Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Classically, Fujian fried rice has a base that’s made with dried seafood, which is usually dried scallop. However, given that it can be a hard-to-find ingredient for some people, so dry shrimp would also work. Just note that it’ll be more “dried shrimpiness” than dried scallop forward. Alternatively, if somehow you can find dried squid, dried octopus, small dried fish (non-fermented), they can all work in a pinch. Just make sure they’re indeed umami (some dried seafood can be more salty than umami). 2. If you want to go vegetarian, you can keep it simple and use shiitake + gailan stem as a base, which is similar to the one we showed in the video at 0:58 in the video. If going this route, I’d suggest using 20g dried shiitake mushroom and of course, reserving the soaking liquid. 3. It’s a bit hard to predict how much gailan you’ll need for 100g stem because they come in different sizes with bigger stem and smaller leaves or the other way around. But I’ll say probably 300g or gailan can give you 100g stem. 4. If you can’t find gailan, choy sum would be great as well. Or something crunchy like asparagus, broccoli stem, or celtuce (celtuce would only need a flash blanching). 5. For stir frying gailan, blanch the gailan after you blanch your gailan stems. Strain and set aside. To a clean wok, long yau, add in about 1 tbsp oil, toss in 2 cloves of garlic and half inch ginger, both smash. Fry till fragrant, toss in the blanched gailan, quick fry and swirl in a tsp of liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, mix. Then swirl in another tsp of soy sauce. Then season with 1/8 tsp each salt and MSG, mix and out. 6. I know that the aside on steaming fried rice ended up a little on the spicy side, perhaps overly so. I just went through the dregs of the comment section a bit (to find visuals for steaming being 'controversial'), and the process just got me a little... worked up. I know that a lot of y'all tried the method and enjoy it too - not trying to pretend there's some sort of hate squad when there isn't really :) I know that we've been a little slow recently - we're in the middle of a large project to put all of our recipes in written form into the Substack (under the "Recipe Box" here chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com/s/recipe-box ).
Hi @ChineseCookingDemystified, 2 comments I would like to share with you about the origins of "Fujian Fried Rice" which you discussed at the top of your video! 1st, Didn't people from Fujian Province (Hokkiens, Hokchius etc.) migrate to Hong Kong, either during the years of British colonial rule before WW2 or as part of the mass migration/evacuation movements of Chinese to HK in the wake of the Chinese Civil War? Would think the Fujian influence in this fried rice dish would have come more directly from these intra-HK migrant communities, instead of the Singaporean/Nanyang Hokkiens! 2nd, This might interest you, but there was a recent documentary series by ViuTV about the 茶餐厅 - I recall a portion of the 2nd episode of the series (about cha caan teng's "fusion" foods like satay sauce noodles) included discussions about Fujian fried rice - one of the interviewees (Dr Siu Yan Ho 蕭欣浩 from HK Baptist Uni) discussed his theory of Fujian fried rice being influenced by the thick sauce and expensive ingredients (like dried mushrooms and dried scallops) typically found in the Fujian-originated dish Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙). Perhaps the influence and evolution stems from that direction? Singaporean Hokkien Mee does not use such ingredients, after all! Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for the recipe video as always - always fun to learn more about Chinese culinary practices and culture!
The people complaining about day old rice are generally people who don't eat rice to begin with. Personally, I like a fried rice that's not just yaki (high heat) but actually fried to the point of browning the grains. Which means day old rice that's been dehumidified by the fridge can be helpful. Too many recipes assume "fried rice" is the more pilaf style that's not actually fried, just yaki (high heat). I learned to fry rice from a Nicaraguan lady who froze big portions of rice so she could feed a gathering of 8. She'd toss a brick of rice into a pan and hack at it with a big wooden spoon. I use the same method when I order too much Chinese takeout. The next day I fry up the white rice with whatever's left over. Make a full meal out of it. Big chunks of veg, meat, egg roll, whatever. I have ordered extra takeout just to make extra fried rice the next day.
@@shadowsoul12 So yeah! There was one story that I heard before that Fujian fried rice came from a group of working class Fujianese fishermen in Hong Kong who, when times were tough, added... a whole bunch of seafood into their fried rice? It never made much sense to me, and Steph tracked the story down to a Cantonese comedy of all things. We tried to do a bit of digging, and nothing seemed very solid. Very possible we could've missed something too. I'm also not in love with my Hokkien Mee hypothesis (it's a bit of a stretch), and the Fujian 佛跳墙 idea seems like a solid one. Will watch the series, thanks!
Singaporean here. I'm half Hokkien and cook a lot, like to the point people ask why I don't open my own restaurant. Hokkien mee being an inspiration for this feels like... A bit of a stretch :) they're both saucy and use shrimp, but their flavour profiles are very different. Hokkien mee is intensely shrimpy as it's made from boiling the shrimp heads (and sometimes dried anchovies too), while this sauce is mushroom and scallop forward. A closer comparison would probably be Singapore hot plate egg tofu, where the sauce it's smothered in is very similar to this, and it's also eaten with rice. No idea where that originates from though. Anyway, thanks for another great video!
