Pork-Fried Cauliflower Rice

I used to make fried rice with real rice when the kids were little.  I had an old recipe turn from a Canadian Living Magazine that used chicken in it, and the sauce was flavoured with ketchup, mustard and worchestershire sauce.  But we no longer eat rice, at least, rarely, and our taste buds are a lot more grown up now.

I've seen a lot of paleo-fied recipes for this, but since I always seem tweak every recipe I cook, thought I'd just make this one as I went along and it suited our tastes just perfect.  This was one of those "whatever I have on-hand" recipes and I didn't have anything fancy in the house, just cauliflower and leftovers and a few pantry staples.  I did, however, use soy sauce in the recipe.  I figure, if Mark Sisson uses the stuff, then so can I.  But if you want to be more paleo than primal, by all means, use coconut aminos and adjust for taste because that will make it sweeter.  I also used ham "flavour bombs" instead of chicken stock--I save the juices from the bottom of the crockpot and freeze them in ince cube trays, then collect and label them in ziplock bags in my freezer.  I just so happened to have leftover ham juices from the same ham I was using in this recipe.  But chicken stock works just fine if you don't do that kind of crazy stuff.

(Serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs of leftover meat--I love mine with leftover ham, but pork or chicken would be great, too
fat of choice for sauteeing (I used bacon fat because I love the flavor it adds)
1 head cauliflower
1-2 eggs
1/3 large spanish onion, chopped
1/2 small package button mushrooms (or get fancy, your choice!), chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
2-3 green onions, finely chopped
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sesame oil
2-3 tbs stock--preferably chicken but whatever you have on-hand.
salt and pepper to taste
handfull of sesame seeds for garnish, optional.

Directions:

Heat a large non-stick frypan over medium heat.  This is not a good job for a cast-iron frypan, so if you use one of those, do so at your own clean-up risk...  Chop onions and mushrooms into small pieces, and chop/shred meat into small bits.  Break cauliflower into small florettes and throw into food processor and pulse until cauliflower is broken into small rice-sized bits.  Its best to do this in several small batches and set "riced" cauliflower aside in a medium bowl.

In fat, saute onion and mushrooms until about halfway done, then add garlic and ginger, salt and pepper, stirring frequently so the garlic does not scorch.  When onions are almost translucent, add meat to heat through.  When meat is almost done re-heating, move it aside to create a little open frypan space and crack the egg(s) in and just scramble them right in the pan.  Then mix them into everything else.  Add green onions.  Then add cauliflower, soy sauce and chicken stock (flavour bombs)--these keep your cauliflower from scorching as it steams just a little bit al-dente.  Stir frequently.  It only takes a few minutes to steam that cauliflower so don't over-do it.  When it reaches a texture you like (and under-cooked is better than over-cooked), remove from heat.  Toss in sesame oil and stir to combine.  Taste and adjust with salt, pepper, and a splash more soy sauce, if necessary.  As you serve this onto plates, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

This re-heats pretty good next day, too.