Whenever I think of Italy, I think of pasta; England, I think of potatoes, and China, guess what, rice! I can’t believe I haven’t thought about doing a rice dish until now; it seemed so simple and yet so obvious. No matter what restaurant you go into, you always find a bountiful amount of rice dishes.
Whilst I do enjoy a bowl of steamed rice, now I want to make the staple we all know and love; Yangzhou Fried Rice, a dish you can find on any street corner being cooked outside on a simple gas stove. It tastes incredible and so satisfyingly savoury! I thought I would try and recreate this staple dish on my own humble stove and this is the best tasting version I could make.
Serves: 2
Method: Stir Fry
Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: 5/10
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups of glutinous rice
- 2 cups of cold water
- 2 tbsp groundnut oil
- 2 large eggs (beaten)
- 150-200g prawns/shrimp (if bought frozen, make sure to defrost them thoroughly before cooking)
- 150-200g of Chinese sausage (sliced)
- 1 onion (finely sliced)
- 1 carrot finely sliced
- ½ pak choi (finely sliced)
- ½ Chinese cabbage (finely sliced)
- 2 spring onions (finely chopped)
- 1½ tsp light soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- 1 tsp shaoxing rice wine
- ½ tsp ground white pepper
DIRECTIONS
With all these ingredients very easy to find, the main thing you need to focus on is cooking the rice. I have a rice cooker, but if you don’t you can still use a heavy duty saucepan. My method is fool proof. For every cup of rice, use an equal amount of water. It is important you thoroughly wash and rinse the rice before you cook it. If you have a rice cooker, put 2 cups of water and rice in beforehand, cook your rice. I’m not going to tell you how to do that! But, before you move on to the frying part, it is important that the rice is COLD. So, after it’s cooked, leave ALONE. The rest is extremely simple!
- Break the clumps of rice up and tip onto a clean chopping board. Set aside. Add 1 tbsp of oil to the wok on a medium heat. Once hot, add the beaten egg and scramble until they are pale, firm and in clumps. Remove from the wok. Wipe the wok down with some kitchen paper, then add the remaining oil and turn the heat up to high.
- Add the onion and carrots and cook for 1 minute. Next, add the Chinese sausage and prawns and cook for 1-2 minutes, add the pak choi and cabbage and cook for a further minute. Then add the rice and egg, fry together for 1-2 minutes, ensuring to keep constantly tossing the rice and making sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed. This is also agood time to break up any extra clumps you have found in the rice.
- Finally, add the spring onions, soy sauce, white pepper, sugar and rice wine and keep stirring for around 1 minute or until the seasoning is incorporated into the rice. Taste and add anymore seasoning if you wish, then tip into a bowl and serve.
This dish requires full concentration when cooking and good preparation. Cut all the veggies to the same thickness otherwise they will all take different lengths of time to cook. However, once mastered, this quick and simple dish provides amazing flavour and can be customised; the possible combinations are endless.
