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Fried rice is one of those dishes that should be in everyone’s cooking repertoire. The necessary base ingredients can almost always be scrounged up in your kitchen. It’s infinitely adaptable to the contents of your fridge and freezer. And it’s a smart way to recycle tired leftover odds and ends, transforming them into a fresh, new, and always satisfying dish. Having grown up in a Chinese-American household, though, I have to admit: I’m kind of picky about my fried rice. Too often, I’ve encountered versions that are gummy and gross, or drowned in so much soy sauce I can barely make out the flavors of any of the other ingredients. The thing is, good fried rice is actually really, really easy to make. Keep just a few tips in mind, and you’ll be able to create a fab fried rice that works equally well as either a one-dish meal, or part of a bigger feast. rice-n-easy *NOTE: Do make sure to cool your rice safely -- no letting it sit out on the counter for a couple of hours while you wait to put it away. Get it reasonably cool, popping into an ice bath if needed, then store in a clean container in the fridge. Rice can contain a bacterium known as B. cereus that causes nasty food poisoning. wok out When cooking your rice in a wok, the usual stir-fry rules apply. Prep all your ingredients ahead of time; stir-frying is a quick process, and you won’t have time to fuss around with chopping and dicing once you get going. When you’re ready to start cooking, get your wok nice and hot before adding the oil (my electric stove runs very hot, so I end up cooking at medium-high, about 8 on a scale of 10, rather than full-blast; depending upon hot your stove is, you’ll need to cook at either medium-high or high. If in doubt, start at medium-high and if ingredients don’t seem to be cooking quickly, up the heat). Let the oil heat up briefly, then add the aromatic ingredients (in this case, garlic and scallions/onions) and start a-stirring. Once you have stuff in the wok, keep it in constant motion to ensure that everything cooks evenly. shimmy along this way for the base recipe ---------------------------> lounge . nourish . host . laze . home. |