Egg Fried Rice

Before You Start

Day-old rice is best. In a hurry, spread fresh rice on a tray and freeze it for 30 minutes.

Cook no more than two portions at once in a domestic wok, or the temperature crashes and you get steamed rice.

Add the soy sauce around the edge of the wok, not into the middle — it caramelises on contact with the hot metal.

How to Make Egg Fried Rice

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1. Break the cold rice up with wet hands until there are no clumps at all. Every clump becomes a stodgy lump in the finished dish.

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2. Heat a wok over the highest heat until it smokes. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and swirl to coat.

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3. Pour in the beaten eggs and let them puff for 10 seconds, then scramble hard for 30 seconds until just set but still glossy. Tip onto a plate and break into pieces.

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4. Add the remaining oil, then the spring onion whites and garlic for 20 seconds.

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5. Add the rice and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, pressing it against the wok and tossing, until the grains are hot, separate and beginning to pop.

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6. Add the peas and toss 60 seconds.

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7. Pour the Shaoxing wine around the hot edge of the wok, then the soy sauces, and toss hard for 60 seconds so every grain colours evenly.

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8. Return the egg, add the white pepper, salt and sesame oil, and toss for 30 seconds.

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9. Finish with the spring onion greens off the heat and serve immediately.

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Related guide: Choosing rice.

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What's Going On Here

Freshly cooked rice is full of surface moisture and its starches are still fully hydrated, so it steams and clumps. Refrigerating overnight lets those starches retrograde and the grains dry out, which is exactly what allows them to separate and fry rather than stick.

After You've Cooked It

Refrigerate 2 days and reheat in a hot wok. Cooked rice must be cooled quickly and never left at room temperature for more than an hour.

If You're Missing Something

• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What to Serve Alongside

• A cold lager or jasmine tea
• Serve alongside any Chinese main, or with a fried egg on top
• Finish with lychees

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Stir-Fried Water Spinach.

Egg Fried Rice Nutrition

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: a cooked weight is worked out with raw figures, so those lines run high. How the figures are worked out.

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