How to Make Fried Rice – Cooking Basic

Yes, they do help to ease the cooking process, where they tend to stick lesser onto the pan or wok.

It is because of the temperature that affects the starch content of the rice.

When the rice is hot, the starch is activated and tend to get sticky. So technically by using fresh hot rice, they tend to stick more onto the pan/wok because the starch is active.

So in order to minimize the stickiness of the rice, chilled rice is used. Not necessarily cold rice or overnight rice, as long as they are at room temperature, then this would reduce the starch activity.

I bet you would be thinking that, when we cook them, they become hot, well, that is a different story. When we cook with chilled rice, we allow the outer layer of the rice to be coated in oil, and then when stir-frying them, each individual grain of rice is sort of seared on the exterior layer and the starch are sealed within. Hence the starch is not able to conjoin with any other grain of rice. Therefore, eliminating a bowl of clumpy fried rice.

Ingredients in Brief

The main ingredients for a plate of fried rice would be the rice itself, followed by fats, eggs, and some other optional ingredients.

Rice

In general, rice is categorized into 3 types of rice, they are short-grain, medium-grain, and long-grain. Bear in mind that not all types of rice are suitable to make fried rice, and to my years of experience in cooking, I find short-grain rice to be best suited for fried rice, as when it is cooked, their texture is chewy, and firm. As they will come fully intact as an individual grain of rice with the right shine, a lot more enticing to our eyes.

Fats

My favorite type of fats for fried rice would be lard with a little mixture of shallot or garlic oil. The other suitable fats that would also give your fried rice good aroma is butter, vegetable, or peanut oil.

Eggs

Free-range egg is the best. Also, try using duck egg if you have access to it.

Aromatic Vegetables

You can use a variety of aromatic vegetables like shallot, chives, onion, parsley, garlic or anything suitable.

I would suggest only to use garlic if u intend to make garlic fried rice, otherwise, garlic tends to overpower a lot of the flavor from other ingredients.

Author have a say…

Often we only know the existence of the regular fried rice, where very few realize there is another version of fried rice known as golden fried rice. The regular fried rice is where the rice and eggs are two separate entities whereas the golden fried rice, rice, and egg (yolk) as one single entity. Check it out below to learn how to cook the basic fried rice 2 ways and also how to prevent the rice from lumping together!

Here is a Shrimp Fried Rice recipe for you.

Source  :  My Recipes