly beat egg.

3.

In a frying pan, heat sesame oil, and saute shami until somewhat crispy.

Add green onions, saute until somewhat soft, add some salt and pepper, and mix well.

4.

Add rice, and mix well while breaking apart rice grains with a spatula.

Swirl in shami rehydrating liquid (up to 1 tbsp) and soy sauce, and mix well.

5.

Make a space in the center, pour egg, quickly stir to cook, and mix with rice.

6.

Serve with extra black pepper (optional).

<Notes>

• When rice is very cold or frozen, first microwave to heat it up (warming is enough; rice does not need to be steaming hot). This makes it easier to fluff up while cooking.
• Rehydrating shami is optional; if using small shami or if you do not care about entrails, you can skip this step and chop them up. Sauteing non-rehydrated shami makes them very crunchy and the flavor very intense. Make sure to taste a piece of shami together with rice before adding any more salt at the end. Fried shami does not effectively release its saltiness to surrounding ingredients, and tasting shami without rice and adding salt could make the dish super salty.
• Sakura ebi and chirimenjako can substitute for shami. Use them without rehydrating.
• Egg can be cooked in any spare space in the pan. There is no special reason to make a well. Pushing rice to one side and cooking egg in the open area works just fine.
• Fried rice is normally made with leftover steamed rice as a way of finishing it up.