Fried rice, oriental style

[Blackwater]

Who has good directions for good, oriental fried rice recipes, with shrimp, pork, chiken or whatever? I love the stuff. I have to limit my rice intake to a reasonable amount now, which is much less than I'd like to eat, but it's really good stuff (to my taste ant least) and I've never made any bad ones, but I can't help but believe I'm missing something. How do you folks do it?

Oriental cooking has always been a real treat to me. I love the way they use spices and complex combination. of subtle flavors. Anybody got any recipes? This isn't a complex dish, usually, or doesn't have to be, but I suspect some here have their own ways to individualize and "spice up" a simple recipe like this. Would very much like to hear it.

[Greg S]

Uh, just made some last night.

Reduced fat/salt Spam or some protien chopped/diced up. I usually make a batch of the chinese bbq pork and use it but, I was hungry so... If you use raw meat, dust with corn starch andnstir fry real quick. Set aside.
3-4 green onions chopped up
2 eggs scrambled, set aside. Ya want them done, kinda dry.

Other veges you deem appriopriate, peas, carrot, bean sprouts, bk choy ect...
Soy sauce. Look for a lower sodium malty type. Kikoman is too salt sharp. I've been using Lee Kum Kee lately and it is definetly better than Kikoman. Also try Yamasa. A jap style made in Salem OR. Kinda like a fi e wine compaired to Kiko....
Half a yeller onion chopped.
Day old rice, room temp. I prefer jasmine.

Now, there is two flavors, american chinese which is kinda smokey tasting or just ho-made fried rice. To get the A erican Chinese I use peanut oil and get it hot to were it starts to smoke. If regular just some Canola..

Add your onions and sweat them a minute or two and add your rice. Not lumps, broken up and fluffed. Stir vigerously till hot. Sometimes It drys out alittle and I have to add alittle water and steam the rice alittle. Add some soy sauce to taste and stir well and the remainder of ingredients minus the green onions. Heat through and serve. Toss green onions on top, you want the fresh, sharp and crunchie.

I think the biggest thing is cold fluffed rice, oh and a teflon pan.

ANd no, I'm of Italian decent.

[472x1B/A]

Your answer is Thai fish sauce. Most versions of fried rice does not have soy sauce in it. I know because I have been married to two different Thai women and lived with a Phillipino family for two years. Never once did I see any soy sauce added while making fried rice. Soy sauce is used as a condiment, there on the table as we use salt and pepper here in the U.S..

If you must use soy sauce try light colored sauce as it will not change the color too much. For a different look try some curry powder (not all curry powders are hot) but not too much, just enough to change the color. We have used all the ingredients listed above but always go back to 'hamburger' for meat, carrots diced very small, long green onions sliced, and bean sprouts, and scrambled eggs (one egg per person) fried well.

Steam rice the day be for and let it dry out some (can be put in the refrigerator). Cook hamburger till done. Throw in the carrots. Add rice and turn turn turn. You will have to add what ever oil you wish to us to taste. Add fish sauce to taste, any where from a teaspoon to 2-4 table spoons, again this is up to you. Keep turning all the time. Just be for you think it is done add the onions and bean sprouts, and scrambled eggs, turn everything a few more times to blend the last three items and it's time to eat.

Been doing it this way for going on 25 years now and always get great raves. YMMV

P S : Try adding some cilantro, it will add a new taste and color.

[Artful]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP8cDLjG-s4

[MaryB]

Yup the fish sauce is key, and the stuff smells like it is rotted! But it adds a background flavor that is part of the cooking from the area.

[Greg S]

Funny you should mention fish sauce...lol. When I was reaching in the cabinet to get the soy sauce I had to move a bottle of fish sauce outta the way and said, self, I wonder what that would be like with fish sauce, LOL. Just put up some rice on the stove and started some chinese BBQ Pork. Too funny. Thanks guys n gal, I'll give it a spin tomorrow.

