fried rice

I'm having some fried rice right now. It tastes very good.

Fried rice is a representative Chinese dish, at least in the old days. It has rice, it uses stir fry, it is cooked in the Cantonese style. I have heard people use fried rice as a symbol of Chinese cooking. While there are literally thousands of other Chinese dishes out there, fried rice may very well be the first thing that comes to some peoples' minds when the word Chinese cooking is mentioned.

Fried rice is always good, because you can toss just about anything in it and it will still taste good. I never eat it with soy sauce, because I think it ruins the taste sometimes. Never fry it for too long, or it will be burnt (like toast) and taste horrible. I eat it with tea or coke.

There is no set recipe, because this dish is so very flexible. However, these are my favorite ingredients.

Scrambled eggs

Peas

Roasted pork (cha siu, or Chinese BBQ pork works well)

Shrimp

Scallions

You can also have Chinese sausage, chicken, ginger, vegetables, or anything else you may fancy. Just make sure you add it at the right time, or some of the stir fried ingredients will be over-cooked and some under-cooked. This is the template for fried rice.

Some cooked rice (4 cups or so), cold

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Some oil

Here's how to cook it:

Heat up the oil, add some ginger to sweeten, if desired. Stir-fry the cold rice until the grains are seperated. Then add the salt and peas, then stir fry some more. Toss in everything else, depending on the degree that those ingredients need to be cooked. For example, frozen peas need more time than already cooked meat, and scallions go last. Anyways, toss it around a bit, and serve it up. Don't heat it for too long. This dish can usually be prepared very quickly, as rice doesn't take too long to burn.

East to cook, tastes great. An excellent lunch dish.

Source: original experiment
Preparation time: Under 10 minutes
Cooking time: About 25 minutes
Yield: Four entrees or eight side servings

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups Botan (long-grain) rice, uncooked
• 1/4 pound meat (chicken, beef, pork, or shrimp), uncooked
• Vegetables, to taste (see below for suggestions)
• 1 egg (optional)

Cooking instructions

1. Prepare the rice as directed on the package (typically combine rice with 2 cups water, boil for one minute, cover and simmer for 20)
2. When rice is halfway done, heat up a wok, add some oil, put in meat, (thin-sliced or diced), cover with soy sauce, cook thoroughly.
3. Add vegetables to meat. Stir-fry.
4. When rice is done cooking, add to vegetables and meat. Stir-fry.
5. (optional) Scramble the egg. Pour it atop the rice. Stir-fry.
6. Serve.

Suggested vegetables:

Choose a few of the following, but not so many that they overwhelm the rice:

• Bean sprouts
• Water chestnuts
• Bok choi
• Green onion
• Baby corn
• Snow peas (preferrably in the pod)

Suggested flavorings:

• Minced garlic
• Chili paste
• Grated ginger
• Sri-Racha (hot sauce)

Typically, I like having either chili paste + minced garlic or minced garlic + grated ginger. I always like having a bit of Sri-Racha for additional flavoring at the table, but tastes vary widely and it's easy to spoil the whole batch by accidentally putting in too much.

CloudStrife Fried Rice

This is my own recipe, and is mainly based on ingredients I found lying around my kitchen. As DMan mentions above, "you can toss just about anything in it and it will still taste good", so this is what I generally do. Another reason this dish is so versatile is that it can be made practically vegetarian; except for the eggs. I personally feel that the dish just isn't the same without the egg in it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of long-grain rice
• 2 eggs
• 1 onion
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 2 rashers of bacon (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
• 1 teaspoon Aromat seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice
• 1/2 teaspoon Allspice
• 1 tablespoon Worcester Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Red Wine Vinegar
• 4 - 5 mushrooms
• Some cooking oil
• A drop of milk

Method:

