From "Chinese Cooking Essentials" (class starts September 28 at the Oceano Center):

QUICK AND EASY FRIED RICE

Modern and authentic ingredients given.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 to 2 Tbs soy sauce (authentic: oyster sauce)
1 Tbs dry sherry (authentic: mirin [sweet rice wine] or Chinese rice wine)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp fresh-ground pepper (authentic: white pepper)
2 Tbs vegetable oil (authentic: peanut oil)
2 large eggs, beaten
2 1-inch slices gingerroot (no need to peel)
1/2 cup leftover ham, cut into 1-inch, thin slices
(authentic: Chinese sausage = lop chong)
1/4 cup sliced mushrooms (authentic: shiitake mushrooms)
1/3 cup frozen peas (authentic: sugar peas, chopped)
2 cups leftover, cooked white rice
2 stalks green onion ("scallions")
1/4 cup fresh bean sprouts

Directions

Have all ingredients chopped and ready to go.

Combine the soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil and pepper in a small cup.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet or wok on medium heat. Add beaten eggs and immediately scramble. Remove from pan when just short of softly scrambled.

Add additional oil to pan, raise heat to medium high to high and add ham and mushrooms. Toss to brown lightly.

Add frozen peas, mix and cook for 30 seconds.
Add rice. The best way to do this is to get your hands wet and "crumble" rice into the pan as individual particles. Immediately add soy-sherry mix and toss and heat through.

When rice is warm, turn off heat, return eggs to the pan and add the green onion and bean sprouts. Taste and add salt, if that is your preference.

Serve immediately.

Joe

Oyster sauce and fish sauce are not used in fried rice.

The main ingredient in fried rice is basically steamed rice, oil to fry, garlic and soy sauce for seasoning. All other ingredients are optional. Basically, use whatever you have left overs and cut them into small pieces and add into the fried rice.

In my fried rice, the other 2 main ingredients are also Chinese sausage and scrambled eggs.

I don't think fried rice has ginger. At least not all those that I've eaten throughout my life. That wouldn't taste right somehow.

Oyster sauce is used in fried rice. It's a more delicate yet deeper flavor than soy. But certainly never fish sauce (very DIFFERENT flavor; maybe I should never say "never"). I do like the garlic idea.

Every fried rice I've ever had was cooked in oil that had been seasoned with gingerroot. Always seemed right -- and yummy -- to me.

Obviously, there are regional, family and personal variations.

Joe

The most important thing I have found in making a good fried rice is to use rice that was cooked the day before and refrigerated.

Joe's recipe calls for "leftover" rice but I think the intent really is that the rice has been cooked at least a day before. Never use freshly cooked rice.

For my part I prefer soy sauce, and a little goes a long way! Just use a bit and add a bit more if you feel you want more. A little really does go a long way.

I love scrambled eggs in mine, pork or chicken, peas and mushrooms too. I prefer to saute my mushrooms before adding to the rice.

I've never tried ginger or bean sprouts .........could be interesting

Somehow....I don't think I would argue with the Asian gal about what goes into fried rice!
I'll be using the garlic and the soy sauce and omitting the oyster sauce, ginger and fish sauce...
But...I just may make an "Iowa gal's leftover rice" with ginger and perhaps some fish sauce.

Thanks Linda, you're kind. My comment was based on traditional Chinese fried rice, I believe that was what Mangomoon requested for. As for using other ingredients, well... you got the whole world of food to give it a twist!

Fish sauce is mainly used in Vietnamese cuisine. That is where it was borned. After the end of the war in 1975, many Vietnamese took refuge in different part of the world and this included Thailand and China. That maybe part of the reason, you'd see fish sauce made in Thailand and China. Fish sauce is now incorporated in some other asian cuisine as well. Oyster sauce is mainly used to enhance seafood dishes. There's no rule however, to say that you can't use any of these in fried rice or any other dishes as long as it tastes good to you.

Fried rice is mainly a dish that is put together with left overs. Chase is correct about using 1-day old rice. Rice that has been refrigerated is drier. This is one of the way Chinese restaurants get rid of their left over steamed rice. When I told this to my niece, she stopped eating fried rice altogether. LOL... she explained to me that there was no way of telling how many days the fried rice was in restaurants.

Vietnamese food, especially dishes from the North and Central regions, have alot of influence from Chinese cuisine. Not to mention that a large population of Chinese also resided in Vietnam and shared their cuisine with us.

Like many of you, I prefer to make certain dish the way I remember how it was made or how I ate. Not because it wouldn't taste good if I give it a twist but because certain dishes are tied with certain fond memories. That was how my comment of "that wouldn't taste right" came to be. I didn't mean to say that you're wrong Joe. I meant that was just "not what I'm used to or known to".