[Blackwater]

Thanks, guys. I've got to get some of that fish sauce. I've used oyster sauce in trying to make beef n' broccoli, and it came out pretty good. I need to learn the right proportions of everything. Taste and estimations will only get you so far, and I'm learning a lot.

Made some shrimp and ham fried rice today and the wife really liked it, but it was with soy as above stated, and it was the country boy version 'cause that's what I wanted today. I'll be trying some of this soon, I think. This is the kind of dish that just sets right on the stomach in cold weather, without being too heavy on it. And sometimes, that's a really good thing.

I'm nowhere as good a cook as many here seem to be, but I'm learning and anxious to learn more. What's life without a challenge, right?

[Rustyleee]

Some hinted at it before, but to be to the point the BIG SECRET to good fried rice is to use leftover rice from the day before. If you use today's rice it fresh rice it just won't turn out right.

[NavyVet1959]

The pot / wok that you cook it in needs to be very hot. It's best when the rice starts to pop like popcorn. Unless you are cooking it on your 50-100K BTU smelting pot burner, you should probably stay away from the thin woks that you see being sold. Go with a cast iron wok or even a cast iron skillet. They are large enough that they can soak up a lot of heat and then when you put the rice in them, they don't lose as much heat. If the temperature goes down, you're not stir frying, you're just steaming / simmering the rice.

Each culture does their fried rice differently. There is a definitely difference in Cantonese fried rice vs fried rice from Taiwan. I suspect that there is even a difference in fried rice from Taiwan depending upon whether the cook's family was from Taiwan or from China when Chang Kai Shek came over. Probably different than the aboriginal Taiwanese also. I never was that crazy about Filipino fried rice -- probably because my main experience with it was from the Filipino cooks in the Navy. I prefer Cantonese since that is the first one I ever tasted, so I compare every other one to that one. It was a Chinese restaurant near where I used to work that had a homemade bread for an appetizer. Only Chinese restaurant that I have ever encountered that had that.

[MaryB]

My flat bottom wok does a pretty good job on my 24k BTU stove burner... I use it often enough that it has a very good carbon seasoning coating and is almost non-stick.

[Greg S]

Well, tried some fish sauce. I guess I'm after a different style as NV said. Going to try 50/50 fish and soy sauce next go around but need to stop at the market and get some green onions, kirfer lime and thai basil for another dish.

As NV said, a smoking hot wok adds that flavor.

[NavyVet1959]

As NV said, a smoking hot wok adds that flavor.

I use a Lodge 10.5" deep skillet and heat it to the point where the oil (or lard) starts to smoke before putting the items in it to stir fry.

https://www.lodgemfg.com/deep-skillets/10-25-inch-cast-iron-deep-skillet.asp

This allows it to be used on a normal BTU gas range burner, but you need to not try to cook too large of a batch. When you start out, you're converting the water in the ingredients into steam and there is a major BTU loss there. The large cast iron skillet allows you to store a lot of BTUs in there, but they can be used up faster than the heat source can put them back in, resulting in a pot that is cooling. It can cool far enough that you're just steaming / sauteing the ingredients instead of frying them. If that happens, remove the ingredients, let the heat build up again, and then try again, but with smaller batches.

Many of the gas cooktops / ranges might only have a 5000-9000 BTU burner, so storing the heat in a high mass object like a heavy cast iron pot is important. With your typical electric heating element, you have even less BTUs available to you. If you cooktop / range is fairly new, there's a chance it might have more BTUs available since a lot of the manufacturers are adding a higher BTU burner for wok cooking or whatever. Still, the cooktops that exceed 18K BTUs are not that many.

To give you an idea of what the restaurants use, check out this one:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/suffixitem/885SR24CSS/NAT.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CjwKEAiAw4e1BRDfi7vghaWU9jESJACzo9jutP0iVO-ULSAUHLFCSWotbh8rYhcVgQIu37ZNm29MfBoCieHw_wcB

137K BTUs...

