Soy Sauce Fried Rice

A bowl or plate of rice cooked well with simple ingredients is a very satisfying meal.

Fried rice is one of those dishes that we home cooks are always trying to perfect. At the heart of Fried rice is day-old cooked rice or same day cooked and cooled rice tossed with soy sauce for seasoning and a bit of colour, some scallions/green onions and if available a couple of eggs. But sometimes we ourselves get in the way of cooking a dish by adding too many things to it.

I came across Soy Sauce Fried Rice several months ago when I visited a family blog I frequent. The parents live in Beijing while the 2 adult children live in the United States and travel back and forth to China. They stay connected through their food blog. The first time I made the fried rice I wrote to thank them for the sauce mix which is the star of the dish. Since then, I have been making the sauce and always have a bottle of it in the refrigerator. Apart from rice, it works great with noodles like Chow Mein and as a dip for Asian-style dumplings.

SOY SAUCE MIX

(This sauce will be enough for 6 cups cooked rice)

• 

  2 teaspoons fish sauce

• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine (substitute with ¾ tea spoon Chinese black vinegar or malt vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vegetable/canola oil

1. Add all the ingredients to saucepot, stir to mix and dissolve sugar, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside. Can be stored indefinitely in the refrigerator in a sterilized glass bottle.

FOR FRIED RICE

• 3 tablespoons oil, divided
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt
• 6 cups cooked, cooled rice
• Soy sauce mix
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• ¼ cup thinly sliced scallions/green onion

(white/purple and green parts)

2. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a large frying pan and

heat. Add eggs and quickly scramble them; remove

from pan and set aside.

3. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to pan and

heat.

4. Add rice and toss to heat through.

5. Pour sauce onto rice and toss several times to mix

and coat rice. Cook until the rice is very hot.

6. Add back eggs and ground black pepper; toss to mix

and add season with salt to suit your taste.

7. Toss in scallions/green onions and serve

immediately.

NOTES

• Finely chopped ginger, garlic and hot pepper can be sautéed before the rice is added to the pan.

• A light dusting of Chinese 5-spice powder and ¼ teaspoon of toasted sesame oil can also be added to the fried