Unlike white rice which is always served in individual bowls, fried rice with its many ingredients, is considered almost a complete meal and is served on a communal plate. Most Taiwanese though, prefer to eat it with a soup and at least one vegetable dish.

Serves: 4

Ingredients
5 cups cooked white rice (rice recipe)
2 eggs
4 stalks spring onions, cut into 1 cm (3/8") lengths
Pinch salt
Pinch pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
150 g (5 oz) lean pork, julienned
2 cups cabbage, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup carrot, finely sliced
1/3 cup strongly flavoured chicken stock
4 tablespoons soy sauce

Method

1. Break rice into individual grains with your hands and put aside.
2. Beat eggs. Add 1/4 of spring onions, salt and pepper. Mix well. Heat a frying pan to a medium heat and smear with oil. Make an omelette. Slice into small pieces and set aside.
3. Heat rest of oil in wok at a very low heat. Add garlic and fry for a minute until oil is garlic-flavoured – do not brown garlic. Remove garlic but leave as much oil in wok as possible.
4. Bring wok to full heat. Add pork, stirring rapidly for 30 seconds. One by one add cabbage, carrots, and spring onions while stirring. Return garlic to wok. Add stock and soy sauce, bring to a boil. Stir fry for two minutes more.
5. Add rice and stir everything for a few minutes until rice is hot. If rice starts to stick to wok, reduce heat. Add omelette and cook for a minute more before serving on a plate.

Notes

Preparing Rice to Make Fried Rice The trick with fried rice is ending up with a dish that is neither to dry or too soggy. You should not use freshly cooked rice as it is usually too gooey to make good fried rice. Use leftover rice, or at a minimum, let just-cooked rice cool in the pot for an hour without the lid. You can stir it to speed up the cooling/drying process. Then stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours, again without the lid.

If your leftover rice has been in the fridge for a few days, it will be pretty dry and you might want to add a little more water to the stock for fried rice. Conversely, same-day cooked rice might need a bit less stock. Fried Rice Recipe

Read about the origin of fried rice: Great Leftovers