Chased said:
Kpt._Rob said:
Fried Rice
You need steamed rice that's at least a day old, though if you age it a couple of days beyond that it's even better.
Then you dump like 4 cups of said rice into a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Let it fry a while, add salt and soy sauce to taste. I also like to add onions, chopped carrots, and peas, and while there are plenty of other things people often add, that's all I like, so I stop there.
Is it possible to do this with just normally cooked rice? I'm a bit of a culinary illiterate and I don't believe I posses the proper tools to steam rice.
edit: nice mushishi avatar
If you have a pot with a lid, a stove with a burner, and drinkable water, you have all the things you need to make steamed rice.
I usually put 2 cups of rice in a pot, then 3 cups of water.
I turn the burner to a high-ish setting until the water starts to boil (meaning that it starts bubbling), then I shift the burner down to a medium/medium-medium low setting, I place the lid so that it's covering most of the pot, but there's a thin sliver that's open where steam can leak out.
You leave it like that for 10 minutes, but watch it a little first, I find near the start of the process sometimes you'll get these weird white bubbles that pour out over the edge of the pot, if that happens just take the lid off and they'll settle down, after they do, put it back on, and watch it again. Once it's stable like that, give it 8-10 minutes before you check it.
When you check it, you should see these little tunnels in the rice that bubbles sometimes come up through (if you don't see them, put the lid part way over again and give it a couple more minutes)[also, if you've let it go a little too long, there won't be any bubbles, it's not a big deal at all, and it'll still taste good, but if you don't see bubbles don't worry, as long as the tunnels are there and the rice looks like rice, then you're good], then shift the burner to low and completely cover the pot with the lid. Leave it like that for 15 minutes and your rice is officially steamed.
I usually have a couple of bowls of that for my meal that day, and the next day (or a couple of days after that if I can find the patience within me) the leftover rice usually ends up being about 4 cups worth, so I just dump it all in the pan and that's my fried rice day. That, incidentally, is one of the best parts of this recipe, the anticipation. "Tonight," you tell yourself, "tonight, I'm having fried rice! And God Damnit all, it's gonna be good as hell!"
*EDIT* Ha ha, thanks, Mushishi is one of my favorite shows, it's always good to see another fan