Chinese fried rice... missing something

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jpinmaryland said:
>>salt occurs in many things naturally too. I dont advocate dousing my food with it though.

I went back and reread my post and I can't seem to find where I advocated 'dousing' my food with MSG. Could you please direct me to where I said that?

jpinmaryland said:
The other logical fallacy is that you admit some foods contain MSG naturally and then you advocate adding more of it. Huh?

My indication that MSG occurs naturally in foods was to prove it's safety. Safe to combine with these foods or use on it's own. Salt occurs naturally in foods, and yet you add more of it when you cook, do you not?
 
Glutimates very much help create a savory taste in food.

Savory is actually considered a fifth taste sense, after sweet, salty , sour and bitter. It is sometimes referred to as "umami."

Naturally occuring free glutimates can be found in mushrooms, peas, milk meat, cheese, tomatoes and other things. And of course in fermented foods, such as soy sauce and miso. Free glutimates can also be found in browned or grilled meat -- "fond" that we make pan sauces out of contains it -- which is why it is so yummy.

Glutimates make food taste good.

MSG, the flavor enhancer, is produced by fermenting starch, sugar beets, sugar cane, or molasses.

It does bother some people -- some more that others.

IMO, adding soy sauce to food usually accomplishes the same thing as MSG. But I am also known to add a tiny pinch of Goya sazon to foods. It has MSG.


Chinese restaurants do NOT use hoisin sauce in fried rice. Just soy sauce and a bit of oyster sauce (unless it's veggie fried rice).

Dark Soy sauce or thick soy sauce usually has molasses added.

Never use olive oil -- use peanut oil. olive oil tastes like olives and ahs a low smoke point. You need to fry rice at high heat.
 
hi guys, so can we try and get back on topic...

so basically, we have established:

Do not use olive oil.
Use penut or ... oil?

beat 1 egg into it, with shallots/onions/etc.

add refridgerated rice, and stir fry

at this point add in oyster sauce? are there different types of this?

then add seseme oil?

then add another beaten egg to the fried rice and lightly coat... like a sauce (how long)

and serve?
 
Hello Scott: I agree that there is really no health dangers associated w/ MSG, Posters above who suggest it will eat your stomach or whatever or just absurd.

I was arguing against the use of it as a given. Personally I do not like it, I get extrememly sleepy when it is added. I am pretty sure, since I never experience the sleepy feeling if I eat at a place w/ no MSG. My friend will actually start to perspire and turn red if it's in his food.

So I am against the notion that is has to be used in cooking.

If you want to argue that it is safe, I agree I have no reason to think it is a health hazard.
 
jpinmaryland said:
Also, you should not be stir frying w/ olive oil (the original poster on this thread).

Hot temps and olive oil is thought to produce carcinogens, at least some sources claim this. How much, how bad, I dunno, but the taste will be off.


From the Olive Oil Source

Olive oil is a great oil for cooking. Strong flavored olive oils can be used for frying fish or other strong flavored ingredients. A mellow late harvest mission oil could be used in baking a cake. Olive oil has a high smoke point, 410 degrees F, and doesn't degrade as quickly as many other oils do with repeated high heating. Use a variety of healthy vegetable oils when preparing food and incorporate a good extra virgin olive oil when you want its health benefits and wonderful Mediterranean flavor.

Leslie asks: I was told that olive oil, which I use almost exclusively, loses its benefits when heated. I understand that it becomes like any other fat when used other than in a cold state and is as "bad" as is butter or margarine. Does olive oil turn into a trans-fatty acid or saturated fat when heated. Is this fact or urban myth?

Dear Leslie:
Urban myth! Excessively heating olive oil will evaporate the alcohols and esters which make up its delicate taste and fragrance. Heating olive oil will not change its health aspects, only the flavor.

