Finally, finally, got fried rice down

It has taken years, but finally I have gotten fried rice down and can create a decent one every time. I'm so happy I may even tackle moo-goo-gai-pan, whatever that is...

I love love love fried rice! It's comfort food and one of my fall back dinners when I am exhausted. I usually have everything on hand.

What was the take-you-over-the-edge trick? For me, it was understanding the use of old rice and getting enough heat.

Stuart,

I knew about the old rice--refrigerated is best--and I knew about the heat requirements.

I kept getting the thing gooey from the eggs. I discovered that it is best to scramble the eggs, do an egg drop into boiling stock, drain the liquid and then give the eggs a quick and separate cook in the wok and remove, putting them back in with all the other ingredients over the rice at the end of the process.

No more goo, which gave me the idea for the goo-gai-p...oh, you get it!

Interesting! I fry the beaten eggs first, then pull then until near the end. No goo. Also, when I beat the eggs, I add a little salt and sesame oil, sometimes even a bit of mirin if I want a nice bit of browning.

Whenever I fried the scrambled eggs I could not get them to dry out enough, but that's probably because I have an aversion to overcooking eggs in a pan...can't bring myself to do it.

Whenever I fried the scrambled eggs I could not get them to dry out enough, but that's probably because I have an aversion to overcooking eggs in a pan...can't bring myself to do it.

That's almost certainly the mistake that led to gooey fried rice. You have to really scramble them dry--to a point that would be overcooking if you were making just scrambled eggs.

-Paul W.

I don't know this for sure, but I think that the addition of a little salt helps cook the eggs through better. Again, done at very high heat. When I rescue them, the insides are still a bit molten, but that's taken care of when I add them back in near the end; of course, they also tend to solidify from their own heat while waiting to be re-added.

Stuart,

You may be right about the salt. I add salt and a little bit of sherry to the eggs before scrambling them.

-Paul W.

I don't know this for sure, but I think that the addition of a little salt helps cook the eggs through better. Again, done at very high heat. When I rescue them, the insides are still a bit molten, but that's taken care of when I add them back in near the end; of course, they also tend to solidify from their own heat while waiting to be re-added.

I'll give it a try next time and will report back to you.

In New York, years ago I stopped by an Asian cafe on a walk to the UN from midtown. It was just 10:30 in the morning and I was starved. they were just opening their doors and I went in. It had originally been a diner. They had left the flat top grill behind the counter. Like many small Asian operations they offered a lunch buffet as well as menu ordering. One of the cooks was preparing the fried rice for the buffet. He was doing it on the flat top. I noticed two things. He scrambled the eggs, cooking them apart from the rice. Secondly, he started with a pile of shredded cabbage that equaled the amount of cooked rice used.

Adding a little soy sauce to the cabbage gave it sufficient salt to release it's moisture and it shrunk so much that you hardly noticed it. It did make the rice nice and light. I have used this idea ever since and been quite happy with the results.