Recipe: Stir-Fried Rice

Recently, I decided I needed a good fried rice recipe. As usual, I found some promising-looking recipes to go through, with the view of combining the best parts of each for something all my own and very good.

Perusing the eight I found while out for a walk, this one at Gimme Some Oven really stood out, because it discussed several of the finer points and why each was important, rather than going off on some tangent as is often the case with online recipes.

NOT the author making fried rice. (Image cropped from photo by Kelly Cookson, via Wikimedia Commons, license.)

I annotated: This is your starting point. Has generally applicable advice that answers the seafood or not question save possibly crawfish.

Broadly:

1. Use cold, cooked rice.
2. Fry with BUTTER, as they do in Japanese steak houses.
3. Use vegetables.
4. Use toasted sesame seed oil and, if using seafood, oyster sauce.
5. Use HIGH HEAT to brown (vice steam) the rice.

The author elaborates on the use of butter as follows:

Yes, butter. I have made many a batch of fried rice using various oils, and I'm now convinced there's a reason why Japanese steak houses use that big slab of butter when they're making fried rice. It just tastes so much better, and also makes everything brown up perfectly...

Until I'd encountered this recipe, I did not know that there was such a thing as toasted sesame oil, and labels at the store don't help: You're looking for a dark condiment, and can consult the ingredients list on the label if in doubt: My "sesame oil" is dark and lists toasted sesame oil as its first ingredient. (I also learned in the process of writing this up that it should be refrigerated after opening.)

The below recipe is as close to a straight rip-off as it gets for me, although my very late addition of the peas to preserve some crispness is my own touch.

This turned out so well that mid-week, after a Sunday batch, my son asked me to make it again. Fortunately, the novelty seems finally to have worn off, and as much as I am pleased with the results, I can look forward to making other things again!

So far, I have made this with shrimp and chicken, and using the oyster sauce both times. I don't see myself skipping the oyster sauce any time soon.

***

Stir-Fried Rice

Preparation Time is about an hour.

Ingredients

rice, 1 cup uncooked or 3 cups cooked
meat or seafood, 12-16 oz.
eggs, 2-3
butter, 1 stick
julienned carrots, 2 cups
onion
green onions, 3
snow peas, 6 oz.
frozen green peas, 1 cup
minced garlic, 1 tbsp
meat or seafood, 12-16 oz
soy sauce, to taste
oyster sauce, 1 tsp
sesame oil, 1 tsp
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Directions

Day 1

1. If necessary, cook and refrigerate the rice.

2. If desired, prepare and refrigerate the meat or seafood.

Day 2

1. Mise en place: eggs, butter, rice, meat or seafood, vegetables, garlic, peas, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil.

2. Dice onion, chop green onion, grate carrots (if necessary), and place in large bowl with any other vegetables and garlic. (Set green peas aside separately.)

3. If necessary, cook meat or seafood and set aside in medium bowl.

4. Scramble and cook eggs in butter. Set aside in small bowl.

5. Saute vegetables and garlic in butter until onions are translucent. Rinse bowl and return cooked vegetables to bowl.

6. At high heat, saute rice in butter until slightly brown.

7. Lower heat. Add vegetables, eggs, and meat/seafood.

8. Add sesame oil, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Cook, stirring frequently for a few minutes.

9. Remove from heat and stir in frozen peas.

Notes

1. The recipe doesn't really call for a stick of butter, but you want one so you can be as free with it as you need to be.

Enjoy!

-- CAV