The people who can’t cook fried from fresh rice are the ones complaining. They are cooking the rice with too much water that’s why they fail at it. Or their flame on their cooktop isn’t strong enough to make fried rice from fresh rice.
I'm so excited. This was my favorite thing to eat around 2010. It disappeared from all of our local restaurants, and I crave it. Now I don't need to worry. And those people yelling at you about steamed rice don't know what they're missing. It fries better than leftover rice, and it's not like it takes that long to do it. I added it to our weeknight dinner options because steaming and frying rice takes about 30 minutes start to finish.
We had a place called “Empress” in Houston in the early 70’s to 80’s, their egg rolls were huge, fat, brown, bubbly crispy, insides were lovely dark green shredded stuff, bits of pork/chicken/shrimp, very dry interiors, redolent of five spice, I have never found an egg roll to even come within ten miles of those. So, so miss them!
If you cannot find gailan, broccoli stem works as a perfect alternative; so many people throw them away, but honestly it's my favourite bit (more than the bud part).
I was thinking the same thing, or rapini as a more easily North American Available substitute. As for the broccoli stem - it never gets thrown away in my house. I will fight you for them.
Uncle Roger really raised a whole generation of home cooks that think left over rice is the only way for fried rice. Thanks for sharing the steam method. Cool stuff
I really don't like Uncle Roger. Once in a blue-moon he'll have a valid criticism but otherwise he's just annoying. People need to remember that he isn't a cook but a comedian; even his accent is fake.
@@benanderson89 i wont say his accent is fake, its a version of cantonese malaysia accent, many of the word he uses as Uncle Roger actually use by chinese malaysia here.. which is not surprise as Nigel is malaysia... his Uncle Roger accent is specifically called " Apak Accent" here in malaysia as it's often uses by a very specific generation of cantonese speaker here in malaysia, the original immigrate from china... Apak is cantonese for Uncle...
@@benanderson89 malaysia is using british english which is not surprise as malaysia is an ex british colony, so it's not weird for him to have a british accent, his name is Nigel Ng, that NG is a chinese surname.. and he is born in Kuala Lumpur, a state and the capital city in malaysia... he can only build his Uncle Roger persona if he is a malaysian because that is very specifically, a malaysia thing...
I started using your steam method for rice a few years back and never looked back. It’s seriously the best way. I don’t wrap the steaming vessel and just use the lid and it works fine.
This looks like the base to a tofu dish that I've been trying to recreate for years just known as "Fuzhou tofu" - A little fried/blanched egg tofu and I think that's it! Thank you!
i have never gotten good fried rice results with using day old rice. Since learning about steamed fried rice from you my results have been perfect every time.
saucy/stewy smothered rice is one of my favourite cross-cultural dishes, stuff like daar and rice from south asia and gumbo with rice from the southern us, definitely going to give this a try
Great recipe and super interesting. The rice cooking technique is very similar to the Chelow rice cooking technique used in Iran (and probably a few others). Nice to see commonalities between different cuisines.
We've been steaming our rice like this since we watched a previous video of yours, and honestly, it's now my favorite way to have rice! Even if we don't fry it, it's perfectly textured.
That was how my parents make rice at home in Indonesia before we bought a rice cooker. The only difference is that my parents have a dedicated stackable pot with two steamer accessories. I'm happy this channel is spreading the way of the old country 😅
@@TacticalKiwi4862 why not? it's colorful and it's taken from the local malay or indian dishes, i forgot what it's called, but it's basically pandan green rice, serve with dried coconut flakes and brown sugar.
Whenever my family ate at restraunts, we'd always get fried rice and 铁板豆腐. I always loved slathering the rice in the sauce leftover from the tofu-definitely gonna try this dish out 👀
I've done a similar thing with the rice, parboiling and then steaming it, but laid some thin potato slices into a pan to fry and then ladeled the rice over top, before cooking at a low heat Works really well most the time, and if you can get to the potatoes soon enough you have some nice crisp slices
Just tried the steamed rice method for the first time, and it was the easiest, no-stick fried rice I've ever made in my wok. I'm a convert. I'm never going back to overnight leftover rice.
Very interesting video!! This is very reminiscent of a fried rice dish I grew up with (in Anhui province): make egg fried rice as you normally would, and then pour just a plain, white rice congee (no seasoning, only made with water + rice) on top. Also good when the congee is cold and the fried rice is hot, which makes for an interesting textural and temperature contrast, and is nice and cool for a hot summer dinner. I'm honestly not sure how common this was, maybe it was only my family that did it. I'm not sure why we did it, but I think it's just to "stretch out" the rice with the congee since Anhui was historically pretty poor.
Just tried the steam method and 100% hands down the best way to cook rice for frying. I will never go back to day old rice now that I can cook fresh every time. I’m surprised I haven’t heard Kenji talk about this technique, but I probably just missed it somewhere…
YUM! This looks like a good dish for me as I have issues swallowing dry or carby dishes. The saucy element may well help, along with delivering flavours and textures to appreciate.
