Fried Rice with Bacon

This is a moist/soft version of the fried rice. In earlier post I did a Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage, in this version I've substitute the Chinese sausage for something that is much more likely to be found in an American supermarket, and that is Bacon! This is the first difference, and couple other differences are that the fried rice in this version comes out more moist instead of the crispy texture in the previous version and there are additional mushroom and five spice flavor. Please don't worry if you can't find five spice powder, just half the five spice powder amount called for and substitute cinnamon powder.


Serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 strips of bacon
5 button mushroom, sliced
1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine or dried sherry
5 cups of cooked rice, from the day before, loosened by using a spatula
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon of five spice powder, or 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1 scallion, green part only thinly sliced

Tips:

1. Five spice powder or cinnamon powder is very strong, we only want to add a tiny bit to give our fried rice an enhanced flavor and at the same time not overpowering it.
2. Generally long grain rice are better for making fried rice because it has less moisture than the short grain rice. If you like the crispy texture of the fried rice, please refer to my early post Fried Rice with Chinese sausage.
   

Instruction:

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and beat the yolk
2. In a medium sized pan, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, add in the bacon, cook until crispy (about 8 minutes), turning occasionally. Once cooked, place bacon on a paper-towel to drain the grease. Cut length-wise into thin slices.
   
3. Discard the bacon grease, put in the sliced onion. When onion is soft (about 5 mintues), add in the sliced mushroom and wine, when mushroom is soft and the wine is almost evaporated (about 3 minutes), then add in the egg white and cook for 1 minute.
   
4. Meanwhile, in a wok, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, when the oil is hot but not smoking, add in the egg yolk, let it cook in the oil for about 30 seconds, then break it into pieces with your ladle or spatula.
5. Add in the rice, using the back of the ladle to press the clumps of rice against the wok to break it apart. The goal here is to break up the rice into individual grains. Keep stir-fry and press the rice, and toss the rice and egg regularly to help this process, until rice is sperated into individual grains (about 10-15 minutes) .
   
6. Now add in the cooked onion and mushroom mixture into the rice, add in the soy sauce, five spice powder, and salt to taste. Stir fry until everything is mixed together and turn off the heat. Add in the bacon and scallions then serve.

Fried rice with Chinese sausage

Fried rice is one of the staples in a Chinese restaurant. Every Chinese restaurant I've been to have had at least one version of it, sometimes several different versions. For picking my first recipe on this blog, I figure it has to be a common and popular dish that is easy to do, what is better than fried rice?

Like I mentioned earlier, there are many different versions of fried rice. The variations between them are the ingredients and the cooking method. This version of fried rice I've learned from a Chinese post on the Internet and it has instantly becoming my favorite version. What I love about this version is once finished, every rice grain is separated from each other, and mixed with golden egg pieces. The "mouth feel"/texture of the individual rice grains is filling, almost crunchy, which I prefer much more over the soggy texture. This dish is also very healthy too (). Okay, without further ado, here is the recipe for fried rice.

Fried rice with Chinese sausage

Serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 eggs
Half of a medium onion, thinly sliced
1 links of Chinese sausage, thinly sliced
5 cups of cooked rice from the day before, loosensed by using a spetula
1 scallion, green part only thinly sliced

Ingredients from left to right: cooked rice,
onion, Chinese sausage, eggs and green onion

Instruction:

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and beat the yolk
2. In a medium sized pan, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, add in the onion. When onion is soft (about 5 mintues), add in the Chinese sausage and continue to cook for 5 minutes, then add in the egg white and cook for 1 minute.
   
3. Meanwhile, in a wok, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, when the oil is hot but not smoking, add in the egg yolk, let it cook in the oil for about 30 seconds, then break it into pieces with your ladle or spatula.
4. Add in the rice, using the back of the ladle to press the clumps of rice against the wok to break it apart. The goal here is to break up the rice into individual grains so we can have the crispy texture. Keep stir-fry and press the rice, and toss the rice and egg regularly to let the moisture built-up escape. When rice is sperated into individual grains and if you slow down, you can see the rice grains are jumping on the edge of the wok, then this means the rice is done, about 10-15 minutes.
   
5. Now add in the cooked ingrindents from step 3 into the rice, and add salt to taste. Stir fry until everything is mixed together and turn off the heat. Add in the scallions and serve.