Cooking: Umami Fried Rice

The chef I admire most, Kiritani Hana, once said:

“Good food is improved through constant practice.”

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So every time I cook, I try to make it a little better than last time, and add a bit of my own recipe while I’m at it.

Soy sauce fried rice is already pretty good, I think. But recently I got my hands on a bottle of “salted duck egg yolk mayo” — hardcore stuff — and I figured I’d throw it into the fried rice. Tried it today and it went great. Here’s the rundown.

• Overnight rice
• Black pepper
• Egg
• Scallion segments
• One spoonful of salted duck egg yolk mayo
• Light soy sauce

Still the standard soy sauce fried rice opening: first you need a bowl of overnight rice, and you can press it with a spoon to make sure the grains separate.

Hot pan, cold oil, toss in the scallion segments and fry until fragrant, then add a spoonful of salted duck egg yolk mayo and fry until it smells good and the oil comes out.

Add the overnight rice straight in, press it apart with the spatula, add the beaten egg, and stir-fry over medium heat. Try tossing the pan to break the rice grains up.

Add black pepper, drizzle light soy sauce around the edge of the pan, then keep stir-frying over low heat. You can also add whatever else you like depending on taste and leftovers — this time I added lettuce and some leftover fried mantou slices (chopped into dice).

Once it smells fragrant it’s ready to come out of the pan. Looks decent enough.

The best thing about this fried rice is how savory and fragrant it feels. I don’t know if it’s the salted duck egg doing it, but it was pretty unforgettable.