Grandma’s Fried Rice

First, pick a bowl that you’d eat your fried rice in. This is going to be your primary measuring tool. For four people, here’s what else you’ll need:

Ingredients

Four¹ bowls of cooked rice (one per person). I use jasmine rice. Long-grain is better than short-grain, but any rice works, except wild rice, which isn’t a true rice and has the wrong consistency. Leftover rice is ideal. Since it has dried out a bit, it’s less likely to turn mushy.
One scant bowl of cooked tofu.
Two heaping bowls of vegetables. I do one bowl of finely diced, non-leafy vegetables (onions, green onions, mushrooms, peppers) and one bowl of chopped-up greens (bok choy, spinach, kale, chard). We never, ever use peas and carrots in our home, except when my mom makes fried rice for non-Chinese people. *Four eggs (one per person)
Vegetable oil (preferably canola or something neutral—so, not olive)
Soy sauce (some super-traditional versions of fried rice don’t even use soy, because the chefs insist that the meat and the veg should be the primary flavor carriers)
Sesame oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions

Pour into your frying pan just enough oil to coat the bottom—maybe a tablespoon per bowl of rice. (I prefer not to use a nonstick pan—to better develop crust—but any pan is fine as long as it’s big enough to stir things around without rice spilling everywhere.) Heat on high until a drop of water crackles when it hits the oil. The non-leafy veg goes in first. Cook, stirring constantly, until the onions just turn translucent. Add the greens and let them wilt. Toss the tofu in, and mix well. Then add the rice, breaking up any clumps with your spatula. Give it a minute or two to warm up.
Lower the heat to medium. Crack your eggs over the top, and stir to break the yolks and distribute the egg. Now, seasonings, soy sauce first. Here’s the thing: I can’t tell you exactly how much because I don’t know what soy sauce you’ve got.

There are almost as many kinds of soy sauce as there are people in China. Here’s a geek’s guide. Most supermarkets sell Kikkoman, a Japanese brand and a safe bet; Kikkoman’s gluten-free version works well. (Tamari tastes different.) If you have access to an Asian grocery store, look for “light soy sauce.” Kimlan is my preferred brand; it has no preservatives.

I do a couple swirls around the wok—one Mississippi, two Mississippi. Once the soy sauce is stirred in, the rice might be slightly tinted but never dark brown; you can always add more soy later if you want it saltier. Add a spoonful or two of sesame oil, some pepper (to taste—I like lots), and a couple of generous pinches of salt. Stir everything together, using your spatula to break up any remaining clumps of rice; you want every grain to get some love from the egg and the soy. Once it’s well mixed, leave it for two or three minutes, stirring only occasionally.
When the egg has turned from shiny and wet to opaque, it’s done. That’s it. The rice should be a little fluffy. If you like spice, give it a squirt of sriracha.

Once you get the hang of this, you should be able to throw together fried rice in 20 minutes or less. And again, this is how I make mine. Use it as inspiration and guide, not rule and regulation.

Notes

Source: Can I Get a Witness? It’s Called Fried Rice

You might decide other proportions work better for you. If you’re vegetarian, you might want three bowls of veg. If you want to make a meat-lover’s fried rice, you might do two bowls of meat. ↩︎

Grandma’s Fried Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Notes

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