A super quick meal, using egg for protein and frozen veggies for convenience. To make shrimp/prawn or chicken fried rice, just add it in with the onion. Tip: Keep bags of cooked rice in the freezer, see notes – handy for quick meals! See notes for scaling recipe up and using skillet instead of wok, and for GF option. Recipe VIDEO below.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 onion , finely chopped
- 120 g/4 oz bacon , chopped (optional, or use ham)
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups frozen diced vegetables (I used peas, corn, carrots)
- 2 cups, packed, cooked white rice (day old refrigerated or frozen defrosted (Note 1))
- 3 eggs, whisked
- 3/4 cup shallots / scallions / green onions , sliced
Sauce:
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (or sake or Mirin or dry sherry) (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (or light or all purpose) (Note 4)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil , optional
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
Instructions
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Heat about 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a wok or 2 tbsp oil in a skillet over high heat until smoking.
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Add onion, garlic and bacon. Cook until bacon is light golden – about 1 1/2 minutes.
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Add vegetables (still frozen is fine). Cook for 2 minutes so they defrost and water evaporates.
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Add rice and Sauce ingredients. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes until liquid evaporates.
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Shove rice to the side of the wok / skillet. Add 1/2 tbsp oil into the cleared space, shift wok so the heat is centred over the cleared space. Pour in egg then scramble – cook it through properly, don’t “soft scramble”.
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Add shallots then stir the egg into the rice. Remove from heat and serve immediately!
Notes
1. You need day old rice that’s been refrigerated or frozen (then thawed) because the rice grains dry out, making them ideal for fried rice. Sticky freshly cooked rice is no good for fried rice – it makes fried rice gluey. Long grain white rice is best for fried rice because it is the least sticky once cooked. But brown rice, medium and short grain white rice, basmati and jasmine also works (albeit the last 2 will have a non Chinese fragrance). Sushi rice, paella and risotto rice are not suitable for fried rice.
2. Here is how I cook white rice: Place 1 cup rice in a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups water over medium high heat. Put lid on, then when the water starts to simmer, immediately turn down to low or medium low so the water simmers gently. Leave for 12 minutes or until water is absorbed into rice (tilt saucepan to check). Do not stir or remove lid during cook time. Remove from stove but leave lid on, leave for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork. Refrigerate or freeze (for use in fried rice). If it’s an emergency, cook the rice per above, spread on a tray and refrigerate until cold, then proceed with recipe.
3. Chinese cooking wine, or cooking sake, Mirin or dry sherry, is an essential ingredient for making a truly “restaurant standard” fried rice. Though many recipes suggest using liquid chicken broth, please do not do this – it makes your fried rice wet and gluey!
If you can’t consume alcohol, adjust recipe as follows: Reduce oyster and soy sauce to 2 tsp each, and add 1 tbsp water to the Sauce. Proceed with recipe. When you add the rice, add 1/2 tsp chicken or vegetable stock powder (or bouillon cube crumbled). Stir through, then add remaining Sauce ingredients exc the Cooking wine. Proceed with recipe, add tiny sprinkle of salt at end if you want it saltier.
4. Broadly speaking, there are 3 common types of soy sauce: all purpose (“normal”) soy sauce, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Dark soy sauce adds a tinge of darker colour and a touch of extra flavour which is why I like using it in fried rice. But any soy sauce is fine for this (but not kecap manis or other sweet or flavoured soy sauces).
5. SKILLET: If using a skillet, add about 1/2 tbsp extra oil at the start to compensate for larger cooking surface. Also, if you use a large skillet, you can scale up the recipe by 50% – click on the Servings number and slide the scaler until the rice becomes 3 cups, it will change all the ingredients. Once you add the rice, use 2 wooden spoons to toss it – makes up for not having the high walls of a wok.
6. GLUTEN FREE: Make sure you use gluten free soy sauce and Oyster Sauce if you want to make this gluten free.
By: Nagi
(Grabbed from: https://www.recipetineats.com/egg-fried-rice/)