As far as making a saturated fat, according to Dr. A. Kiritsakis, a world renowned oil chemist in Athens, (Book - OLIVE OIL FROM THE TREE TO THE TABLE -Second edition 1998), all oils will oxidize and hydrogenate to a tiny degree if repeatedly heated to very high temperatures such as is done in commercial frying operations. Olive pomace oil and virgin olive oil are both highly monounsaturated oils and therefore resistant to oxidation and hydrogenation. Studies have shown oxidation and hydrogenation occurs to a lesser degree in olive oil than in other oils. But in any case, the amount of trans fat formed is miniscule and no home cook would ever experience this problem.
 
OU8thisSN said:
It tastes a lot like the stuff at restaurants, but itsnt totally authentic. what am i missing?

Sesame seed oil. stir fry your your flavor ingredients like your bacon, shitake mushrooms, peas or whatever takes your fancy. remove from the wok and stir fry the rice on high heat in a teaspoon or two (depending on quantity of rice) of Sesame seed oil. Add other ingredients back into wok and mix through and add a small amount of Sweet Soy Sauce to just color the riice.

Peanut oil is best for Chinese stir frying but I use Olive oil most of the time with excellent results. A pinch or two of five spice also gives it a lift.

At the risk of being branded a cooking knowitall, I will say categorically that unless you use the Sesame Seed oil you will never get the taste you said you are after.
 
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1750,148183-230199,00.html

The above link is the best 'recipe' I have found for 'traditional' fried rice. There are many versions, and spinoffs, as you can see above, but the link is the 'basic'.

I would also argue that soy sauce is the ingredient used, not either hoisin or oyster sauce. To sum up, the basics are

- leftover rice (preferrably a short grain, oriental type rice)
- use of vegetable oil - peanut or soy, or even - gasp! - Crisco oil!
- 'Scrambled egg cooked out flat, then cut into strips or julienne
- Whatever leftover veg/meat combo you like
- Soy sauce

Yes, you can add other flavorings, or ingredients, but this is pretty much what you will get in the restaurants; and that will even vary depending on the restaurant and region. In Jersey the fried rice always had soy in it; down here in the South, we're finding that it's the 'norm' for the rice not to have any soy or other sauce in it at all.
 
The issue with oilve oil is really more about taste. Chinese restaurants use peanut or canola oil -- or likely a mixture.
 
Be careful if you are going to use crisco for stir frying (see above post), this could turn into flames. A long time ago something like this happened to me, I cant remember if it was stir frying or some other type...Anyone else have a problem w/ crisco?
 
jpinmaryland said:
Be careful if you are going to use crisco for stir frying (see above post), this could turn into flames. A long time ago something like this happened to me, I cant remember if it was stir frying or some other type...Anyone else have a problem w/ crisco?

JP - If you're referring to my post, I said 'Crisco oil'; in any case, I fry chicken in melted solid Crisco, and have never had a flame problem.
 
I think the start of this thread sounded good to me. Having said that, I believe there are as many recipes for Chinese fried rice as there are people who make it. It's a good recipe for using leftovers. So, whatever you have in the fridge (that's still edible and doesn't have mold growing on it) is game for fried rice. Cut up, stir it, put some seasoning you like on it, and voila, you've got Chinese fried rice. Bon appetit!
 
yea i agree i always use left over stuff to make chinese fried rice or when there is so little of each in the fridge.
 
Try cooking onion until it is heavily caramelized, like a fried shallot. Then when you cook your egg, do it in a pancake type omelet (very thin) and shred, instead of dumping the raw egg on the rice.
And something done in Chinese restaurants, but not really advisable to do in the home kitchen is to flame the wok. I have watched them tilt the woks until the oil catches the flame, then the wok flames up and then dies down. I have never tried this of course, because I don't feel like burning my house down. :LOL:
 
you gotta use some chinese salt in the recipe to get that real chinese restaurant taste.
 
sarah said:
you gotta use some chinese salt in the recipe to get that real chinese restaurant taste.


The chinese use salt pretty sparingly. Soy sauce is used more often than salt to season food.
 
i think they use chinese salt which is not like regular salt,its called ajino motto.
 

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