Yeah, they make this home made red wine mash and chicken dish. I can’t find it anywhere. My exs family owned a restaurant and they made it for special occasions. Taste like nothing I’ve ever had
I LOL'd. For those that are confused and scrolled straight to the comments, "咸猪手" (xián zhū shǒu, lit. "salty pork hands") is also a slang for touching someone sexually without consent.
@@heshuimu that is the slang for molester, there is a differ slang for touching someone sexually without consent... i dont know what it's called in mandarin, but in cantonese it's fei lai, meaning inappropriate conduct or improper conduct.
@@ZackThoreson one thing you need to understand about chinese words, the word salty is a slang to anything that is perverted, not sure why, but it is the way it is... for example, a perverted person is called "ham sap" meaning "salty wet", porno is called "ham pien" or "ham tie" or "ham sue" meaning "salty flake", "salty tape" and "salty book"... funny enough, "ham yue" or "salty fish" is a slang for corpse... and "ham arp tan" or "salty duck egg" is a slang for someone passed away...
Funny, I made Chūkadon for dinner tonight, which is a meat and vegetable dish where you make a starch thickened gravy with the stir-fried ingredients and pour over rice. I wonder if that was inspired by Hong Kong cuisine. Very similar other than using plain rice instead of fried rice.
Having only surface level understanding of Japanese Chūka... I can't help but feel like there's a massive crossover with Taiwan food (which is, of course, *hugely* influenced by Hokkien).
Yes, sometimes I wonder with dishes like chūkadon or hiyashi chūka where the Chinese inspiration came from. I just grew up eating them and didn’t think about it til watching great food channels like you guys and OTR!
i just discovered and fell in love with the Chinese inspired Thai dish Kuay Teow Kua Gai at a restaurant recently. I don't know if you've covered it before but I'd love to see a video on it.
I love your channel so much- it reminds me of when I studied abroad in China- but I don't eat meat anymore. If anyone reading has suggestions for vegetarian alternatives of traditional Chinese ingredients I'd love to hear them! *Edit just read your comment in the description about a vegetarian alternative- thank you so much! Luckily I have plenty of Asian markets around me since I live in a small city but it has a history of welcoming Asian and African immigrants and refugees.
I cannot believe how snooty people have gotten about "authentic fried rice" by listening and watching videos from a dude that lives in London and role-plays a stereotypical Asian
I’m going to host our first dinner with friends at our place soon and this looks like a great idea. I got a vegetarian guest though so I’ll have to find a way to transfer the concept of this gravy to be vegetarian. Specifically I like the thick gloopy aspect with some hardy flavorful chewy bits in it. I’ll likely lean more into combinations of mushrooms for that.
What he says might be generally correct, but I absolutely hate when people take what he says as gospel and not an overexaggerated character meant mainly for comedy.
And yet Nigel is still not a cook. He is a comedian. Don't take cooking advice from a comedian when you have a cook right there. Even the video he originally reacted on is simply him not understanding that the world is bigger than his experience and playing it up for laughs. It's annoying because it gets people harassed online. His contribution to the cooking world has been exclusively a bad one.
@@marks.7211 maybe statements like “actual Asian” as if that’s all one thing are part of the problem with how we consume Uncle R’s content? People assume that it’s normal for one Asian person to be an expert on the cuisines of 4 billion Asians across dozens of countries. Maybe not. Just a thought.
In Japan they have something similar and they call it Tianjin Fried Rice (Tenshin Chahan). In Singapore I think we'd call something like this Mui Fan 烩饭?
i'm split on uncle roger. On one hand, all the ppl making shitty 'authentic' Chinese food deserved to be made fun of. On the other, his character is an obnoxious caricature of asian stereotypes and frequently acts like the only "authentic" methods of cooking are his methods. Plus he makes a lot of weird edgy jokes like fingering 16 year olds and his fans are a blight on the community. I'd like him 10x better if he dropped his fake ass accent and just reviewed things like a normal person. And stopped making jokes about sexualizing minors.
at this point it’s just his fans who are annoying. like i doubt he would say anything about steamed rice. His fans just like to use his persona to play yellow face at any possible moment the can
I just made Jambalaya with day old rice. Nearly identical, except the sauce base was chicken stock. There is a nutritional advantage to using day old rice. Look up "resistant starch".
I was surprised that this called fujian fried rice, because in Malaysia it's "mun fan", Cantonese for "braised rice" I believe. It's hard to find nowadays but is still a comfort food for my dad who was born in the 40s
oh, in my local area, this dish is known as yin yang fried rice... there is also a noodle version called yin yang noodle which is basically just the sauce pour on top of deep fried noodle. also, i learn it from restaurant chef that fried rice dont need leftover rice, you just cook the rice with less water, that would give you the same texture as leftover rice... unsurprisingly, restaurant dont use leftover rice for fried rice as that is often view as health hazard.
for another, i don't think there's any restaurant that would be proud of using leftover rice for fried rice. health hazard aside, that's just telling people you couldn't sell enough food that you have to repurpose leftover, which means your food isn't even that good to begin with.
