Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (36 page)

In rural households, rice may be boiled before being turned into a perforated bamboo pot for a final steaming. In this case, the careful economy of the traditional kitchen extends to the boiling water beneath the steamer (
mi tang
, “rice soup”). Milky in appearance and with a silken mouthfeel, it may be drunk as a soup, or boiled up with odds and ends of vegetables. This broth, once a poverty dish designed to save every last nutrient, is now a fashionable treat in “rustic” restaurants. It is best made with the cooking water from less polished or even brown rice.

When cooking rice, it is vital to remember that leftovers should be cooled then refrigerated as quickly as possible, definitely within four hours (rice left sitting in warm temperatures can cause food poisoning). It’s best not to keep cooked rice for more than three days.

PLAIN WHITE RICE
BAI MI FAN
白米飯

The most common method for cooking rice is to boil it in a measured amount of water, until the surface of the rice is almost dry and punctuated by little round holes, then to cover the pot and leave it to cook very gently for 12–15 minutes. At the end, you should have a potful of fluffy white rice with a delicious golden crust on the bottom. This crust is traditionally adored, especially by children; try to divide it fairly among your guests!

Deciding exactly how much rice to cook can be tricky: when I’m entertaining, I find sometimes I’m left with substantial amounts of uneaten rice at the end of the evening; while on other occasions I have to run out and cook some more during dinner. In general, I prefer to err on the side of generosity and find the quantities suggested in this recipe, which yields enough for two or three rice bowlfuls for each of four people, a decent compromise. You may well find you have some leftovers: use them to make fried rice or soupy rice the following day.

Different varieties of rice require slightly different cooking times and absorb varying quantities of water. Some, notably short-grained and brown rices, benefit from a prior soaking. Thai fragrant rice, also known as jasmine rice, is the one I normally use.

3 cups (600g) Thai fragrant rice

Rinse the rice well in a colander under the tap. Place in a saucepan with 4½ oz (1.1 liters) of water and bring to a boil over a high heat. Give the rice a good stir to remove any grains sticking to the base of the pan, then continue to boil for a few minutes until the surface of the rice is dry and covered in little round “breathing” holes.

Cover the pan tightly, reduce the heat to a minimum and continue to cook for 12–15 minutes, until tender.

VARIATIONS

Traditional steamer rice (
zeng zi fan
)
Bring your rice to a boil in plenty of water, then simmer for seven to eight minutes, until nearly cooked but still a little hard and starchy in the center of each grain. Then strain (reserving the water to use as a rice “soup,” if desired), put in a bamboo steamer—or a regular steamer lined with clean muslin—and steam over a high flame for about 10 minutes, until fragrant and fully cooked.

Pot-sticker rice served with rice “soup”
Another method is to cover the rice with plenty of water and boil it vigorously for seven to eight minutes, until partially cooked but still a little hard in the center. Then strain off and reserve the cooking water to use as a soup. Brush a little cooking oil over the base of the pan and return the rice. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook on the lowest possible heat until tender. (Chopped root vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and taro may be boiled and slow-cooked along with the rice, another old rural strategy for making the rice go further that is now enjoyed in “rustic” restaurants.) If you are making rice “soup,” do not rinse the rice before cooking and use less highly polished rices if available: you want as much starch and flavor in the water as possible. Serve the rice with the soup.

PLAIN BROWN RICE
CAO MI FAN
糙米飯

The word used to describe brown rice in Chinese,
cao
, means rough, coarse, crude, or even inferior. The unpolished grain is almost never eaten in modern China, even in restaurants that make a point of offering other coarse staples such as sweetcorn and sweet potatoes. I can’t actually remember a single occasion on which I’ve been offered brown rice to eat in China. Nonetheless, as most people know, it is far healthier than its refined white equivalent, in which most of the nutrients have been polished away to leave just a starchy kernel.

When it comes to entertaining, I have to admit that I’m still a rice snob and serve plain white rice as an elegant background to the flavors of other dishes. For simple home meals, however, I find I’m increasingly cooking brown rice to serve with Chinese dishes. Quite apart from its superior nutritional value, I love its juicy chewiness and taste and find it keeps me full and satisfied for longer. Here, then, is what I find the best method for cooking it. The pre-soaking really helps to give a perfect texture.

If you don’t have time to pre-soak your rice, or forget to, as I often do, you can also cover the rice in plenty of water, bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. I find it more difficult to achieve a perfect texture this way: you need more water for the longer cooking time if you are to avoid boiling the pan dry and, in my experience, the rice can end up a little soggy. In this case, I make a virtue of necessity, deliberately using more water than I need, then, when the rice is tender, straining off the silky liquid to be served as a “soup” at the end of the meal. I then cover the rice pan and heat it very gently until the remnants of water are absorbed. This quantity of rice serves about four people.

3 cups (600g) short-grain brown rice

Soak the rice in cold water for at least two hours.

Drain the rice and place it in a saucepan with 5 cups (1.2 liters) of water. Bring to a boil, then half-cover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, keeping an eye on it to make sure it does not boil dry.

Remove from the heat, fluff up with a fork, cover and leave for 10 minutes before serving.

