Fried rice fail (YACT)

[Beev]

So I've started cooking, and have found it very enjoyable. I started out small and made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and they turned out fantastic. Then I tried to make gnocchi from scratch and that was a travesty, so I figured I should stay small.

I made fried rice last night and it tastes fine, but the texture isn't right, and I don't know what I did wrong. Most of the recipes I found say the rice needs to be spread out and cooled completely before frying, and I didn't do that, which makes it my primary suspect for wrong-ness. The only other thing I can think of is my frying pan was too small and I had too much rice, so I couldn't adequately fry it all.

Thoughts?

 

[edro]

You need a huge wok and 3 gallons of peanut oil.

 

[dbk]

i usually use rice that's leftover from the previous day or even two days..

 

[sdifox]

actually, for fried rice you want a more dried out rice. so either cook it with reduced water or leave it in the fridge overnight.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

i put onions, spam, eggs and rice in mine. i throw some putter in a pan, cook up the spam a little, throw in a couple scoops of rice, stir it around and make sure its not all clumped up, then throw in the egg, and onions and cook tillt he eggs are cooked. i usually make it with left over rice if i eat rice for dinner the night before.

i cook in a 8" frying pan, and it fits a couple scoops of rice just fine. I actually just made some and it was bomb.

 

[Beev]

actually, for fried rice you want a more dried out rice. so either cook it with reduced water or leave it in the fridge overnight.

Ah-ha. That's my problem then. It DID seem too moist.

 

[Iron Woode]

i put onions, spam, eggs and rice in mine.

head asplodes!

 

[sdifox]

Ah-ha. That's my problem then. It DID seem too moist.

and shit load of oil, or even better, lard :biggrin:

 

[Beev]

Lots of oil? I used maybe 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. How much is "lots of oil?"

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Lots of oil? I used maybe 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. How much is "lots of oil?"

that sounds like a lot to me. I use less than 1tbsp of butter.

 

[sdifox]

that sounds like a lot to me. I use less than 1tbsp of butter.

Butter is the wrong taste for fried rice. You want lard.

 

[Gibson486]

The secret of fried rice....the rice needs to be atleast a day old.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Butter is the wrong taste for fried rice. You want lard.

i prefer the taste of butter.

 

[sdifox]

i prefer the taste of butter.

ok. Whatever floats your boat.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

What did you wrong on the gnocchi? They take some effort, but are not too difficult to pull off.

 

[Exterous]

spam

I dont think I have seen someone include Spam in cooking for a while

 

[JDub02]

What did you wrong on the gnocchi? They take some effort, but are not too difficult to pull off.

gnocchi seem simple, but you can wind up with little balls of potato rubber if you don't do it right.

 

[Fritzo]

Fried rice is actually fairly difficult to get right. You have to make sure the rice gets fried evenly and gets hot enough to absorb the water. I usually can tell it's ready when some of the grains turn light brown. Then I add chicken stock instead of water. It takes some experimentation to get the liquid/rice ratio right.

 

[apac]

i usually use rice that's leftover from the previous day or even two days..

This

 

[Ika]

I dont think I have seen someone include Spam in cooking for a while

Filipinos love spam, and it works really well in fried rice as well.

 

[sdifox]

Filipinos love spam, and it works really well in fried rice as well.

supposed to be ham, but I guess if you got no ham, spam can step in

 

[Beev]

What did you wrong on the gnocchi? They take some effort, but are not too difficult to pull off.

They ended up very mushy and tasting bland. Luckily the marinara sauce I made to go with it was pretty good.

 

[Howard]

Rice for fried rice is ideally day-old jasmine rice, broken up into individual grains but you can get away with little clumps. Lots of peanut oil or lard in a huge wok over a jet's afterburner is the way to get the restaurant taste.

 

[rasczak]

supposed to be ham, but I guess if you got no ham, spam can step in

spam is the jack of all trades in the meats department. spam tastes great with everything.

 

[SunnyD]

I cook fried rice relatively often. A couple things I do - if I don't have "leftover" rice or rice that's sat out after cooking to drain for a few hours, I'll spread it into a large dish and microwave it for a bit. That evaporates off the excess water.

Second, I don't use a wok to cook my fried rice. Rather, I use a large griddle with a thin layer of oil.

The key though mostly is dry cooked rice.