How to Make the Perfect Egg Fried Rice (炒饭)
If you want to learn how to cook few Chinese or Asian dishes, trying your hand at egg fried rice is a good start. It is an entree level dish without many ingredients or seasonings. It’s simple and fast to cook, only taking a few minutes. For best result your rice would need to be cooked already and be that left-over rice you did not finish the previous day and that you take out of the fridge. On the other hand, it is also a flexible dish to which you can add anything available in your fridge and any additional leftovers.
Delicious egg fried rice
Taiwanese and Japanese used the word “炒饭” refer to love making, or having sex
Table of Contents
1. The very basic version of egg fried rice
This is the simple “egg fried rice”, which simply consists of rice, egg and a bit spring onions and salt as seasonings. It should basically only take you few minutes to sort out this dish.
If you want to develop more of a gourmet version you can add cooked shrimp, chicken, beef, or sausages, leftover vegetables, and even fruits. It really depends on what are available in your house. Actually, there is a famous dish, pineapple fried rice in Thailand which is served in a halved pineapple skin; with small pieces of pineapple cubes, fried egg and prawns in the fried rice.
2. Don’t follow the BBC way to cook your egg-fried rice
Recently a lady working for the BBC, showed how she cooked her egg fried rice. Her way drew immediate negative comments from the Asian communities who criticised the way she handled the rice etc… Although every culture should cook an egg fried rice dish the way they want, there are better and more delicious ways than others. The egg fried rice recipe that I will provide will deliver just that.
3. Did you know?
3.1. Egg fried rice is a breakfast dish in China
In many Asian countries like China, egg fried rice is more of a breakfast dish rather than an evening one. Of course, people cook it any time they want, but since the culture use rice a lot in our diet it makes sense who you would find this dish in the morning along with rice congees for example.
3.2. Why is it so flavourful
One of the secrets of egg fried rice’s flavour lies in the use of pork lard as extra oil. Some people in China save the fat they gather from portion of the pork and use it to cook their egg fried rice. So, if you ever feel “wow that’s delicious I want more of it”, chances are the cook would have used the pork lard to give an extra boost of flavour into the dish.
3.3. For best result
As mentioned previously it’s better to use left over rice rather than freshly cooked one. Some unfinished rice you put in the fridge a day before would be ideal. The freshly steamed rice is very soft and sticky; and therefore, not ideal for the separation of grains you are looking for in your egg fried rice. The cold rice however becomes a bit hard and less sticky upon leaving it in the fridge for one day. When you remove your rice from the fridge, let it rest for a bit. You can use a big spoon to break-out any big lumps of rice.
4. Ingredients
For this simple egg fried rice your main ingredients will be for 3 portions:
– Left over Rice 200g (better than freshly cooked)
– 2 eggs
– 1 spring onion
– 2 Frankfurt sausage
– Cooked prawn
– Rice wine
– Oil
– Salt
– Pepper
5. Tips
Even if it’s such a simple dish, I would like to provide a few tips for the best result.
❣️ Use a wok instead of a shallow frying pan
It is much more convenient to stir and mix all the ingredients in a wok especially if you cook a big portion.
❣️ Note on your ingredients
Other than the egg, all the other ingredients shall be cooked before you add them into the wok;
Do not add soy sauce. Chinese like soy sauce and they tend to put it in many dishes. However, adding soy sauce is not an authentic way to cook egg fried rice. The colour and flavour of the soy sauce does not complement this dish. Simply, just add salt for seasoning.
❣️ Leftover rice
We mentioned that it is better to use your left-over rice rather that the freshly cooked rice. We want the rice grains to be able to separate quickly, and not be mushy. The leftover rice in the fridge will be the best for a fluffy result.
❣️ Lard for flavour
Add a bit of lard to the cooking oil, if you happen to have some. This will enhance the flavour and get you closer to the authentic chinese egg fried rice you would enjoy from any chinese street vendors, homes or restaurants. This is of course optional if you worry about your waist line.
5.1. First steps
– Slice your spring onions in small pieces and put into a bowl.
– Do the same for the sausages. By the way I cooked the most delicious and healthy hotdogs using these same kinds of sausages. You won’t feel ashamed anymore about eating hotdogs after watching my recipe.
– Break your eggs and put them in a separate bowl
Remove your shrimps from their package and put in another container.
5.2. Second steps
– Heat-up a wok on medium fire (if you don’t have one, check out my recommendation on the best one you could get. It won’t be a big investment since, after you discover the many benefits of using a wok, it will become part of your daily cooking utensils. Chinese use wok to cook breakfast, lunch, diner. And the best wok can last generations. One of the key benefits of a wok is that is allows you to manipulate your food more freely. The depth means that the food can be hot longer and you can add much more ingredients than say a flat pan. Moreover, you can both cook dishes that are dried (fried dishes) or liquid (soup, noodles etc..).
5.3. Third steps
– Heat-up a wok on medium fire (if you don’t have one, check out my recommendation on the best one you could get. It won’t be a big investment since, after you discover the many benefits of using a wok, it will become part of your daily cooking utensils. Chinese use wok to cook breakfast, lunch, diner. And the best wok can last generations. One of the key benefits of a wok is that is allows you to manipulate your food more freely. The depth means that the food can be hot longer and you can add much more ingredients than say a flat pan. Moreover, you can both cook dishes that are dried (fried dishes) or liquid (soup, noodles etc..).
5.4. Fourth steps
– Add 2 teaspoon of rice wine to your egg and beat the mixture
– Add cooking oil to the now heated wok.
– Add the eggs
– Quickly scramble the eggs.
– Break the eggs into small pieces
5.5. Fifth steps
– Add the cooked shrimps
– Add the sausages
– Add the spring onion and steer a bit. Once you feel the aroma of the spring onions coming out, add the rice
– Using a big spoon separate every grain of rice to get that fluffy style.
5.6. Extra
If you have some lard add it to your dish for typical chinese flavour.
5.7. Final ingredients
After few seconds (1 or 2 minutes) of steering your ingredients well, turn-off the fire and add a tea spoon of salt.
6. Rice and sex
In the end, I would like to share with you a few jargons related to the word “fried rice”(炒饭). At beginning, the Taiwanese and Japanese used the word “炒饭” refer to love making, or having sex. I think it is because of the movement of constant turning and steering when frying the rice led to the metaphor. Nowadays, among the whole Chinese society, people understood the meaning of this word when the occasion does not refer to the food itself.
7. 炒冷饭
Another jargon is 炒冷饭 (recook the cold fried rice), which means to talk about an old news or talk about something everybody already knew.
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