Forget the frying, I would just have that sauce over the white rice! What a cool steaming technique, I will try it. Also I don't know what "uncle roger" is if that makes you feel any better haha
I have been spreading the gospel about this rice cooking method. It’s almost fool proof. 90% of my rice is cooked like this, not just for fried rice. The texture is generally superior to my rice cooker, and at least in a 2 person portion, it goes much much faster
the fujian fried rice is also what the Fujian diaspora calls here as Steamed fried rice here in the Philippines. The fuzhounese spoken here (Fookkien, Philippine Hokkien) is linguistically similar to Mainland fuzhounese too. No wonder why dimsum places here have it as its best seller.
Can you cover Nam Ngiao? It's probably among my most favorite Thai dish that I know has some roots in other countries like Myanmar and China. I only eat this dish homemade since it's rarely found in Thai restaurants in the US, so I want to raise some western awareness for these AWESOME noodles.
Most (good) restaurants in China Town in London offer this - sadly the best I had was at one that closed down 9 years ago - will definitely try this at home
Putting rice in the fridge doesn't even always work to dry it out. My rice usually gets soggy where it hits the plate. Very excited to try this steaming method (or I will be once the weather cools off enough for me to cook inside my house again)
You know the whole "day old rice" only comes from the fact that fried rice is an easy way to use leftover rice, right ? It's not a mandatory step and it is absolutely possible to cook fried rice with freshly cooked rice. If you rice is "soggy", it's simply because your water ratio is wrong at cooking. Use less water. Not too little. Not too much. Just enough.
@@mrpepin Yeah I know. I've cooked fried rice with fresh rice fairly often. I'm just saying that putting it in the fridge doesn't always work to dry it out all the way. No matter how carefully I put the ratio of rice to water, no matter how perfect the rice is when first cooked, the next day the rice is always soggy at the bottom
@@LoxalairUse the fast mode of your rice cooker(or higher heat on stove), the rice to water ratio doesn’t really have to be that precise. The heat will get rid of the extra water. Then use the biggest plate you can find, spread the rice evenly, leave it to chill until it’s not steaming anymore. You don’t even need to put it into your fridge.
@@drdre137 Sadly, my cheap ass rice cooker only has two settings: cook and warm. I do know these things, I do them, and the rice still ends up soggy on the bottom. I think it's a condensation thing. More to the point of what I was getting at, I'm very excited to try the steaming method
It could also be the type and quality of rice you're buying. If you're buying a good quality jasmine rice and still getting a soggy result in spite of adjusting the water (I find that most guides online say to use far too much water) you may have a defective rice cooker @@Loxalair
Nope. Glutamate is just one of the compounds responsible for the taste. Others include inosinates, guanylates, theanine and basically most amino acids/nucleotides. Glutamate (MSG) is just the best known one and one that was isolated first. I won't comment on isolated MSG but I can guarantee naturally occurring umami compounds are not bad for you.
It's unbelievable how mean and ignorant people are about fried rice, especially on this of all channels. Nigel Ng's "Uncle Roger" character has done irreparable damage to people's literacy on Asian cooking, no exaggeration.
Honestly, I think he made Asian cuisine way more mainstream to western audiences. But the issue when you educate a large group of people is that most of them will still be dumb and won't understand things right. Before, they didn't take part in the debate since they weren't outside of it. Now they are part of the debate since they think they know, but they don't. It's not Nigel's fault. It's how humanity works. 🤷
Maybe the whole joke about Uncle Roger is that it inspired a whole group of know it alls who actually know very little. Uncle Roger is a comedic schtick of a trope very common in East Asia. People who take Uncle Roger as a source for cooking only exposes their own gullibility.
@@martytu20the issue is people do take them seriously. i remember pointing this out in a uncle roger video comment section a comment with 5k likes was going "wow uncle roger is so smart" and i get harassed in pretty low and gross ways by his fans. and then they try and claim "its just comedy, no one takes it seriously" even tho the comment praising uncle roger for his knowledge HAD 5K LIKES
Most places in Fujian have these sweet and sour deep fried pork just like other places in China, and some "red-braised" fish dishes as well as the famous sweet chili sauce, but this flavor profile is actually not that prevalent throughout the whole province in general. I think it's just an inside the Fuzhou city walls thing.
People saying the steam method is bad or does not work have either: 1. never cooked rice; 2. are only watching trashtok and gordon ramsey videos... and have never cooked rice.
this seems like it's right up my alley but something about it makes me think it's too involved for me (which is complete bullfinch guano since i at times make things that are way more involved) maybe i'm just intimidated by having to have two types of fresh meats to work with, though i reckon i can replace the shrimps with frozen stuff in a pinch (i know, iT wOn'T bE aUtHeNtIc AnYmOrE)
This is off topic...but can you show us how to make the condiment chinese olive vegetable? All I know is that it contains olives and mustard greens but am unsure whether it is pickled or preserved in soy sauce.
Guys ... just after the scene where you point out Swiss Chicken Wings aren't Swiss ... there is a brief shot of a Cantonese/English Menu which shows a dish described as 'Germany Sexual Harrassment'. PLEASE (PLEASE) explain the Chinese characters giving rise to this translation!
