Egg Fried Rice

Day-old rice fried hard in a dry pan, with the egg poured over the rice rather than cooked first.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

• 500 g cooked long grain rice, cooked the day before and refrigerated
• 3 eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 spring onions, whites and greens kept apart
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Method

1. USE RICE COOKED THE DAY BEFORE and broken up cold with your fingers. Fresh rice has too much water in it and steams in the pan however hot it is; a day in the fridge dries the surface of every grain.
2. Get the pan as hot as it will go with the oil, then add the spring onion whites for 20 seconds.
3. Add the rice and press it out across the pan. Leave it 40 seconds before moving it, then toss. Repeat until you can hear it clicking against the pan rather than hissing — about 3 minutes.
4. Make a well, pour the beaten egg into the middle, and count to five before stirring. POURED ONTO THE RICE, not cooked separately and folded in: the egg half-sets around the grains and coats them, which is the difference between this and rice with scrambled egg in it.
5. Toss hard for 60 seconds until no wet egg is left.
6. Add the soy sauce round the edge of the pan, not into the middle, so it sizzles rather than soaks. Season, add the spring onion greens, toss once and serve.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes