Fried rice is no longer a traditional Asian dish; it has become a regular food in most countries. People have made their representation of fried rice with local ingredients.
The concept of fried rice remains the same; that is to say, the base ingredients and cooking techniques have not changed.
Rice, meat, vegetables, eggs, and soy sauce are the perfect blank canvas to add whatever ingredient you want. So, not only does each country have a version of fried rice, but most houses have their family recipe. There is no unique fried rice dish.
Get some inspiration
The traditional fried rice comes from China. It is a fluffy rice bowl with a balanced taste due to pork, shrimp, carrots, peas, and eggs seasoned with soy sauce.
Thanks to the blank flavor of rice, this recipe allows you to include any ingredient. For example, American fried rice is a Thai dish with American side components. It contains traditional fried rice accompanied by fried chicken, ham or fried bacon, hot dogs, raisins, and ketchup.
In the Caribbean, fried rice includes shrimp, beef, or chicken, seasoned with jerk sauce or Worcestershire sauce. The common vegetables in this dish are scallion, sweet peas, sweet peppers, and onions.
Portuguese fried rice contains caramelized chorizo, tomato paste, peas, onion, eggs, and black olives.
Making fried rice
They all sound tempting. You can look for a recipe and cook some of them. There are also delicious and pretty easy-to-make recipes like fried rice and shrimp or egg fried rice.
For preparing true fried rice, you cannot change the base ingredients and the cooking method. Remember all fried rice must include the following components:
- Rice: Long grain is the best choice for fried rice. Restaurants cook with jasmine rice. It creates a fluffier texture with separate grains that do not clump. For the perfect fried rice, use cold and one-day-old pre-cooked or leftover rice. It will help with the dry texture needed for frying and does not make the rice turn out mushy. If you cannot make rice in advance, cook fresh rice and refrigerate it for a few hours before preparing the fried rice.
- Vegetables: Common vegetables are diced carrots, green peas, and chopped green onions.
- Meat: Traditional fried rice includes pork and shrimp. Other recipes have ham, chicken, or beef. There are vegan and vegetarian versions with tofu, mushrooms, beans, or only vegetables.
- Eggs: You cannot miss beaten eggs in fried rice.
- Cooking method: All fried rice involves a quick stir-fry of all ingredients. For making it right, you have to use a wok, large pan, or skillet with enough hot oil. The size of the work will let the ingredients heat up evenly and quickly. In addition, it will be easier to toss them without falling out of the wok.
Try not to cook too many ingredients at the same time. They will turn soggy causing the rice to clump together. To avoid this, you can cook each ingredient separately and then combine them in the final.
A secret for the perfect fried rice is to have all the ingredients ready before starting to fry. It means washes, measured, and chopped.
Creating your own version
With all this in mind, make it simple. It would be more satisfying to make fried rice with your preferred ingredients. Try with a few ingredients, if you like the result, include more ingredients.
Let’s start cooking with this basic recipe. It does not have any meat, only eggs, garlic, and scallions. Customize it and add other vegetables and some meat
Egg fried rice
- 3 cups cold cooked long-grain rice.
- 2 beaten eggs.
- 1½ tablespoons of oil.
- 2 minced cloves of garlic.
- 1 chopped stalk scallion.
- 1 teaspoon of soy sauce.
- ½ teaspoon of sesame oil.
- Salt to taste.
- Ground white pepper to taste.
- In a big wok, pour 1 tablespoon of oil and heat at high temperature.
- Add the eggs and scramble them. When the bottom starts to set, take it out of the wok and reserve.
- Add more oil and incorporate garlic and rice. Stir very well.
- Return the scrambled eggs to the wok. Add the scallions. Continue frying. In this step, you can include other vegetables and meat.
- Add soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and white pepper.
- Give a final stir.
- Serve with scallions at the top.
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