Literally, the characters (德国咸猪手) are "German Salty Pig's Trotters". BUT, "Salty Pig's Trotters" (咸猪手) is also a Chinese idiom for (physical) sexual harassment…
restaurants and banquet chefs steam rice. home cooks use leftovers. it’s the reason why your home fried rice will generally never be as good as a restaurant’s
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. Classically, Fujian fried rice has a base that’s made with dried seafood, which is usually dried scallop. However, given that it can be a hard-to-find ingredient for some people, so dry shrimp would also work. Just note that it’ll be more “dried shrimpiness” than dried scallop forward. Alternatively, if somehow you can find dried squid, dried octopus, small dried fish (non-fermented), they can all work in a pinch. Just make sure they’re indeed umami (some dried seafood can be more salty than umami).
2. If you want to go vegetarian, you can keep it simple and use shiitake + gailan stem as a base, which is similar to the one we showed in the video at 0:58 in the video. If going this route, I’d suggest using 20g dried shiitake mushroom and of course, reserving the soaking liquid.
3. It’s a bit hard to predict how much gailan you’ll need for 100g stem because they come in different sizes with bigger stem and smaller leaves or the other way around. But I’ll say probably 300g or gailan can give you 100g stem.
4. If you can’t find gailan, choy sum would be great as well. Or something crunchy like asparagus, broccoli stem, or celtuce (celtuce would only need a flash blanching).
5. For stir frying gailan, blanch the gailan after you blanch your gailan stems. Strain and set aside. To a clean wok, long yau, add in about 1 tbsp oil, toss in 2 cloves of garlic and half inch ginger, both smash. Fry till fragrant, toss in the blanched gailan, quick fry and swirl in a tsp of liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, mix. Then swirl in another tsp of soy sauce. Then season with 1/8 tsp each salt and MSG, mix and out.
6. I know that the aside on steaming fried rice ended up a little on the spicy side, perhaps overly so. I just went through the dregs of the comment section a bit (to find visuals for steaming being 'controversial'), and the process just got me a little... worked up. I know that a lot of y'all tried the method and enjoy it too - not trying to pretend there's some sort of hate squad when there isn't really :)
I know that we've been a little slow recently - we're in the middle of a large project to put all of our recipes in written form into the Substack (under the "Recipe Box" here chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com/s/recipe-box ).
Hi @ChineseCookingDemystified, 2 comments I would like to share with you about the origins of "Fujian Fried Rice" which you discussed at the top of your video!
1st, Didn't people from Fujian Province (Hokkiens, Hokchius etc.) migrate to Hong Kong, either during the years of British colonial rule before WW2 or as part of the mass migration/evacuation movements of Chinese to HK in the wake of the Chinese Civil War? Would think the Fujian influence in this fried rice dish would have come more directly from these intra-HK migrant communities, instead of the Singaporean/Nanyang Hokkiens!
2nd, This might interest you, but there was a recent documentary series by ViuTV about the 茶餐厅 - I recall a portion of the 2nd episode of the series (about cha caan teng's "fusion" foods like satay sauce noodles) included discussions about Fujian fried rice - one of the interviewees (Dr Siu Yan Ho 蕭欣浩 from HK Baptist Uni) discussed his theory of Fujian fried rice being influenced by the thick sauce and expensive ingredients (like dried mushrooms and dried scallops) typically found in the Fujian-originated dish Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙). Perhaps the influence and evolution stems from that direction? Singaporean Hokkien Mee does not use such ingredients, after all!
Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for the recipe video as always - always fun to learn more about Chinese culinary practices and culture!
The people complaining about day old rice are generally people who don't eat rice to begin with. Personally, I like a fried rice that's not just yaki (high heat) but actually fried to the point of browning the grains. Which means day old rice that's been dehumidified by the fridge can be helpful. Too many recipes assume "fried rice" is the more pilaf style that's not actually fried, just yaki (high heat).
I learned to fry rice from a Nicaraguan lady who froze big portions of rice so she could feed a gathering of 8. She'd toss a brick of rice into a pan and hack at it with a big wooden spoon. I use the same method when I order too much Chinese takeout. The next day I fry up the white rice with whatever's left over. Make a full meal out of it. Big chunks of veg, meat, egg roll, whatever. I have ordered extra takeout just to make extra fried rice the next day.
@@shadowsoul12 So yeah! There was one story that I heard before that Fujian fried rice came from a group of working class Fujianese fishermen in Hong Kong who, when times were tough, added... a whole bunch of seafood into their fried rice? It never made much sense to me, and Steph tracked the story down to a Cantonese comedy of all things.
We tried to do a bit of digging, and nothing seemed very solid. Very possible we could've missed something too. I'm also not in love with my Hokkien Mee hypothesis (it's a bit of a stretch), and the Fujian 佛跳墙 idea seems like a solid one. Will watch the series, thanks!
Singaporean here. I'm half Hokkien and cook a lot, like to the point people ask why I don't open my own restaurant. Hokkien mee being an inspiration for this feels like... A bit of a stretch :) they're both saucy and use shrimp, but their flavour profiles are very different. Hokkien mee is intensely shrimpy as it's made from boiling the shrimp heads (and sometimes dried anchovies too), while this sauce is mushroom and scallop forward. A closer comparison would probably be Singapore hot plate egg tofu, where the sauce it's smothered in is very similar to this, and it's also eaten with rice. No idea where that originates from though.
Anyway, thanks for another great video!
So how about a recipe for Germany Sexual Harassment?
I don't understand the hate on the same-day rice method. It's amazing, the results I get with it are amazing. I'm a believer
its because of uncle roger and other culturally insensitive morons. this channel is basically a big compilation of how misleading uncle roger is
The people who can’t cook fried from fresh rice are the ones complaining. They are cooking the rice with too much water that’s why they fail at it. Or their flame on their cooktop isn’t strong enough to make fried rice from fresh rice.
I'm so excited. This was my favorite thing to eat around 2010. It disappeared from all of our local restaurants, and I crave it. Now I don't need to worry.
And those people yelling at you about steamed rice don't know what they're missing. It fries better than leftover rice, and it's not like it takes that long to do it. I added it to our weeknight dinner options because steaming and frying rice takes about 30 minutes start to finish.
We had a place called “Empress” in Houston in the early 70’s to 80’s, their egg rolls were huge, fat, brown, bubbly crispy, insides were lovely dark green shredded stuff, bits of pork/chicken/shrimp, very dry interiors, redolent of five spice, I have never found an egg roll to even come within ten miles of those. So, so miss them!
The only restaurant around here that sold it closed… because of tax fraud… and now it’s a bank…
Sigh…
Though they called it Fuzhou chao fan.
If you cannot find gailan, broccoli stem works as a perfect alternative; so many people throw them away, but honestly it's my favourite bit (more than the bud part).
Who is throwing away broccoli stems wtf
I was thinking the same thing, or rapini as a more easily North American Available substitute. As for the broccoli stem - it never gets thrown away in my house. I will fight you for them.
Papa Lau from MadeWithLau explains this well: what do the the restaurants do when they run out of leftover rice? Stop selling fried rice? No! 😂
That doesn't mean they don't use leftover fried rice
Uncle Roger really raised a whole generation of home cooks that think left over rice is the only way for fried rice. Thanks for sharing the steam method. Cool stuff
I really don't like Uncle Roger. Once in a blue-moon he'll have a valid criticism but otherwise he's just annoying. People need to remember that he isn't a cook but a comedian; even his accent is fake.
@@benanderson89 i wont say his accent is fake, its a version of cantonese malaysia accent, many of the word he uses as Uncle Roger actually use by chinese malaysia here.. which is not surprise as Nigel is malaysia... his Uncle Roger accent is specifically called " Apak Accent" here in malaysia as it's often uses by a very specific generation of cantonese speaker here in malaysia, the original immigrate from china... Apak is cantonese for Uncle...
@@zerocalvin no his accent is literally an act. He has a heavy British-leaning accent in his day to day life. His real name is Nigel.
@@benanderson89 malaysia is using british english which is not surprise as malaysia is an ex british colony, so it's not weird for him to have a british accent, his name is Nigel Ng, that NG is a chinese surname.. and he is born in Kuala Lumpur, a state and the capital city in malaysia...
he can only build his Uncle Roger persona if he is a malaysian because that is very specifically, a malaysia thing...
@@zerocalvin You're missing the point: "Uncle Roger" is an act. That is not how he actually sounds. He is acting.
Replace the fried rice with stir-fried wide rice noodles with a little dark soy sauce and you have Thai Rad Na!
Wonderful video as always
That is good to know....
You guys won me over with the steamed rice when that video came out. It's amazing how big of a difference it makes!
I started using your steam method for rice a few years back and never looked back. It’s seriously the best way.
I don’t wrap the steaming vessel and just use the lid and it works fine.
This looks like the base to a tofu dish that I've been trying to recreate for years just known as "Fuzhou tofu" - A little fried/blanched egg tofu and I think that's it! Thank you!
Oooh, that sounds good!
This is one of my favorite HK cafe comfort dishes. It is wonderful to learn about the dish’s roots and learn about cooking it. Another super video. 🤘
I've been looking for this for AGES after having it at a restaurant and not knowing what it's called! THANK YOU!
i have never gotten good fried rice results with using day old rice. Since learning about steamed fried rice from you my results have been perfect every time.
Totally agree, you get no aroma from day old rice. Tastes like Panda Express rice.
saucy/stewy smothered rice is one of my favourite cross-cultural dishes, stuff like daar and rice from south asia and gumbo with rice from the southern us, definitely going to give this a try
This channel is literally a global treasure
I'm about to move and this is the first recipe I'm gonna make in my new kitchen. I love a good fried rice dish.
Just seeing the title and thumbnail brought back a flood of memories from my time living in Hong Kong. This is good stuff.
This rice cooking method is a gamechanger, wow!! Easiest fried rice of my life😍 thanks yall!
yes my favourite kind of fried rice. My dad who trained as a cook in hk would make this all the time. The sauciness is amazing!
Great recipe and super interesting. The rice cooking technique is very similar to the Chelow rice cooking technique used in Iran (and probably a few others). Nice to see commonalities between different cuisines.
