Fried rice

Supercell

Anyone have nice recipes for this?, preferably using basmati or brown rice (more healthy)

I used to love this when gotten from a local chinese when I lived in Bray but never managed to create it right at home.

Faith

It'd be hard to recreate a Chinese takeaway recipe because you won't be adding all the additives and flavourings etc.

Fried rice is the most simple dish to make. Cook the rice, let it cool, whack it in a frying pan with some hot oil, stir, serve. To make egg fried rice, add an egg when the rice is nearly fried. Move the rice to one side, break in the egg. Let it set for a few moments, as if you were making a fried egg. Then stir the rice into it, cook for another few minutes and you're done. Add what you like to the rice: vegetables, meat, etc. I like to add onion, peppers, sweetcorn, garlic, maybe some bacon. Stir fry them all together.

Jack Sheehan

+1 on the basmati, I actually prefer it to ordinary rice and its much healthier. Can't abide the brown stuff though.

AARRRGH

Unrelated but funny story: a friend of mine was in a Chinese restaurant when he overheard one of the waiters advising a customer (possibly a friend of the restaurant, I don't know) that "fried rice just old boiled rice".

There you go!

Supercell

Faith wrote: »

It'd be hard to recreate a Chinese takeaway recipe because you won't be adding all the additives and flavourings etc.

Fried rice is the most simple dish to make. Cook the rice, let it cool, whack it in a frying pan with some hot oil, stir, serve. To make egg fried rice, add an egg when the rice is nearly fried. Move the rice to one side, break in the egg. Let it set for a few moments, as if you were making a fried egg. Then stir the rice into it, cook for another few minutes and you're done. Add what you like to the rice: vegetables, meat, etc. I like to add onion, peppers, sweetcorn, garlic, maybe some bacon. Stir fry them all together.

Thanks Faith, the egg bit sounds good (and more healthy too), I'll try adding one next time I give it a whirl, could be the missing ingredient!

Alun

The bit about using cold, cooked rice seems to be important. In fact, it seems to work better with left-over rice that's been sitting in the fridge for a day than with rice you cook specially for the occasion. I think that it's down to the grains being drier and as a result you don't get the slightly mushy effect you get if you use 'fresher' rice.

Jack Sheehan

Alun wrote: »

The bit about using cold, cooked rice seems to be important. In fact, it seems to work better with left-over rice that's been sitting in the fridge for a day than with rice you cook specially for the occasion. I think that it's down to the grains being drier and as a result you don't get the slightly mushy effect you get if you use 'fresher' rice.

Yes I've definitely heard this somewhere else. Only thing is the one time you're arsed to make it always happens to be the time when you don't have any in the fridge.

Supercell

Alun wrote: »

The bit about using cold, cooked rice seems to be important. In fact, it seems to work better with left-over rice that's been sitting in the fridge for a day than with rice you cook specially for the occasion. I think that it's down to the grains being drier and as a result you don't get the slightly mushy effect you get if you use 'fresher' rice.

Interesting and fits in with what dublindude was saying about it too.
I'll cook up a batch of rice tonight and bung in the fridge and try cooking it from cold tomorrow.

jdivision

I do peas with it and from frozen so just throw them in first then add rice and oil. But don't use olive oil!!!

The Sweeper

Cook enough rice for however many people are eating. Do not overcook the rice. Salt it just before draining the hot water, stir it to mix the salt in. Then drain. When drained, fluff a little with a fork and then rinse in cold water - leave it sitting in cold water if you have to. You have to stop it cooking and cool it down. When it's cold, strain it and leave it to one side to dry off. (This is assuming you don't have enough cold rice in the fridge from yesterday to make your fried rice.)

I make mine using peanut oil, eggs and sliced spring onions - and a non-stick pan!! This is miles easier if you use a non-stick pan. Heat oil in the pan - a good glug. Add the cold rice to the hot oil and start stir frying it. When the rice is heated through, add one beaten egg per person - move the rice to one side, add the egg to the pan. Let it set for a minute or two, like scram, then start stirring the rice through. Continue to stir the rice, turning it over, to mix the egg through thoroughly and cook it. The rice will start to become fluffy, golden, eggy goodness. A minute before serving, start stirring through the chopped spring onions so they wilt a little. Then serve.

