Bacon and Shiso Fried Rice

Author Notes

I love the distinctive taste of shiso and got excited at the idea of pairing the flavor with bacon. The original recipe (which comes from an old Japanese cooking magazine) uses short-grain white rice. I prefer brown rice because it gives a nice hearty chew. Remember to use rice that’s been cooked and refrigerated for a day or more. Fresh rice will be too sticky and make it hard to incorporate the ingredients. For me, 2 days in the fridge is optimal because the rice has the right firmness. - HumbleBean —HumbleBean

Test Kitchen Notes

This dish is really bacon-and-eggs meets rice-and-shiso. Once they all mingle in a piping hot wok, you get crisp bits of bacon and rice, the egg pulls the ingredients together and the shiso tops it all off, singing with a licorice-mint fragrance. This may become our new home-alone meal. The dish serves just one, maybe two as a side. We preferred a plump, short-grain rice, like Arborio or sushi, to a long-grain rice. And HumbleBean's tip to use 2-day-old chilled rice is a good one. If your shiso leaves are large -- ours were the size of our palms -- use half the amount called for; and if you can't find shiso, substitute a combination of mint and basil. - A&M —The Editors