EGG-FRIED RICE
DAN CHAO FAN
蛋炒飯

This is one of the simplest fried rices and a brilliant way of making leftovers into a satisfying meal. The following recipe gives an understated rice that can be served with Chinese dishes. If you want to make it into a one-dish meal, I suggest you use three eggs instead of two and season it more heavily with salt and soy sauce. Breaking the rice down into small clumps before you cook it will make the stir-frying quicker and easier.

When making fried rice, it is vitally important to use rice that has cooled completely (it is best to use rice cooked the previous day). If you try to stir-fry wet rice, the final result will be soggy and lack the marvellous fragrance that is the joy of this type of dish. For a more robust dish, use leftover brown rice instead of white.

This recipe serves two.

2 large eggs

1½ cups (300g) cooked, cooled rice (¾ cup/150g when raw)

2 tbsp cooking oil

Salt

Light soy sauce, to taste

4 spring onions, green parts only, finely sliced

1 tsp sesame oil

Beat the eggs together in a small bowl. Break the rice up as far as possible.

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the eggs and swirl them around to cover the base of the wok. When the eggs are half-cooked but still a littly runny on top, add all the rice and stir-fry vigorously, mixing everything together and breaking up any clumps of rice with your wok scoop or ladle.

Continue to stir-fry for a few minutes until the rice is piping hot and fragrant, seasoning with salt and soy sauce to taste. Add the spring onions and stir a few times until you can smell their fragrance. Stir in the sesame oil and serve.

VARIATIONS

Green fried rice
Beat a single egg and stir it into 1 scant cup (200g) cooked, cooled rice. Finely chop a few handfuls of spinach. Heat 2 tbsp cooking oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame, add the eggy rice and stir-fry until the grains have separated out and it smells delicious, adding salt to taste. Finally, add the chopped spinach and continue to stir-fry until the rice has acquired a greenish color. Serve.

Soy sauce-fried rice
Omit the egg and stir-fry leftover rice on its own, adding a rich soy sauce such as tamari to taste. The soy sauce will give the rice a pale brown luster and a good savory flavor.

YANGZHOU FRIED RICE
YANG ZHOU CHAO FAN 揚州炒飯

The city of Yangzhou in eastern Jiangsu Province is one of the ancient centers of Chinese gastronomy and the heartland of what is known as Huaiyang Cuisine. Strangely, only one of its dishes is widely known in the West and that is Yangzhou fried rice, which is on the menu of almost every overseas Cantonese restaurant. A colorful mixture of fragrant rice with diced meat, seafood and vegetables, it traditionally includes a little sea cucumber and crab meat as well as fresh bamboo shoots. Many versions, even some of those cooked up in Yangzhou itself, make this dish as a simple fried rice, but the classic recipe, upon which mine is based, includes an injection of chicken stock that adds an extra deliciousness. I have omitted hard-to-find ingredients, such as sea cucumber.

I first wrote this recipe for a Chinese New Year’s feature in a magazine. One friend told me afterwards that it had been such a hit with her children that she had been making it almost once a week ever since, so I’ve included it here in her honor.

Don’t worry if you don’t have every ingredient: the key is to have a tempting selection of colors and tastes amid the rice. There’s no need to weigh them exactly; just aim to have a small pile (about 3 tbsp when chopped) of each.Yangzhou fried rice can be served as part of a special Chinese meal, or as a whole meal in itself, perhaps with simply a salad or a lightly cooked green vegetable on the side (
Spinach in Ginger Sauce
would be perfect).

This quantity serves four as a main dish, or more as part of a Chinese meal.

½ oz (25g) raw pork fillet

½ oz (25g) ham or salami

½ oz (25g) cold, cooked chicken

2 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, stalks discarded

½ oz (25g) bamboo shoot (optional)

3 spring onions, green parts only

1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk (optional)

Salt

Ground white pepper

5 tbsp cooking oil

½ oz (25g) small peeled shrimp, fresh or frozen, cooked or uncooked

½ oz (25g) fresh or frozen peas, peeled fava beans or cooked green soy beans

2 tsp Shaoxing wine

¾ cup (200ml) chicken stock

3 cups (600g) cooked, cooled Thai fragrant rice (1½ cups/300g when raw)

Cut the pork, ham or salami, chicken, soaked mushooms and bamboo shoot, if using, into small dice. Finely slice the spring onion greens. Beat the egg with salt and pepper to taste (add an extra yolk if you wish to give the cooked egg an intense yellow color).

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the raw pork and shrimp and stir-fry briefly, until the pork is pale. Add the ham, chicken, mushrooms, peas or beans and bamboo shoot, if using, and continue to stir-fry for a minute or two, until everything is hot and sizzling. Add the Shaoxing wine, then pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Season with salt to taste, then pour into a bowl.

Rinse and dry the wok. Return it to the heat with the remaining oil. When the oil is hot, add the beaten egg mixture and swirl around the base of the wok. When the egg is half-cooked, add all the rice and stir-fry, using your ladle or wok scoop to break up any lumps.

When the rice is very hot and smells delicious (it will make a popping sound around the edges at this stage), add the bowlful of prepared ingredients in their stock sauce. Mix well and continue to stir-fry for another 30 seconds or so, seasoning with salt or pepper if you wish. Finally, stir in the spring onion greens and serve.