Most people in this forum have a tendency to state things as if they're black and white. Some people do it simply because that's the way they write or because it's an efficient way of writing (verus "In my opinion, blah blah blah...). Some do it because they're argumentative.

We all "argue" with each other, especially you linda but I don't think you realize it.

mangomom was looking for a "Basic ... Chinese fried rice recipe". Mine was basic, mine was a "recipe" (versus "I just throw a bunch of stuff together").

ntt_hou stated that she offered what SHE ate her life. Certainly she knows that China is a big country with at least seven "regional cuisines". I didn't grow up eating Chinese rice (I'm Italian, by the way if I've never mentioned it, yet many here "argue" with me about Italian food!).

But I've studied Chinese regional cuisines since 1975. And what I offered was a conglomerate of that study.

I've found oyster sauce in many vegetable and rice dishes in hundreds of Chinese restaurants. A little yes, sometimes, in seafood dishes.

I'm not saying that ntt_hou is wrong about anything. I'm saying that there's a lot more to Chinese food than most people realize.

Joe

Well to put a spin on my way of fried rice, Chinese or otherwise. And it goes something like this and depends on what's in the fridge that needs to be used up.

Cold leftover rice. I use basmati or jasmine in my house. But any cold leftover rice works.

fat in the pan..usually bacon grease or olive oil with some toasted sesame for flavor.

Chopped aromatics..onion, peppers, garlic, ginger..

Chopped other veggies...carrots, broccoli, cabbage, pea pods, sprouts...

Chopped meat...again leftovers...chicken, pork, beef, bacon pieces, ham...

Liquids...Soy sauce (I actually use Wheat Free Tamari), splash or two of rice vinegar (regular not seasoned)..a bit more sesame oil to finish.

eggs..

I start with a non stick skillet, add in the fat, add in the aromatics and harder veggies, when they are softening and taking on a bit of color, I toss in the meat and rice. Give it a little color... I'll give those a good toss and swirl on some tamari. Not to much..just enough to coat but not make a puddle under the ingredients..a few splashes of rice vinegar..toss...push everything aside when heated through..crack in 2 eggs and scramble..just as it starts to firm up...mix into the other ingredients...taste for seasoning.. EAT...

It's one of my husbands favorite things to eat..

I've not tried this, but here's a recipe from the only Chinese cooking book I have, Grace Young's "The Breath of a Wok". Supposedly Chef Ming Tsai learned this from his mother:

Ming Tsai's Mandarin Fried Rice

2T canola oil
1t sesame oil
2 large eggs, beaten
2T minced garlic
2T minced ginger
1 Chinese sausage (lop chong), cut into 1/8" dice
1/2c scallions
4c cooked rice, cold
2T soy sauce
1/2t salt
1/4t white pepper

Heat a 14" wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes in 1 to 2 sec. Swirl in 1T canola oil and sesame oil and eggs and cook 30 sec to 1 min, tilting pan so that eggs make as thin a pancake as possible. When bottom begins to brown and pancake is just set, flip it and allow it to set, 5 seconds. Remove pancake and shred.

Swirl remaining 1T canola oil into wok over high heat, add garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30 sec. Add sausage and stir-fry 1 min. Add scallions and rice and stir-fry 2-3 min or until heated through. Add soy sauce, salt, pepper and egg, and toss to combine.

As usual, many opinions here.

The only fried rice I've ever eaten was prepared for me by my Aunt "Amy" (Yoshika). She was from Japan, so it's probably much different than Chinese. Her fried rice contained soy sauce but I don't know if that's because it was authentic or if it was only because that's all that was available in Northern Michigan 30 years ago.

It also only occasionally contained chicken or pork, uually just vegetables and eggs. Always eggs. She often added dandelion greens in the spring, shreds of spinach or chard later. Morel mushrooms were used when available.

The grease was usually lard, probably because we raised pigs. The grease was melted, two eggs were scrambled and set aside. She said it didn't matter if they got cold, the hot mixture would warm them back up. Vegetables went in the pan next, with the soy sauce, and the vegetables varied depending on what was available. No salt, she said it was salty enough, but she used garlic. The rice got added to the vegetables, eggs stirred in and lunch was ready.

Uncle Chuck would promptly sprinkle the whole thing with Tabasco sauce and Aunt Amy would smile and shake her head and say "Oh, Chuckie". It always tickled me to hear my very large uncle being called "Chuckie".

Maybe that's why I still love fried rice, no matter the region.

And it's funny, no one argues with me about Native American cooking, LOL. Not a lot of fry bread and succotash going on around here, I guess....

