Need some fried rice help
I like my fried rice well enough, but it's missing something that I like and identify with chinese take out. I suppose it's oyster sauce or fish sauce? - neither one of which I really want to use. (I don't like the idea of either one).
Whatever else is in it I always flavor fried rice with onion, garlic, ginger, hot pepper or flakes, soy sauce, sesame oil.
Any suggestions for me?
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14 Comments:
MSG?
sailordave at 2:09PM on 09/06/09
I've always wondered why restaurant fried rice is so different from the stuff we have at home. I don't doubt that there's MSG in it... but i think its more than just that. I don't think there's oyster sauce or fish sauce in it. It's not the right color. And both of those sauces have distinctive taste. The restaurant stuff I see has a distinctive yellow look to it. I always figured this was due to the egg they mix into the rice. My other guess is the heat of the wok. There's something about the texture, am I right? The rice is soft, but not soggy. And loose.. the grains arent sticky anymore. It's also not incredibly greasy (yet it probably does have a lot of oil).
My theory is that it has to do with the temperature and moisture of the rice before frying. And the very very hot wok and enough oil that the grains separate (?) Perhaps the addition of the eggs helps with this part, too. The restaurants generally make fried rice with leftovers (which is why we never order it). So i think there's something to do with the starchiness of the leftover rice.
In my house, we make fried rice with leftover rice, too. So it ends up being whatever we dream up. I put in those same ingredients you do, too. Plus eggs, scallions/chives, and leftover meat if we have it.. sometimes kimchi too.
I'm sorry I can't be more help.
engmcmuffin at 4:00PM on 09/06/09
Is your concern about flavor or texture? I think engmcmuffin has listed what your are missing in a typical fried rice where eggs would contribute to the color of your dish. However, I'm not sure if eggs are the sole contributor to the yellow coloration of take out fried rice. Also, ginger isn't typical of most of the fried rice I've had.
The only thing that ever really seems to matter is what rice you're using. Cold day old rice is the key to a fantastic fried rice since a lot of the moisture has left the rice. I end up with firm rice that doesn't stick together. You might have to fluff up your cold rice a little if it has clumped together a little bit.
Keebz at 6:48PM on 09/06/09
The perfect fried rice is something I do all the time and it is perfect. The key is simple. Keep it simple.
Ingredients:
4 cups 'Room temperature' cooked Jasmine rice. (should be slightly under cooked)
couple oz small finely chopped carrot
couple oz fresh green onion
couple oz fresh peas (optional)
salt & pepper
Low sodium soy sauce
2-3 tbsp Veg oil
2-3 eggs
Use a large diameter fry pan. The more surface area the better. Heat the pan on the burner first. Once the pan is already hot, add the veg oil. It should coat almost the entire pan. Wait till the oil just starts to smoke (important). Now get ready to work fast. Throw in the rice, carrot, onion and peas evenly over the bottom of the pan. LET IT SIT for 10-20 seconds. You will feel like its burning... this is OK... you want a little crispy... keep the heat on high. Now scrape the bottom of the pan and mix it all around... get all that crispy goodness off the bottom of the pan. Now douse the rice with low sodium soy until the rice is very light light brown color. keep moving the rice around. Move all rice over to one side of the pan and move that side of the pan off the burner so that the empty side is directly over the heat... still on high. Put a little more oil on the empty side and then the 2-3 eggs. Quickly scramble and chop the eggs into small bits... again, you want a little bit of burn... just just a little. When the eggs are done, fold them into the rice, cover it and remove it from heat. Let it sit for about 1 min. Scrape out entire contents into a bowl and compact it down. It will be heaven in a bowl.
Salt and pepper to taste.
happyeats at 7:05PM on 09/06/09
I knew some places that used chilled/room temp rice that was cooked with or without butter (pre-frying).
Asado at 9:01PM on 09/06/09
I always thought XO sauce tasted and smelled a lot like the fried rice from our local restaurants. Probably not the case, but might be worth checking out.
penn00 at 10:06PM on 09/06/09
The heat of your pan really makes a difference. Chinese restaurants use high powered gas stoves to heat their woks so they reach temperatures that you can't achieve at home - and thus the taste is different.
Some people throw a little coke into their rice - or soy mixed with sugar. It seems to balance out the saltiness of the soy a bit and adds flavor.
misterhee at 10:31PM on 09/06/09
a little scrambled eggs with chives and a dash of rice wine vinegar do it to your formula. Love the brightness the chives add.
dhorst at 10:59PM on 09/06/09
My grandpa made great fried rice. He always used day old rice from dinner the night before, he just took it cold out of the fridge, the wok warms it up.
