Yesterday I thought I’d attempt to make homemade fried rice. Recipe was:
Went home at lunch, diced a few pork chops, and mixed the pieces with sriracha, hoisin, and a splash of soy and a pinch of salt. Put that in the fridge.
That evening:
I chopped some asparagus, a red pepper, and an onion. Set aside.
grated some ginger, chopped garlic. Set aside.
Cooked a cup of rice. When it was done, I mixed in the garlic and ginger.
Heated up the pan. Cooked the pork.
Pushed the meat to the side, added some oil, and the put the veggies in, stirring regularly.
Added rice, along with a generous splash of oil and soy sauce. Stir regularly, mixing in the meat and veggies.
It was super delicious, and apparently it is as simple as its name implies. But the rice was very wet and I got a lot of rice/starch stuck to the bottom of the pan. Next time I might try cooking the rice with less water than I usually do. Also, a number of take out places I know have very yellow rice. Do they add tumeric or something?
Cook the rice ahead, or buy it already cooked from a Chinese restaurant. The local, family owned place we frequent sells us a huge container of cooked white rice for $2. We had to twist their arm to be charged anything.
Either annatto or turmeric. An expensive place (not Chinese takeout) may have yellow rice colored with saffron.
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One thing that can help with the rice sticking: add butter to the bottom of the pan the way a lot of hibachi restaurants do. I know butter is not authentic to Chinese cuisine, but the flavor comes out wonderfully. A mix of butter and a little bit of sesame oil keeps the rice well coated so that it won’t stick … and the sesame oil imparts more of a Chinese restaurant flavor than you’d get with butter alone.
Frozen peas, snow peas, celery, green onions, are essentials for my fried rice. ( I usually add bean sprouts as well, or some shredded cabbage if I don’t have any. ) Also an egg, scramble / fried in wok first, then set aside, to be added again last, adds wonderful colour and is very yummy!
And I always garnish with chopped, fresh, coriander/cilantro.
The day old rice thing is a must though, the rest is just suggestions for other ingredients to throw in if you have them at hand. Also it will keep a couple of days in the fridge, and microwaves a charm!