Chinese Cooking Basics: Fried Rice

It's Monday again, and that means another Chinese Cooking Basics! For the second post in the series, let's go what you can do with left over rice - fried rice. It is traditionally a dish you make with left overs..rice, meat, whatever you have in your fridge. I almost never have left overs because I eat them for lunch, so I toss in whatever I have around like mushroom, Chinese greens and shrimp, in another words, mommy-style. My favorite type of my mother's fried rice has one extra ingredient, and it's preserved vegetable, which adds a spicy bite to the mix.


I usually cook a cup more rice than usual if I want to make fried rice in a few days. So below is a recipe enough for two with the left over rice that is at least a day old. Here's how I like to make mine:

Fried Rice
Serves 2

left over Jasmine rice, about 1C dry measure before cooking
1C dried shiitake mushroom, reconstituted and diced
5 stalks of Chinese leafy greens (gai lan "蓋蘭" or choi sum "菜心", stems diced and leaves cut into ¼-inch-thick chiffonade
5-10 medium shrimp (U25), diced
1 egg
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seed oil
salt & pepper
vegetable or canola oil

In a hot work over medium-high heat, add oil and saute shrimp with salt and pepper for about 2 minutes. Set aside shrimp. Add mushroom to the wok with salt & pepper and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the leafy greens with some more salt & pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add rice, making sure to break it up while tossing in the wok. Add the soy sauce and continue tossing for about 3-5 minutes.

Make a well in the middle of the wok and break in the egg. Stir the egg to break the yolk and combine with the egg white. Toss the rice on top of the egg until the egg is well distributed. Return the shrimp into the wok. Give it a final toss and finish with sesame seed oil. Serve hot.