House Fried Rice

Most Helpful Positive Review

I gave this 5 stars because it is a very good base. After reading reviews here is what I did. I cooked the rice & let it cool. I then cooked the onion & garlic in the oil. I added only shrimp, carrot, & peas. Then I mixed the soy sauce in w/ the veggies. I stirred the mix into my cooled rice. I then cooked 3 eggs in the same pan & chopped them up to bite size pieces & mixed them in. I refrigerated the whole deal & just before dinner I heated it all up by frying it so that there was a little crunch. It came out as good as our local chinese place!

I stuck closely to the ingredients list, only omitting the green pepper as it didn’t appeal to me in fried rice. But I did change the cooking method quite a bit to produce a better result. For example, to add the carrots to the pan and cook them until crisp-tender when you’ve already got the cooked shrimp in the pan, you’d end up with some rubbery, overcooked shrimp! Also, fried rice should be started with cold, cooked rice. So...I cooked the rice first, then spread it out on a cookie sheet and stuck in the fridge while I prepared the rest of the ingredients. I quickly stir fried the cold rice in the sesame oil, then the celery and onion, and finally the garlic (so it wouldn’t burn). To that I added the peas and the diced carrots, which I cooked ahead of time in the microwave. As for the egg, I cooked it like a crepe in a small sauté pan, then rolled it up like a cigar and sliced it, chiffonade-style, very thinly, producing beautiful yellow ribbons of egg. I tossed the egg in with the shrimp (I used frozen, pre-cooked salad shrimp), the chicken (already had some chopped rotisserie chicken in the freezer) and the ham (a pre-cut ham slice from the market came in real handy for this). Finally, I stirred in the soy sauce and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil. To die for. The recipe suffers, however, from an instructed cooking method that does not bring out the best this recipe has to offer – therefore, four stars rather than the five it potentially deserves with a few changes.

First I never used recently cooked rice, i always use day old rice, which saves time. I also used SPAM, whenever I have it or cubed turkey bacon. I find that the flavors are much better for my taste. Also whenever I make fried rice, I always tend to layer my flavors with the ingredients. So I start by cooking the eggs and then setting them a side. I then add a little oil to cook the spam or meat. I brown the meat slightly first, before removing it. Then i add onion and garlic, and slowly cook them, before adding the rice. I then cook the rice and the onion and garlic, so that the rice can absorb some flavor. I then add the veggies, and cook them slightly. At this point I add some taste, i use a little bit of soy and oyster sauce. I mix these a little bit more so that the flavors mix nicely. I then return the egg and spam to the pan. And then i mix them nicely together. After letting the flavors mix together, i end by adding a little bit of sesame oil. Only little bit though, you never want it to be stronger that anything else. I then finish by topping it with fresh green onions. And then it's done.... I've grown up to eat my fried rice this way, my dad always made if on the weekends for breakfast, it was always a treat. He would also make some eggs and spam and we'd have a full on breakfast. Even though it may have had a high cholestoral count. But this is super good....:-D