We've been steaming our rice like this since we watched a previous video of yours, and honestly, it's now my favorite way to have rice! Even if we don't fry it, it's perfectly textured.
Same with me! It works even with super cheap long grain rice.
That was how my parents make rice at home in Indonesia before we bought a rice cooker. The only difference is that my parents have a dedicated stackable pot with two steamer accessories. I'm happy this channel is spreading the way of the old country 😅
You can't just say "So forth" on a picture of neon green rice, without elaborating!!
My guess is that's food coloring. Or some short of green juice (pandan, spinach, etc) plus food coloring.
@@trytoguess in south east asia, green colored food is usually pandan flavor... and yes, that is definitely food coloring.
Pandan rice from Singapore I lived there for three and a half years pandan leaf is a leaf you can use in main dishes and deserts
@@trytoguess I mean yea I get that. But why? WHAT? Why???
@@TacticalKiwi4862 why not? it's colorful and it's taken from the local malay or indian dishes, i forgot what it's called, but it's basically pandan green rice, serve with dried coconut flakes and brown sugar.
Whenever my family ate at restraunts, we'd always get fried rice and 铁板豆腐. I always loved slathering the rice in the sauce leftover from the tofu-definitely gonna try this dish out 👀
This is one of my favorite version ever! Saucy and flavourful!
I've done a similar thing with the rice, parboiling and then steaming it, but laid some thin potato slices into a pan to fry and then ladeled the rice over top, before cooking at a low heat
Works really well most the time, and if you can get to the potatoes soon enough you have some nice crisp slices
My favorite. But in my country, it's called "Fookien" fried rice and I can only find it in expensive Chinese restaurants. Thanks for this!
Just tried the steamed rice method for the first time, and it was the easiest, no-stick fried rice I've ever made in my wok. I'm a convert. I'm never going back to overnight leftover rice.
Thanks for another great video :)
My favorite non fujian invention. Somehow i feel its intimidating to make at home but your tutorial makes sense, so ill try this one day
Very interesting video!!
This is very reminiscent of a fried rice dish I grew up with (in Anhui province): make egg fried rice as you normally would, and then pour just a plain, white rice congee (no seasoning, only made with water + rice) on top. Also good when the congee is cold and the fried rice is hot, which makes for an interesting textural and temperature contrast, and is nice and cool for a hot summer dinner.
I'm honestly not sure how common this was, maybe it was only my family that did it. I'm not sure why we did it, but I think it's just to "stretch out" the rice with the congee since Anhui was historically pretty poor.
Popular in the Philippines too. Usually branded as "Steamed Fried Rice"
Just tried the steam method and 100% hands down the best way to cook rice for frying. I will never go back to day old rice now that I can cook fresh every time. I’m surprised I haven’t heard Kenji talk about this technique, but I probably just missed it somewhere…
YUM! This looks like a good dish for me as I have issues swallowing dry or carby dishes.
The saucy element may well help, along with delivering flavours and textures to appreciate.
Thank you! It's my favorite form of all fried rice!
I often use egg drop soup as a topping for rice dishes. I'll have to give this a try.
Omgg fujian cuisine is so underrated
Yeah, they make this home made red wine mash and chicken dish. I can’t find it anywhere. My exs family owned a restaurant and they made it for special occasions. Taste like nothing I’ve ever had
Never get tired of your content 😊🥢
Nice. As a southeast asian, I think this is inspired by the classic cantonese Mui Fan 烩饭, which is gravy over plain rice.
"Germany sexual harassment" OMG 💀💀💀
I LOL'd.
For those that are confused and scrolled straight to the comments, "咸猪手" (xián zhū shǒu, lit. "salty pork hands") is also a slang for touching someone sexually without consent.
@@heshuimuyeah, that doesn’t make me like it much more 😅
@@heshuimu that is the slang for molester, there is a differ slang for touching someone sexually without consent... i dont know what it's called in mandarin, but in cantonese it's fei lai, meaning inappropriate conduct or improper conduct.
@@ZackThoreson one thing you need to understand about chinese words, the word salty is a slang to anything that is perverted, not sure why, but it is the way it is... for example, a perverted person is called "ham sap" meaning "salty wet", porno is called "ham pien" or "ham tie" or "ham sue" meaning "salty flake", "salty tape" and "salty book"...
funny enough, "ham yue" or "salty fish" is a slang for corpse... and "ham arp tan" or "salty duck egg" is a slang for someone passed away...
I mean, the correct translation is "German-style Pork Knuckle", I just... couldn't help myself. One of the all time great dish translations
This is honestly one of my favourite dishes
This looks so good. The sauce reminds me of almond chicken.
Funny, I made Chūkadon for dinner tonight, which is a meat and vegetable dish where you make a starch thickened gravy with the stir-fried ingredients and pour over rice. I wonder if that was inspired by Hong Kong cuisine. Very similar other than using plain rice instead of fried rice.
Having only surface level understanding of Japanese Chūka... I can't help but feel like there's a massive crossover with Taiwan food (which is, of course, *hugely* influenced by Hokkien).
chuukadon (中華丼）does mean chinese rice bowl, so it is a chinese inspire dish.