He would heat the wok on high, wait for it to get hot then add oil. Scramble the eggs until they are half underdone and take them out for later. Then he would use more oil to sauté garlic and ginger to make the oil fragrant. After that would be any leftovers like meat, ham, sausage, corn, veggies, whatever's needing to be eaten. Fried rice is a good way to use up any leftover chinese food from dinner the night before. Things just need to be cut up into small dice. Then after everything has caramelized you can add some shaoxing wine, chiles or oyster sauce if you want. Then add the cold rice and break it up with the spatula. This way, the oil flavored by all the good stuff coats each hardened grain and reheats it. When the rice has softened and is mainly broken up, he added soy and dark soy for color. White pepper is optional. Then he added the reserved egg and broke it up into smaller pieces with the spatula and while tossing. At the very end you can add green onion, cilantro and a drizzle of sesame oil. This may not be the restaurant way to do it but coming from a family of people from N. China, that's the way we ate it every day as an after school snack. Hope this might be of some help!
Hope this helps.
bigfatmouth at 12:18AM on 09/07/09
Thanks for the suggestions. I almost always add egg, as a thin omelet chiffonade, and I don't find that's the difference in flavor I'm seeking I also always use cold rice.
@keebz- it's flavor, not texture I'm after.
@misterhee: Perhaps it is the heat. I've certainly watched a lot of take out being made, and never noticed anything much that was different from mine except, of course, the heat, but figured the sauce had to be different. It is true that the take out I've seen started with the sauce, and I usually start by cooking the veggies and meat, add the rice to warm up, and then add the other major flavor ingredients. I do sometimes add sugar. In fact, sometimes I add enough so that it really changes the nature of the fried rice - makes it sort of terriyaki like. Add pineapple or pineapple preserves sometimes.
@bigfatmouth. I notice you did mention the oyster sauce, and it may just be that the take outs where I was getting my fried rice used it but not all do .I'm thinking I'll follow the order you mention, and put some of the flavor ingredients in earlier, and see if that's part of the difference. Without a hot wok I haven't wanted the sauce to stick to the pan before the rice heats up, but perhaps I'm not heating it long enough after those ingredients are added in.
@engmcmuffin: That's interesting. I haven't noticed any yellow coloration to the fried rice I get. I'm glad to know you and others don't think oyster sauce is the answer, though big fat mouth mentions it. I'll work on my technique.
I wonder if some of this involves regional differences. I notice no one else mentions sesame oil, but that's definitely part of the flavor I remember. I lived in Albany NY for a few years within a 5 minute walk of 5 excellent hole-in-the-wall take outs. Live near Burlington, Vt now and haven't found anything as good, so I need to make my own.
lemonfair at 6:57AM on 09/07/09
My secret ingredient is... scallion-infused soy sauce.
chop scallions fine and add soy sauce (enough to cover the scallions; they shrink as the salt in soy sauce withdraws moisture), let it sit until other ingredients are ready.
you can add umami to this by adding dried kelp (big chunks, remove before adding to rice) at this point- in this case infuse overnight in the fridge.
Add this seasoning right before finishing the fried rice.
IMO I can't make professional fried rice because
1) my arm is not strong enough to flip the wok (you need to "fly" the rice into the air, where individual rice grains briefly go through flame directly
2) my stove is electric, and when I had a gas stove, it wasn't powerful enough to do what I described in 1)
adding good-quality char-siu (and yummy sauce resulting from making char-siu) improves my fried rice though. Usually I'm too lazy to make char-siu just for fried rice :-P
hmw0029 at 11:20AM on 09/07/09
and I almost always add sesame oil. especially toward the end.
hmw0029 at 11:21AM on 09/07/09
i think it might be yellow from chicken bouillon
personally, i love a little fish sauce in my fried rice - makes it savory and delicious! throw in some pineapples to make it thai style!
phatshanghai at 1:31PM on 09/07/09
Many years ago I decided the secret to restaurant fried rice (and many other Chinese dishes I yearned for) was using much more oil than I would feel comfortable with. The shiny "slick" on top of many restaurant dishes--including the rice--is definitely part of the secret to restaurant taste and mouthfeel. I also think it's important to do the scrambled eggs in a separate pan (in oil, of course), then slide them out and slice them into strips, then again crosswise. Salt is also something I used to omit, thinking soy sauce was enough sodium. When I put in salt, it makes all the difference.
Teachertalk at 1:32PM on 09/07/09