[472x1B/A]

^^^ Spot on again NV. Got to use high heat and cook fast. That's how they do it. ( 137K BTUs, now that's cookin there )

[MaryB]

But they also use woks about 5 times the size of a typical home wok so need the extra heat! My wok will make 2 servings max so I can get it back to temp faster. And it really shines making a single serving of stir fry for myself!

[NavyVet1959]

But they also use woks about 5 times the size of a typical home wok so need the extra heat! My wok will make 2 servings max so I can get it back to temp faster. And it really shines making a single serving of stir fry for myself!

On the other hand, they are usually cooking for one person's order.

[Blackwater]

Navy Vet, I should have figured you'd know a lot about this, given your experience. Thanks for the insights, and I think you're right about those modern cooking ranges. We're all electric here, and I really miss having a real flame to cook on. I guess it's a "guy thing?" I also hate the smell of propane, so .... it's always gonna' be a compromise for me, one way or the other, I guess.

One of the great things about traveling is the wondrous variety of foods and the ways they're prepared all around the world. It sure broadens a man's views, AND his appetite! And some foods raised in differing areas just taste different, largely due to the chemistry in the soil, I think. I know my time in Japan was a wonder to me when it came to the eating. Didn't like everything, but some of it was a revelation to an old country boy like me. I usually think of fried rice dishes as a sort of oriental "comfort food," and that's pretty much how it works for me, and in cold weather like we're having now, it really hits the spot, but isn't too heavy feeling afterward - a best of all possible worlds situation in many ways. And when we can control the taste to our liking .... well, it puts a big smile on my face, I can tell you that! Thanks, sir! It means a little more coming from one with your experience and knowledge.

[NavyVet1959]

Navy Vet, I should have figured you'd know a lot about this, given your experience.

Welllll... Let's just say that I've known a few oriental women over the years and some of them even knew how to cook...


Thanks for the insights, and I think you're right about those modern cooking ranges. We're all electric here, and I really miss having a real flame to cook on. I guess it's a "guy thing?" I also hate the smell of propane, so .... it's always gonna' be a compromise for me, one way or the other, I guess.


Propane by itself is odorless. It's the odorant that they put in it and natural gas that you probably don't like. It's supposed to be that way so that you'll know when you have a leak. When it's burning though, you shouldn't be able to smell the odorant.

Some people might say that natural gas has a smell since it is basically methane and so are farts, but it's the sulfur compounds and such in the farts that give them their smell.



One of the great things about traveling is the wondrous variety of foods and the ways they're prepared all around the world. It sure broadens a man's views, AND his appetite!


Yeah, but some foods are just disgusting to even think about.

Balut, anyone?

With enough alcohol in your system, you might try it ONCE...

Most of the traditional dishes in Taiwan, I won't even try. I recently spent a month there and I pretty much ate beef noodle soup every day I was there -- a different restaurant / street vendor every time, so each one tasted slightly different.


And some foods raised in differing areas just taste different, largely due to the chemistry in the soil, I think. I know my time in Japan was a wonder to me when it came to the eating. Didn't like everything, but some of it was a revelation to an old country boy like me. I usually think of fried rice dishes as a sort of oriental "comfort food," and that's pretty much how it works for me, and in cold weather like we're having now, it really hits the spot, but isn't too heavy feeling afterward - a best of all possible worlds situation in many ways. And when we can control the taste to our liking .... well, it puts a big smile on my face, I can tell you that! Thanks, sir! It means a little more coming from one with your experience and knowledge.

In Taiwan, one of the things they like to eat during "cold" weather is "hot pot". It's basically a boiling pot of chicken (or whatever) broth at the center of the table where everyone has plates of raw ingredients that they dump in the pot and take out. You then dip the items in a sauce, so it is the sauce that makes the difference. As you might expect, every family's sauce is probably a bit different. The items that they put in the pot are often small frozen delicacies (shrimp balls, fish balls, lobster ball, crab pieces, etc) or things like mushrooms, bean spouts, or leafy green veggies (e.g. bok choy). Just go to the frozen food section of your local oriental food market and grab whatever you see that is small and frozen and someone will probably have used it for hot pot somewhere along the way.

