Yeung Chow Fried Rice/Yangzhou Chao Fan/揚州炒飯

Just like there are so many bastardised risotto, Chinese fried rice has been bastardised about 99.99% of the time. It's so fake, most of us don't even know what the real one tastes like. Think about it, for an authentic Chinese fried rice from thousands of years ago, would there be peas and carrots?

During my years a 'boss' chef, I saw a lot of Chinese-chef wannabes (pretending they had excellent authentic Chinese cookery training with fake certificate and desire to have a residency) who wanted to apply for a job. Of course I gave them the test of a real Italian chef with risotto,"Make me a fried rice".
"Little boss, I've been cooking for 30 years now. I can cook you abalone and shark's fin! Do you want?"
"Lets see if your 30 years worth more than my 3. Cook me a fried rice."
You can tell how good they are by just a simple 30 minute test; better than 30 days of regrets.
(Trust me, being a 5-star hotel executive chef at 17 is a billion times better than being in Masterchef ;P)

Like Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice), the real fried rice usually has not much in the department of vegetables. I mean even in the name, it only mention rice. Nothing should overpower that.

"All I could pray for is that you'd please wait for me
until I am a Master of Art,
until I have done everything."-Laura Stevenson and the Cans

The key with mastering the fried rice is getting the right ingredients and timing. In this recipe, I used a very-high heat home kitchen burner, which is still less heat than the Chinese restaurant's but higher heat than most home kitchen stove top out there. How do you overcome this? Cook the meat and egg separately. Set them aside. Add them in to warm up in the last few minute. The rice can take a lot of cooking. In fact just like risotto, it's a little OK to over fry the rice than undercook them because as it cools, the fried rice will release more moisture.

Now you can argue with me, that this is not as authentic as yours or you may even call this a Fujian fried rice, but I reckon this is as authentic as it gets. At least without carrots and peas...

Yangzhou Fried Rice
serves 2

3 cups white rice, one day old (or slightly-underdone-but-not-crunchy freshly cooked)
1 egg
4 raw prawns, cut to 2 cm chunks
100g Char siu, cut to 2 cm chunks

1 spring onion, mince white part finely and slice green part
1 garlic clove, mince
1-inch ginger, bruise

1 Tbs light soy sauce
1 ts oyster sauce
1 ts Michiu or gin
1/2 ts sesame oil
pinch of white pepper
pinch of MSG/chicken stock powder (optional)
2 Tbs pork lard/dripping
salt & sugar

1. In a bowl, mix soy, oyster sauce, michiu, white pepper, MSG, sesame oil, a pinch of sugar and 1 Tbs water. Set aside.
2. Heat to a wok with very high heat, add 1 ts lard. Add in egg and stir. As soon as it's not runny, about 30 seconds, take out to a plate and set aside.
3. Heat wok to smoking hot again with the rest of lard. Add in ginger. Stir for 2 seconds. Add in white part of spring onion, garlic. Stir for 2 seconds. Stir in prawn and char siu. Stir for 30 seconds. Add in rice, egg and soy mixture. Stir often for 3-5 minutes. Until you see some of the rice bounces and dances ('pop!'). Make sure you break the clumps of rice. Remove ginger. Transfer to a plate and garnish with green part of spring onion. Serve!

Follow the steps and you might just get a job from my future establishment...

Talking about Char Siu, look at Trinke attempting my recent Char Siu recipe with her awesome mum, Lyn @ •••ʿᶬˠ ᶩᶤᵗᵗᶥᵋ ᵐᵋˢˢᵞ ᴻ ᶜʱᵋᵋᵏᵞʾ••• !

I see a lot of this in Drug & Alcohol clinic, but this one's the best! ;D