Ways people get it wrong:

1. Using just-boiled, still-warm rice. Welcome to the world of stodge.
2. Soy sauce. There is no soy sauce in egg fried rice. None. Zip. Don't add it. Move away from the bottle.
3. Not stirring the rice. If you don't stir the rice, you get crusty, crispy rice on the bottom. Crunchietastic. Blugh.
4. Adding the egg to rice that isn't hot enough. The rice has to be heated through, the egg needs to be beaten first - if you add egg to cool rice you'll get egg-fried-salmonella. (Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but you'll end up with a greasy, unappetising mess that doesn't seem to cook, instead of the fluffy marvellousness you should have.)
5. Believing that all cooking is one-pot-cooking. If you want vegetable fried rice, try stirfrying vegetables in a separate wok or pan at the same time as making your egg fried rice. Then combine both items at the end. It's really okay to cook things that take different times and methods in separate pans before throwing them together (though the person who does the washing up may not think so.)

CodeMonkey

Longfield wrote: »

Anyone have nice recipes for this?, preferably using basmati or brown rice (more healthy)

Can't imagine brown rice tasting nice when used in fried rice and chinese people don't really use basmati rice. Don't see why you can't use basmati though if you really want to.

Faith wrote: »

It'd be hard to recreate a Chinese takeaway recipe because you won't be adding all the additives and flavourings etc.

What additives and flavourings? One big difference in how fried rice is made in a restaurant and takeaway is the stir frying equipment and method. The cooker produces a massive amount of heat and super heats the wok very fast. Oil is poured into the wok and when it starts to smoke then scrambled egg is add and then rice. It's constantly tossed and stirred in the high heat to make sure it doesn't stick to the wok. The smoking oil before cooking starts and stir frying in high heat gives an aroma you can't produce in home cooking. That's why they taste so much nicer.

Read up on the term wok hay if you are interested. It's one of the secrets of why your home made stir fry will never taste like a proper stir fry from a good restaurant. Most asian home cooks stir fry in a similar manner at home. Kitchens are usually very well ventilated. http://www.graceyoung.com/excerptsBreath.html

I like to add onion, peppers, sweetcorn, garlic, maybe some bacon. Stir fry them all together.

Like Minesajackdaniels said, stir fry them seperately. You can stir fry them first, set them aside on a plate and use the same pan/wok to fry the rice and then add them back in.

Yes, always use cold cooked rice. Fried rice is just what chinese people do with left over boiled rice.

Mellor

Longfield wrote: »

Anyone have nice recipes for this?, preferably using basmati or brown rice (more healthy)

Im not trying to be smart here but I did have a little smile at the fact you wanted basmati or brown rice to be heathly when you were going to go and fry it :D:D.

Zapho

I'd agree with what a few of you have said, its better with cold rice, thats been left in the fridge. Dunno why. Maybe because its less soggy or something.

And Mellor, the very act of frying isn't bad for you....its what you fry and what you fry it in. Frying rice in olive oil isn't a whole lot different than boiling rice.
Although if you add an egg, then thats different!

(CH3)2CHOH

I use a garlic and ginger flavoured stir fry vegatable oil. Only a small amount in pan.

Then I add a garlic clove and half a finely chopped onion. Cook slowly for 3 -4 minutes.

Then I whack up the heat and add in finely chopped spring onions, carrots, peppers, mange tout, sugar snaps etc...

Then when the tempratue is up again I add the cold rice a bit at a time, salt, pepper and some crushed chillies.

Next I'll throw in some frozen pea's and some fresh sweetcorn. Then add a dash of oyster sauce.

As soon as the peas (2mins) are cooked it's into a bowl and served.

you have to keep stirring all the time and add the ingredients in slowly so as not to cool down the pan (non stick).


It's not traditional fried rice ( take away ) but it's tasty and healthy.

Zapho

(CH3)2CHOH wrote: »

I use a garlic and ginger flavoured stir fry vegatable oil. Only a small amount in pan.

Then I add a garlic clove and half a finely chopped onion. Cook slowly for 3 -4 minutes.

Then I whack up the heat and add in finely chopped spring onions, carrots, peppers, mange tout, sugar snaps etc...

Then when the tempratue is up again I add the cold rice a bit at a time, salt, pepper and some crushed chillies.

Next I'll throw in some frozen pea's and some fresh sweetcorn. Then add a dash of oyster sauce.

As soon as the peas (2mins) are cooked it's into a bowl and served.

you have to keep stirring all the time and add the ingredients in slowly so as not to cool down the pan (non stick).


It's not traditional fried rice ( take away ) but it's tasty and healthy.

Sounds good! Although I'm not a fan of peas...

I usually beat the egg first, then fry it on the pan, similar to scrambled egg. I throw in the rice when the egg is nearly done. If I add onion, I chop it up really fine, and throw it in at the last second, so its barely cooked. Adds a bit of zing!