Primarily fried rice is recycling leftovers into a light & hearty & fast & easy dish for weeknight dinners. Of course you can start fried rice from the scratch adding selected this & that items trying to get a mix of meat & fish/seafood & vegetables w/ matching spices …
In a nutshell: there are many ways to do your “fried rice w/…“ – if starting from the scratch or relying on the leftovers in your fridge, if adding mainly Chinese spices & condiments or trying any hot Thai combination or some mild Indian flavours. Concerning vegetables you may stay /w onions, spring onions, carrots, peas, snow peas … as well as adding mushrooms, cauliflower, pak choi, courgette, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, celery, fennel … i. e. all you may find when surfing a Chinese or Southeast Asian or Indian cookbook!
… & concerning meat etc. it’s the same!
So the sky is high, but the basis is always cooked rice!
I decided to do a real big batch of fried rice from the scratch meaning a combination of:
- mixed vegetables
- mixed meat (chicken & pork)
- seafood
- eggs
- … & lots of soy sauce mix!
In the beginning you need cooked rice – so start cooking rice!
The rest will come one by one: it’s all about chopping & frying.
The eggs will get whisked & fried in some peanut oil. You may work in a pan, however, you may also use your wok. When the scrambled eggs are ready just set them aside. (If you are in a hurry it’s possible to skip this step i. e. just whisk the eggs & pour them into the „almost ready” fried rice. The eggs will mix w/ the fried rice & get cooked when stirring the fried rice.)
Coming to the vegetables:
- peas
- carrots
- mushrooms
- spring onions.
Clean & trim everything & chop it (if necessary!).
For the flavours we use soy sauces, 5-spices-mix, fresh ginger & garlic. Clean, trim & mince (if necessary!).
Fry everything for some minutes in a pan in peanut oil … you don’t need to defrost the frozen peas! The vegetables shall become „al dente“ to soft; afterwards set aside.
For the meat (left side!) we do chicken breast & ham w/ spring onions. Chop everything & fry everything w/ soy sauces, curry, curcuma … At last throw in the ham when the chicken is well done & set aside.
On the right side there is the seafood preparation. Frozen shrimps – defrosted & patted dry – are fried w/ spring onions & oyster sauce. Also: set aside when ready!
Now there is the grand entrance of the wok. We are preparing a lot of fried rice so we need a big pot for the final frying …
If you have a real big pan use it instead of a wok. If you have a smaller amount of fried rice use your pan … Summary: you may do anything in your wok, you may do anything in your pan – just have in mind the size & capacity of your equipment.
We heat the peanut oil in the wok & add the vegetables & some of the cooked rice. If you rely on cooked rice out of the fridge reheat it in the microwave before adding to your wok.
Starting … just stir.
Add the meat & more rice & stir.
Add soy sauces & wine & stir.
Add seafood & more rice & stir.
(If you think it’s too dry just add some more wine or plain water …)
Finally add eggs & stir.
The very last action is adding sesame oil & stirring once more – then: Ready. Serve. Dig in.
In the recipe I start w/ about 1000 g cooked rice. You may add up to 1200 g cooked rice as well. The amounts of all the ingredients are fine w/ the increment in rice.
You may downsize your fried rice batch by downsizing all ingredients including the cooked rice. You may also prepare more … (Keep always in mind the size & capacity of your frying equipment. Honestly, it’s no fun dealing w/ 2 pans/woks …) You may also add more cooked rice w/o increasing the amounts of vegetables, meat, seafood … however, keep in mind to add some more soy sauces & condiments!
You may store fried rice in your fridge or your freezer: so it’s up to if you roll up your sleeves once to prepare a real big batch of fried rice for several weeknight dinners or you stay w/ preparing small batches out of leftovers.
Enjoy!
- 1000-1200 g cooked rice
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp peanut oil
- 2 spring onions
- 4 carrots
- 100 g mushrooms
- 200 g peas (frozen)
- 1 piece of ginger (about thumb size)
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp 5-spices mix
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 150 g shrimps (frozen)
- 1 spring onion
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 150 g chicken breast
- 120 g ham
- 1 spring onion
- 1/2 tsp curry
- 1/2 tsp curcuma
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 2 tbsp peanut oil
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce
- 4 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 5-6 tbsp white wine / dry sherry / shaoxing wine
- 2 tbsp dark sesame oil
- salt & pepper to taste
- a wok or a big pan
- Whisk the eggs & fry them like scrambled eggs in peanut oil.
- Set aside.
- Trim & chop all the vegetables.
- Mince the ginger & the garlic.
- Fry the vegetables for some minutes in peanut oil & add the soy sauce as well as the 5-spices mix.
- Set aside.
- Let the shrimps defrost & pat them dry.
- Chop the spring onion.
- Fry shrimps & spring onion for some minutes in peanut oil
- Add oyster sauce.
- Set aside.
- Chop the spring onion, the chicken breast & the ham.
- Fry the spring onion & chicken breast in peanut oil until the chicken is well done.
- Add spices & soy sauce.
- Add ham.
- Set aside.
- Reheat the cooked rice in the microwave.
- Add peanut oil, vegetables & about 1/3 of the cooked rice to a preheated wok & stir.
- Add soy sauces & wine & stir.
- Add meat & another 1/3 of the cooked rice & stir.
- Add meat & rest of cooked rice & stir.
- Add seafood & scrambled eggs & stir.
- Finish w/ sesame oil & stir for a last time.
- Add salt & pepper to taste – if really necessary.
About 90 min is rather generous: you can do a lot of action in parallel or rely on existing ingredients lounging in your fridge e. g. cooked & fried vegetables, leftovers of chicken breast … Cooked rice: 100 g cooked rice are 25 g uncooked rice i. e. it’s always 4x from uncooked rice to cooked rice.
You may adapt the amount of rice to add to your fried rice. If you like more rice in it feel free to add more (i. e. go for the 1200 g!) Frying: I used a nonstick pan for frying the eggs, the vegetables, the meat & the seafood. You may also use a wok for all the action before combining everything into fried rice. Finishing: Use as much wine as you think is necessary – you may also add some water if you think it’s getting too sticky! Ingredients: In general you may drop some of the ingredients … it’s also a fried rice w/o meat or w/o seafood or w/o eggs … You may store the fried rice in the fridge at least for up to 3 days. You may freeze your fried rice; when defrosting use the microwave.