With the Chinese from the northern part of China, they tend to like flour products with the dishes (i.e. noodles, dumplings, etc). The ones from the southern part tend to have rice with their dishes. The noodles or dumpling skins are easy to make. They're just flour and water made into a dough and then rolled flat and cut into skinny strips for noodles or round shapes for dumplings. Of course, you can buy the frozen dumplings at the oriental market, but I prefer to make my own since I'm picky about what I put in them. They often use cabbage as a filler in the commercial ones and I prefer mine to be mostly meat with green onions, chives, and mushrooms added for flavor, not to overpower the mixture. The dumpling skins are not really that different than making your own flour tortillas except with the tortillas, you might (but don't have to) add some oil (or lard) to the mixture.

When cooking fried rice, if you have your pot so hot that the rice will actually *pop* like popcorn, *then* you have it hot enough. The browning of the rice (caramalization) is one of the things that adds the flavor to.

I'm not a professional cook. I'm an engineer that has had chemistry courses and can follow written instructions... I can even improvise a bit (i.e. when in doubt, add more hot peppers). I like the food that I cook, but then again, my wife says that my taste buds are dead.

[NavyVet1959]

In case anyone is interested in the recipe for the dipping sauce for the Chinese "hot pot", I just made a batch and measured everything that I put in there. As in all things, it's a matter of taste. Each time I do it, it is slightly different, but this is a good starting point. As they say, "season to taste"...

The main ingredient is the "Bullhead" brand Chinese BBQ sauce.

(don't know why they call it "BBQ sauce" -- doesn't taste like any "BBQ sauce" that I've ever tasted...)

http://images.spambob.net/navy-vet-1959/bullhead-chinese-bbq-sauce-320w.jpg

Other ingredients are:
2 green onions (21 g)
2 heads of garlic (71 g)
1 jalapeno (27 g)
1 habanero (9 g)
6 tbsp soy sauce
5 tbsp distilled white vinegar
5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp crushed red peppers
369 g Bullhead Chinese BBQ sauce
1 egg yoke

Dice/chop up the green onions, jalapeno, habanero, and garlic (food processor or with knife) until the pieces are nearly a paste.

Put in microwave safe bowl.
Add soy sauce, sugar, salt, crushed red peppers, egg yoke, and Bullhead BBQ sauce.
Stir it well to mix everything.
Microwave for 3 minutes. The don't usually do it, but I do not like the taste of raw veggies.
Add vinegar after removing from microwave.

Personally, I would add a bit more vinegar and sugar, but my wife informs me that my taste buds are quite dead.

Normally, they would use one of the skinny hot peppers instead of jalapenos and habaneros, but I use what I normally have on hand.

Boil the items that you want for the hot pot in some sort of broth. Dip the items with a slotted spoon onto your bowl to eat out of. Spoon a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce into the bowl. Eat with a spoon so that you get some of the sauce with every bite.

[472x1B/A]

Hey! Balut is good especially when the bones are formed enough to crunch. Use to get one every other nite on the way home from work for a peso.

[MaryB]

Table top induction woks work well for electric!


Navy Vet, I should have figured you'd know a lot about this, given your experience. Thanks for the insights, and I think you're right about those modern cooking ranges. We're all electric here, and I really miss having a real flame to cook on. I guess it's a "guy thing?" I also hate the smell of propane, so .... it's always gonna' be a compromise for me, one way or the other, I guess.

