Fried Rice Like Mother Used To Make

I‘ve always enjoyed some good fried rice but, if you live anywhere like I do, it’s not always very easy to find a restaurant that put much care to this traditional dish.  A lot of places seem to believe that simply mixing rice, soy sauce, and sesame oil makes fried rice.  Maybe.  But that’s not how my mom made it when I was growing up.  This is why I typically choose white rice over the fried varieties in most restaurants.  Once in a while, I’d just make a big batch at home.  Homemade fried rice is actually very easy given you have the right tools and ingredients.

Ingredients:

8 c  Rice, cooked and refrigerated
4 ea  Bacon slices; cooked and chopped
1/2 lb  Shrimp; peeled
3 ea  Eggs, large
3-4 ea  Green Onions; chopped
1 ea  Onion, small; diced
12 oz  Mixed veggies – carrots, peas, green beans, corn; frozen until ready to use
2-3 clv  Garlic; minced

1 T  Thick soy sauce
3-4 T  Sesame oil
1-2 t  Butter
Soy sauce

Seasoning Salt:

1/2 T  black pepper; ground
1/2 T  garlic powder
1/2 T  kosher salt

Directions:

Cook your rice following instructions specified by your rice cooker.  Cool and refrigerate overnight… or 2-3 nights.

Before you start, get everything ready and within arms reach.  You’re should be working with extremely high heat.  You don’t want your ingredients to sweat much and you don’t want it to overcook.

In a hot wok, brown your butter with fresh garlic.

Remove the garlic, set aside (or further up the side of the wok). Pour in your eggs and scramble until just cooked but still wet/shiny.

Add onions, a pinch of seasoning salt, and a very light drizzle of sesame oil.  Saute until it just starts to turn translucent (about 2 minutes).

Add shrimps and a pinch of seasoning salt.  Mix until slightly pink (less than a minute).

Pile on the rice, thick soy sauce, about 3-4 tablespoons of regular soy sauce, sesame oil, the browned garlic, and a good helping of the dry seasoning (reserving about 1-2 teaspoons).  Mix well until you work out all the clumps and the rice is rather uniform in color.

Create a well in the center of the rice and pour in the frozen veggies.  Fold the rice over the veggies, cover, and allow to veggies to steam for about 3 minutes.  Depending on your pan or wok, you may need to slightly reduce the heat to not burn the rice.

Mix and add more soy sauce and seasoning mix to taste.

Continue cooking for about 3-4 minutes tossing occasionally.  If you are wanting to add more delicate vegetables like bean sprouts, add it a couple of minutes before you finish cooking. When it’s done, mix in the chopped bacon and green onions, and remove from heat.

Extra Notes and Rambles:

This is sometimes confusing in recipes so I’ll take the opportunity to clarify.  I listed 8 cups of cooked rice… which is about 2.5 cups uncooked.

Traditionally fried rice is made from cold leftover rice.  It provides a firmer texture and wont mush while cooking.  Depending on the rice that you use, you may not need to refrigerate it over night.  You can also substitute for brown rice if you’d like.  I use the classic Thai jasmine rice (long grain) but you can opt for anything from whole grain brown rice to Japanese short grain sushi rice (aka round-grain or pearl-grain).

Wok cooking, as with most Asian pan stir-fry cooking, requires extremely high heat and ultimate control over that heat.  That’s why the round, tapered walls of a wok on a high powered gas range is best.  I, unfortunately, currently have an electric range… so woks, even flat-bottom woks, don’t give me the control I want.  Then comes in the electric wok.  It’s the next best thing to a big thick wok on jet burners.  I currently own the Breville EW30XL and I’m pretty happy with it so far.

Tips:
When I make fried rice, I like to make a lot… so I end up cooking rice specifically for this meal instead of using leftover.  One trick that I like to do is to immediately spread the freshly cooked rice out on a long sheet of foil to cool.  Make sure it’s even and leave about an inch on the sides of the foil.  Once completely cooled, gently roll up the foil, close the sides, and set in the refrigerator over night.  Spreading it out on the foil will prevent it from collecting too much moisture and getting soggy.  It also provides for a clean and compact way to store the rice.  When you’re ready to use it, unroll the foil and crumble any large chunks of rice in your hands before transferring to your wok.

This particular recipe is fairly different from most restaurants’ as it won’t taste very “fried” at all.  The timing and technique is key.  The egg is cooked first so that it stays separated from the onions… you taste more egg and it stays as fluffy pieces instead of just remnants or an afterthought.  The onion is added second as it requires the most time of the remaining ingredient.  Slightly cooking the shrimp in the pan allows the flesh to tighten and pick up some salt before it’s covered and steamed by the rice.  The veggies are left frozen until cooking so that they won’t mush.  The ice also helps them get steamed in the rice instead of being cooked by the pan or oil.  The cooked bacon is added after the cooking is done so the rice doesn’t get greasy.  The green onions are added last to retain it’s crisp, fresh taste and is only softened slightly by the residual heat.  So really the eggs, onions, and rice gets fried… the rest of the ingredients are actually steamed.  The end result will be bolder flavors. It’s also a bit healthier.

If you want, you can also add more veggies like bean sprouts, broccoli, soy beans, zucchini, etc.