Hi everybody,
I'm a newbie here. In my house I'm the 'sou chef' to my wife, although I often come up with new ideas and take liberties with recipes.
As far as Chinese food goes, I make a good hot and sour soup. However, one recipe I've never been able to make the way it is prepared in Chinese take-out (or, as the British say, take-away) is fried rice. I am never able to get the dark brown appearance, even though I use plenty of soy sauce. The white of the rice still shows through. I once used annatto, but that didn't seem to work either. I wonder if it is the reddish pork that usually comes with the fried rice that gives it the color I so like. I'm beginning to suspect that the take-out places use a food dye.
Well the question is, what is brown, dark brown, light brown. The traditional way is adding a light soy sauce (depending the region and the fried rice). The pork could have an influence, as the traditional chinese BBQ pork was glazed with honey or sugar in the final stage and the fat does disolve some of the color.
Can you be more specific about the kind of fat. I imagine you mean peanut oil or some such, but I'd like to be sure you don't mean Crisco. (When I was a kid we had a friend that we called Crisco, because he was fat in the can.)
Its usually the dark soy sauce (mushroom soy sauce as its sometimes called). Its usually less in sodium content and we usually mix the light (salt-substitute) and dark (color) and add it to the rice for a more uniform color. (usually mixed in equal amounts)
if you see a hole-in-the-wall type of place making fried rice, the ingredient that they keep adding on a regular basis while continuously stirring is dark soy sauce / mushroom soy sauce.
Thanks very much for your reply. I just went out to buy the dark soy sauce. I went only to one shop and I didn't find it, but I did get a barbecue sauce which is thick and black like roofing sealant. The first ingredient is sugar, the third is soy.
I have the rice boiling right now. We use my wife's method of boiling rice in lots and lots of water, not just enough so the water covers "the first joint of a finger". It comes out very fluffy. Of course, there is no "singing rice" stuck to the bottom of the pot. I guess my wife figured that if lots of water works for pasta it should also work for rice.
this type of soy sauce is commonly used by the Japanese, when they make their fried rice and it is darker. however when refering to chinese fried rice in general, especially in the cantonese cuisine the rice is not dark brown. Well at least back here in Asia. Will post a recipe, when i am back form work.
In addition to the Soy some Hoisin sauce helps. I don't cook Chinese much but I do like fried rice.
I've also added Worcestershire, more for flavor than browning but contributes to both. As I type this I'm wondering about Worcestershire and molasses in addition to the soy. Certainly not ethnically authentic but...
Some of the colour will come from the wok, the rest will come from either dark soy or oyster sauce and add near the end of cooking. Besides, fried rice shouldn't be dark dark brown but very light brown. If you want that dark brown colour, I recommend you steam your rice with a little soy sauce and add oyster sauce when making fried rice. Should help a little.
I made the rice yesterday. For the amount of rice I used I put too much oil in the pan and I also used too much of the barbecue sauce. It certainly came out much darker than what I had hoped for. It tasted too greasy while it was hot, but my wife liked it a lot after it had cooled off.
I'm going to experiment by steaming the rice, that is using a minimal amount of water, and add the barbecue sauce during the simmering process.
As promissed, a base recipe the way we cook it out here in Asian. The method is stir - fried.
Ingredients Specifications Units Quantity Cooked Rice Cold
Kg 1.000 Chinese Sausage Sliced small, blanched
Kg 0.250 Green Peas Frozen, blanch before using
Kg 0.200 Lettuce Iceberg, washed and dried
Kg 0.100 Shrimp Washed & de-veined
Kg 0.150 Soy Sauce Dark soy sauce
Ml 40 White pepper Ground
Kg 0.005 Eggs Fresh, approx. 50 grams per piece
Pcs 5 Spring Onion Washed, finely chopped
Kg 0.100 Garlic Peeled, chopped
Kg 0.030 Oil Corn oil
Ml 50 Salt Iodized
Kg 0.005
Method: · Using a Chinese wok, heat the oil. · Add garlic and sauté. · Add the beaten eggs, stirring well. Add the shrimps. · Add the Chinese sausage and stir well. (or BBQ pork) · Add the cooked rice into the wok. · Add the green peas, lettuce, salt and white pepper. Add the soy sauce and the spring onions. Stir well to evenly distribute the ingredients
you need high heat for this preparation.
note: BBQ sauce is not the right ingredient. Also i saw someone recommending Hoisin sauce. Hoisin sauce is served in the chinese for cold roasted appetizers, or when serving pekin duck etc.
I made steamed rice in the pressure cooker today. That's where you put the rice and water in a small bowl and place that in the pressure cooker with a cup of water. I added one teaspoon of barbecue sauce during the cooking which resulted in a very nice brown color and a slightly 'smoked' flavor. It was convenient in that it takes only a few minutes and there is no need to refrigerate the rice before frying it. Of course a true fried rice should include roasted pork.
Gianni
I read through all of the exsisting posts up to this point and most of the suggestions revolved around some kind of sauce to bring the "brown" color our friend asked about. The "brown" that you seek comes from method, and not your sauce of choice entirely. Fried rice came from where most things we Westerners think is great...Leftovers! Here's a great tip: Cook off two cups of rice, after you have rinsed it in cold water thoroughly, Chineese style (rice equal proportion to water). It should be sticky, but not starchy-gooey. Lay it out flat and cool it down fast. Allow it to dry out under refigeration. This is key...it must dry out! Now, when you go through your steps to prepare it, your rice will perform. Don't use so much oil and cook over high heat. Stir-fry is fast, hot cooking and it doesn't take much time if your mise en plas are in front of you.
When you stir in the soy sauce in the wok you need to do it gradually to get that overall even effect. Otherwise they'll be blothes and the whiteness comes through.
Hmmm... I see no one mentioned the way I make my rice brown, so I'll just throw in my two cents. I can't remember where I got this idea, but it works for me. I use a few beads of blackstrap molasses!
Hmmm... I see no one mentioned the way I make my rice brown, so I'll just throw in my two cents. I can't remember where I got this idea, but it works for me. I use a few beads of blackstrap molasses!
Thanks, Bughut! I have been joyfully following so many posts since joining; this is a treasure trove of ideas! I'd have to agree with MichaelGA; I do a lot of substituting or creative cooking due to the fact that I live in Vermont where a lot of the ingredients simply aren't available. I think that has been the biggest impetus in my learning to cook. If it takes an hour round trip to pick up tortillas at the market... time to learn how to make them yourself!
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