One of the great things about traveling is the wondrous variety of foods and the ways they're prepared all around the world. It sure broadens a man's views, AND his appetite! And some foods raised in differing areas just taste different, largely due to the chemistry in the soil, I think. I know my time in Japan was a wonder to me when it came to the eating. Didn't like everything, but some of it was a revelation to an old country boy like me. I usually think of fried rice dishes as a sort of oriental "comfort food," and that's pretty much how it works for me, and in cold weather like we're having now, it really hits the spot, but isn't too heavy feeling afterward - a best of all possible worlds situation in many ways. And when we can control the taste to our liking .... well, it puts a big smile on my face, I can tell you that! Thanks, sir! It means a little more coming from one with your experience and knowledge.

[NavyVet1959]

Table top induction woks work well for electric!

I had wondered how well one of those things would work with cast iron cookware. The only problem that I saw with them when I was reading about one of them was that it had a maximum temperature setting and that temperature was less than what I wanted it to be capable of. I think it was limited to around 450F or so. For a burner that costs that much, I was not willing to be limited. I want a burner than can blacken a steak. I want a burner that can melt lead. I want a burner that can melt zinc! If it can melt aluminum, that's even better. I actually "re-engineered" an LPG cast aluminum outdoor grill and it got hot enough to melt the cast aluminum. It sure did sear the steaks well though.

[Blackwater]

You have me smiling, NV! Thanks! I'd have loved to have eaten at your table a while back, but you seem to like more peppers than I can comfortably eat these days. C'est la' vie, I guess, but I sure did love them not all that terribly long ago. You bring back some great memories.

[MT Gianni]

Not fried rice but when you are wondering what else to do with Fish Sauce buy some rice noodles. Cook them with water in a wok and drain any excess water when they are almost done. It is far easier to start with not enough water and add hot as it cooks down. Add some raw shrimp or leftover cooked chicken, 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic and a couple of eggs. Stir it together so the eggs break down into very small pieces. Add enough fish sauce to give the whole thing a small amount of color and a ton of flavor. Serve hot. When our Thai exchange student made this she would send my wife to the market saying " Chicken or Lobster whichever is cheaper. Second time we brought her with us and she saw the Montana prices for Lobster then said " I think maybe so Chicken".

[borg]

Darn, this sounds good,,, but with an electric stove, not very do able

[NavyVet1959]

Darn, this sounds good,,, but with an electric stove, not very do able

Where there is a will, there's a way... Use a cast iron pot and let it preheat for awhile and then cook in smaller batches.

[OBIII]

Works on an electric range, just not as well. I spent 2 years in Okinawa, and the street vendors use a lot of paprika. Soy sauce is not used in cooking the rice. They also use finely shredded and diced cabbage. A friends Filipino wife made fried rice one night and used diced potatoes to make it go farther. Anything can be used, bok choy, napa cabbage, leeks, ramps, whatever tempts your palate.
OB (Just say no to Balut!) :lol:

[pipehand]

Why has no one mentioned sesame oil? When I do fried rice, I start by simmering sliced fresh ginger and garlic in a 50/50 mix of sesame and olive oil until the oil is infused with the flavor. Day old rice is a must, and day old brown rice is better. Will have to try the fish sauce- just using soy so far. Leftover chopped pork roast, scrambled egg, green onion, green frozen peas and chopped cooked carrots and some bok choy is my "recipe" for fried rice.

[MaryB]

I use sesame oil in stir fry, never tried it in fried rice... I slice up the meat from a chicken leg quarter into thin strips and marinate in sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, chopped onion, a splash of rice wine vinegar, and some olive oil. Stir that up and marinate for 1-2 hours(to long and the vinegar "cooks" the chicken making it mushy) then stir fry in a hot wok for 3-4 minutes, remove and add back to the bowl with the marinade. Add a little more oil if needed and add stir fry veg of choice(I buy a frozen blend for lazy meals) and cook a bit. Add the chicken and marinade back to the wok with the veg and finish cooking the chicken. Thicken with a bit of corn starch slurry if you want a thick sauce. Serve with rice or the crispy chow mein noodles.

One of my lazy meals that takes about 30 minutes total of prep/cook time. While the chicken marinades kick back with a beer!