Annie

I grew up eating my Korean aunt's fried rice. I was a child when my Uncle married her in the very early days of the Vietnam war. When she entered our lives, she introduced us to Asian cooking. I developed a liking for Asian food that was all due to her cooking.The only thing I refused to eat was her toasted seaweed but I did taste it. It confirmed to me that I did not want to add that to my meal. It tasted like iodine smells.
She always started with fresh cooked rice that she spread out on a cooking sheet and a fan was used to blow it dry.
Then she would add green onions, shredded carrot and any other chopped vegetables.To season it, she used just a small amount of soy sauce to color and season it.

Here is the recipe I use, it is from Madame Wong's Long Life Chinese Cookbook, which I got as a gift in 1977 and it's the only Chinese cookbook I have! LOL (The paragraph in italics is from the book, not my words.)

Plain Fried Rice
"The Chinese do not fry rice with any soy sauce-this combination has more appeal to Westerners. Actually, fried rice is a dish of leftovers. The rice has been cooked and any meat or vegetable can be added"

4 c cold cooked rice
4T oil
3 beaten eggs
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1 scallion, chopped fine

Break rice apart with wet hands.
Heat oil in wok to 400F. Stir fry rice rapidly, turning spatula constantly while rice is being thoroughly heated.
Make a well in center of rice. Pour in beaten eggs. Stir eggs until they are scrambled. Then stir fry eggs into the rice until thoroughly blended.
Add salt & pepper. Stir fry 30 seconds. Add scallion.

Linda

I like my fried rice with the egg cooked as a thin pancake then cut into little strips.

1. Do not actually fry the rice. It is not required by the recipes. It is very unpleasant to have dried up fried rice getting stuck into the cracks in you teeth.

2. Mix the fried rice with a little finely graded carrot for color and presentation.

3. Use soy sauce for dark fried rice.

4. First cook the rice with chicken stock instead of water to make white fried rice.

5. Don't forget, shrimp fried rice is vvvvvvery good.

dcarch

Oh boy, do I feel smug! I make my fried rice pretty much the way Ming Tsai does his. Can't get that sausage in my little 'burb, so I use leftover pork, beef, or chicken. Will have to try shrimp some time too....ummmmm. I love to make the egg pancake very thin and slice into thin strips. And I add just a little soy sauce at the end, but serve extra at the table if anyone wants more on their serving.

Fried rice is good nuked for breakfast! Would that be leftover, leftover rice? Twice removed rice? Double old rice? Vintage rice? LOL!

Teresa

I've lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Fried rice in those places don't any sauce - oyster, fish or soy sauce. Most of the time there is pork and onion.

Cook your rice al dente, and spread it out on a cookie sheet to cool and dry a bit. Day-old rice is great.

Get a wok with vegetable or peanut oil screaming hot, add minced onion until translucent, add chopped leftover pork or Chinese pork sausage (my fave for fried rice is cha-siu style pork), add the rice and stir, stir, stir until all is mixed and hot. The amount of soy sauce is up to your taste -- or skip it and add at the table. If you skip it, add salt to the wok ingredients. Add black pepper. I like it fried until just about to get crisp.

I also like chopped scrambled egg in mine. Add any vegetables you would like. Leftovers are great for this.

Koreans and Japanese have a fusion dish called "Om-rice" short for omelette rice. Spread beaten egg in a large skillet as if you were making a plain omelet. When cooked, slide it out in one round piece on a plate. Put one portion of fried rice in the middle of the egg and roll the egg around the rice until covered (put the edges on the bottom so what you see is just the omelette part). Served with ketchup! They also put ketchup on French toast! Your mileage may vary!

Joe,

You are a piece of work.

It's true that there there are many opinions stated here. There are some arguments as well; cooking and passion go hand in hand. You however take it to another level sometimes. You have a style that not only injects a strong opinion, but you do it in such a way that discounts and refutes other view points. I remember the ration of condescending slather that I endured while I was sharing practical advice to a person curious about the restaurant business. The fact that I was coming from 40 years in the business was not enough to even win a nod from your perspective.

In between you flame throwing at folks like Linda and discount the experience of others in the kitchen, you might take moment to search your posts and see what others see.

Sorry to be so blunt but you just rubbed me wrong... again.

I always use the dry packet of fried rice seasoning found in the Asian aisle of the grocery store. Follow the directions and it is perfect every time!

Some of the fried rice variations I have made and friends keep on asking me to make them again:

a. I add one table spoon of butter at the end to traditional fried rice.

b. Instead of salt or soy sauce, I use Chinese salted eggs.

c. I add some chopped avocado to pork fried rice.

d. I have made fried rice with paper-thin sliced franks.

e. Fried rice using chopped black bean (fermented) instead of salt.

f. Many many other crazy stuffs.

Moral of the story: There is more than one way to make delicious fried rice.

dcarch

OMG- hot dog fried rice was a favorite growing up. The franks were sliced thin or cubed and fried until carmelized. Yummy. Also good was SPAM fried rice - gasp!