1. First, put the rice in a saucepan with the turmeric, half the Aromat and half the worcester sauce. Cover with boiling water, and alow to simmer.
2. In the meantime, beat the two eggs with the Allspice, half the Soy sauce, and a drop of milk. I sometimes add about 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder to the egg as well, but it's hardly essential. Heat some oil in a pan, and throw the egg mixture in. Stir the egg mixture constantly, to avoid it sticking, and to ensure it's thoroughly cooked. When all the egg mixture is fairly solid, take it off the heat; I usually empty it onto a spare plate, and keep it under the grill.
3. Chop up the onion, garlic and bacon. Then, heat some more oil in the pan, and throw the lot in, with the aromat, paprika, five spice and the rest of the Worcester sauce. Stir fry the lot until they're cooked. When the onion is nearing translucency, chop up your mushrooms and throw them in as well.
4. Once the rice is cooked to your liking, drain it and throw it and the egg mixture into the same pan as the onions, garlic and so forth. Add the rest of the soy sauce and the red wine vinegar, and stir-fry the lot for a few minutes.
5. Now, enjoy your CloudStrife Fried Rice!

Other Ideas:
Other tasty ingredients to add include chopped peppers, spring onions (aka scallions), prawns, chopped carrot; anything you fancy yourself, basically. Proper Chinese vegetables, like bean sprouts, oriental mushrooms or bamboo shots would make an excellent addition. Schwarz do an excellent Chinese five-spice mixture, as well as a nice garlic ginger and chili powder, which is a lot more convenient than buying raw ginger, chillies, etc., yourself. Especially when you come home from work hungry and just want something tasty and filling without too much fiddling around.

You can eat this as an accompaniment to chops or grilled chicken breasts, or as a meal itself, if you added about a pound of prawns, pork, chicken or whatever meat/meat substitute you like most, and some extra soy sauce. The amounts listed above should provide two to three servings as a side dish.

Fried Rice à la Ichiro2k3

I present to you my fried rice recipe. Personally, I think it's pretty good. Remember, though: The most important thing is to be creative! Don't like an ingredient? Take it out! Don't have one? You can substitute it! In particular, you won't have many problems substituting dried spices for fresh ones. The world would be boring without variety, yes? That said, let's start out with the ingredients. For the most part, these are things you'll find in your kitchen. Sorry these measurements aren't precise, because I don't really measure when I cook. Find the amounts you like.

• ~4 cups cooked leftover rice (it can be fresh too, but leftover is better)
• 3 scallions
• 3 garlic cloves
• Cilantro—The restaurant's secret for that je ne sais quoi
• Canola oil
• Shoyu, also known as Japanese soy sauce (I like Kikkoman the best)
• 3 eggs
• (Optional) Meat of your choosing (I like crabmeat, but use what you have)

  The fun part: The recipe

  1. Before you start, peel the garlic cloves and such, and mince them (or use a garlic press). Chop the scallions, but discard the floppy green part (Wasteful, perhaps, but no one likes that part; trust me). You don't want to burn your eggs preparing the flipping garlic and scallions, do you?
  2. Get a large frying pan. Put a generous helping (maybe a quarter-cup?) of canola oil in there, and heat the pan on high. Also put a drop of water in there (keep it away from the oil). When the water sizzles, your oil will be hot enough.
  3. Put the eggs in. Scramble them (Just break the yolks with a spatula; don't get too anal about it). They ought to fry quickly. Break them into small pieces.
  4. Add more oil (a lot of it will have cooked into your eggs). Put the scallions and garlic into the oil. Allow them to cook for a while; this will spread them throughout the dish via their oils. Not too long, though, because the eggs will burn eventually. Also, if you have meat you want to add, especially if it isn't already cooked, now is the time.
  5. Add the rice. Break it up, as it will certainly stick. Put in a generous helping of soy sauce (Always remember you can always add more but can never take away any, although much of the saltiness will cook out). You might want to add a bit more oil. Now stir everything with your spatula, spreading evenly the soy, scallions, garlic, and meaty bits. If you put in enough soy, the rice should take on a light brown color. Continue tending to the rice so it is evenly heated. This shouldn't take much more than, oh, eight minutes.
  6. Taste it. You'll have to use your discretion to figure out what it needs here, but if you think the flavor's a little weak, I recommend adding more soy.
  7. At this point, if you're satisfied, strain any excess oil, and serve. Be adventurous; try eating it with chopsticks.