Dear TCG
[EDITED lots of waffle]
How come my fried rice always sticks badly to the wok?
Anon
Dear No fried rice cooking person.
The secret to a good fried rice is to use slighty dehyrdrated rice, typically this means you cook rice the night before and allow it to cool and thus dry out for 12 hours. You must be incredibly careful about this as when reheating rice it has spores in it which release heat resistant toxins which will cause lots of puking and shitting for days if you do not heat it properly. The preferred heating reference of TCG (even though TCG is more of an instant noodle man) is that the rice grains dance on the bottle and crackle with quite a loud intensity.
Adding water can soften the rice and help transmit the heat but puts water back into the rice.
The old technique of underusing water in cooking your rice also works (using a pot people use 1 cup of water to one cup of rice) too wet and you get congee, too dry and you can get insta rice which you can use in the wok immediately. But it still isn't as good as rice from the night before.
Also note again rice isn't widely eaten in China, the damn stuff doesn't grow very well in the north, and thus going to a restaurant in Beijing and asking for rice people will look at you and say huh?
TCG
[EDITED lots of waffle]
How come my fried rice always sticks badly to the wok?
Anon
Dear No fried rice cooking person.
The secret to a good fried rice is to use slighty dehyrdrated rice, typically this means you cook rice the night before and allow it to cool and thus dry out for 12 hours. You must be incredibly careful about this as when reheating rice it has spores in it which release heat resistant toxins which will cause lots of puking and shitting for days if you do not heat it properly. The preferred heating reference of TCG (even though TCG is more of an instant noodle man) is that the rice grains dance on the bottle and crackle with quite a loud intensity.
Adding water can soften the rice and help transmit the heat but puts water back into the rice.
The old technique of underusing water in cooking your rice also works (using a pot people use 1 cup of water to one cup of rice) too wet and you get congee, too dry and you can get insta rice which you can use in the wok immediately. But it still isn't as good as rice from the night before.
Also note again rice isn't widely eaten in China, the damn stuff doesn't grow very well in the north, and thus going to a restaurant in Beijing and asking for rice people will look at you and say huh?
TCG
Rice will stick to the wok if the wok is not hot enough and there's not enough oil. You need to use a robust vegetable oil like groundnut oil that can take a high heat and coats the rice grains so that it won't clump together.
ReplyDeleteYou can still use freshly cooked rice, just fluff it up and leave it to cool for 30 minutes or an hour down to room temperature.
Cook the other ingredients first, then when you're about to add the rice, splash a bit more oil to coat the wok and go on max heat, add the rice and fold through vigorously, making sure to scrape from the bottom of the wok.