Dinner at a Japanese steak house, and I have been charged with discovering what ingredient cause the fried rice to taste smoky.
Toasted sesame oil?
Smoke
[Marty Feldman]Then it would be smoked rice, then, wouldn’t it? [/Marty Feldman]
More seriously, I second the toasted sesame seed oil. It has a definite smokiness to it. I love it.
I use sesame seed oil in rice, but it doesn’t taste smoky. Does one toast the oil, or but oil made from toasted sesame seeds?
Could it be black bean paste? It imparts kind of a sweet, smoky flavor (I never saw them add that, though). I’m thinking it’s just a function of being cooked at high heat on a teppanaki grill or something.
The seeds are roasted, much like coffee beans, and then are pressed. The oil is dark and smoky and you use it as a condiment, not as a cooking oil. You only need a few drops to impart a rich, smoky flavor in your dish.
I’m betting on heat. Specifically, an extremely hot wok in which to cook the fried rice. You get a smoky flavor from almost charring the rice as it cooks in the very hot oil and wok. There’s a term for this “wok hey”; not sure of the Chinese translation or what have you.
Not being able to do it at home is why I don’t try to make fried rice myself. I go to the places where I know they can produce the smoky, well cooked but not burned quality I look for in fried rice.
Yeah; unless you have a commercial grade stove or something, you can’t replicate that high heat.
You can wok cook over lump hardwood in your grill though, and that will get you the same result. It’s the heat.
Yeah, plus maybe an outdoor gas burner would work, too. Just not your regular kitchen stove.
Man, this is making me want to rig up some kind of hot ass wok thing!
Alton Brown came up with a great idea for super high heat which I suppose would work great with a single-handle wok: cook directly over a charcoal starter chimney. He used this technicque to sear fresh tuna and said it was like cooking over a jet engine; which I’m sure it would be. Just don’t knock it over or else “you got problems.”
Around here you can buy both toasted sesame seed oil and regular sesame seed oil at the grocery. I would think the toasting must be done before the oil extraction; otherwise, at best, you’re just going to wind up with scorched sesame oil. At worst, you’re going to need a fire extinguisher.
Now that gives me an idea - hmmmmmmmm…