In China, each region has its culinary speciality. Changzhou is famed for their fried rice and it’s always bought at the end of the meal, almost like dessert. I don’t know why they do this because when fried rice is done properly it is truly the best part of any meal. When I was there, I asked my Chinese friend how to make fried rice the Changzhou way, and since then I’ve been trying to perfect the technique and the recipe. Recently I cracked the final secret to the perfect fried rice and it came as a surprise because I didn’t even know this product existed. This sweet sauce for rice is not really soy sauce and it’s not really kecap manis… it’s its own thing and you might have to find it online. It’s light and sweet in a way that adds the perfect authenticity of flavour to home made fried rice.
Don’t skip the first step of cooling and coating the rice. This ensures you don’t end up with mushy, gluggy rice. You can store your cooked rice in the fridge for a day and or it’s a great way to use up left-over steamed rice. You probably could use basmati rice but it may not yield the same results as jasmine or long grain rice.
Fried Rice Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups (uncooked) jasmine rice, cooked. Cool in a large baking tray. Lightly coat the rice with some vegetable/sunflower oil. Use your fingers to ensure it gets evenly dispersed. This prevents the rice from drying out and helps the grains stay separated.
6-8 spring onions, sliced
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup of defrosted petit pois
1 cup of defrosted super sweet corn kernels
2-3 tbs light soy sauce
2-3 tbs Kikkoman sauce for rice (sweet)
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
Chopped ham (optional), cooked prawns (optional), diced BBQ pork (optional)
Method:
Heat about a tbs of sunflower/peanut oil in your wok or frying pan until it starts to smoke.
Pour in the eggs, garlic and ginger and let it sit for about 30 seconds. Give it a quick stir around the wok and then pour in the rice, while the egg is still uncooked. Toss the rice around and get the egg dispersed.
Now put everything else in, including all your ingredients like the spring onions, soy sauce, sweet rice sauce, ham, prawns etc.
Toss around the wok until all the rice hot enough to eat. Season with some salt to your taste.