Yes, sometimes I wonder with dishes like chūkadon or hiyashi chūka where the Chinese inspiration came from. I just grew up eating them and didn’t think about it til watching great food channels like you guys and OTR!
i just discovered and fell in love with the Chinese inspired Thai dish Kuay Teow Kua Gai at a restaurant recently. I don't know if you've covered it before but I'd love to see a video on it.
I love your channel so much- it reminds me of when I studied abroad in China- but I don't eat meat anymore. If anyone reading has suggestions for vegetarian alternatives of traditional Chinese ingredients I'd love to hear them!
*Edit just read your comment in the description about a vegetarian alternative- thank you so much! Luckily I have plenty of Asian markets around me since I live in a small city but it has a history of welcoming Asian and African immigrants and refugees.
You two are awesome. 😊
I cannot believe how snooty people have gotten about "authentic fried rice" by listening and watching videos from a dude that lives in London and role-plays a stereotypical Asian
I’ve been looking for something like this, looks easy and so tasty 😋 Thanks as always Chris & Stef! 🙏
I’m going to host our first dinner with friends at our place soon and this looks like a great idea. I got a vegetarian guest though so I’ll have to find a way to transfer the concept of this gravy to be vegetarian. Specifically I like the thick gloopy aspect with some hardy flavorful chewy bits in it. I’ll likely lean more into combinations of mushrooms for that.
We have a vegetarian suggestion in the pinned comment :)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified thank you so much, that's amazing!
Those people citing uncle roger as if he had *any* actual chef knowledge beyond being an annoying overplayed stereotype are pretty annoying...
What he says might be generally correct, but I absolutely hate when people take what he says as gospel and not an overexaggerated character meant mainly for comedy.
Nigel said that he consults with actual asian chefs before creating the video. It's kust a character
And yet Nigel is still not a cook. He is a comedian. Don't take cooking advice from a comedian when you have a cook right there.
Even the video he originally reacted on is simply him not understanding that the world is bigger than his experience and playing it up for laughs. It's annoying because it gets people harassed online.
His contribution to the cooking world has been exclusively a bad one.
@@marks.7211 maybe statements like “actual Asian” as if that’s all one thing are part of the problem with how we consume Uncle R’s content? People assume that it’s normal for one Asian person to be an expert on the cuisines of 4 billion Asians across dozens of countries.
Maybe not. Just a thought.
@@aritra2116most of what he says about chinese cooking is wrong lol
This is one of my favorite fried rices too
same day fried rice is amazing, I always do it.
In Japan they have something similar and they call it Tianjin Fried Rice (Tenshin Chahan).
In Singapore I think we'd call something like this Mui Fan 烩饭?
I have never heard of steamed rice before, seems interesting! I'll surely give it a go 😊
uncle roger really made half the internet into armchair asian cooking experts
Fujian fuyoh
i'm split on uncle roger. On one hand, all the ppl making shitty 'authentic' Chinese food deserved to be made fun of. On the other, his character is an obnoxious caricature of asian stereotypes and frequently acts like the only "authentic" methods of cooking are his methods. Plus he makes a lot of weird edgy jokes like fingering 16 year olds and his fans are a blight on the community.
I'd like him 10x better if he dropped his fake ass accent and just reviewed things like a normal person. And stopped making jokes about sexualizing minors.
Ironically, Uncle Roger has turned half the internet into Asian uncles that nitpick every little thing. Haiyaa.
at this point it’s just his fans who are annoying. like i doubt he would say anything about steamed rice.
His fans just like to use his persona to play yellow face at any possible moment the can
Well it's no wonder the stereotype of Malaysians making bad Chinese food sticks around. People in general still using "rice from the Ming Dynasty"
You had me at gravy, going 60 in a 35 to the grocery store rn
Hey, don't kill all the pedestrians. Leave some kids for the rest of us.
I love this fried rice.
I just made Jambalaya with day old rice. Nearly identical, except the sauce base was chicken stock. There is a nutritional advantage to using day old rice. Look up "resistant starch".
I have also seen this called 福建烩饭, which somewhat resolves the problem expectations for "fried" rice/炒饭.
Yes!!! I was hoping for you guys to cover this!!!
interesting concept. might try it later.
I was surprised that this called fujian fried rice, because in Malaysia it's "mun fan", Cantonese for "braised rice" I believe. It's hard to find nowadays but is still a comfort food for my dad who was born in the 40s
I look forward to watching these videos!
oh, in my local area, this dish is known as yin yang fried rice... there is also a noodle version called yin yang noodle which is basically just the sauce pour on top of deep fried noodle.
also, i learn it from restaurant chef that fried rice dont need leftover rice, you just cook the rice with less water, that would give you the same texture as leftover rice... unsurprisingly, restaurant dont use leftover rice for fried rice as that is often view as health hazard.
for another, i don't think there's any restaurant that would be proud of using leftover rice for fried rice. health hazard aside, that's just telling people you couldn't sell enough food that you have to repurpose leftover, which means your food isn't even that good to begin with.
Seriously, restaurants aren't using day old rice, that would be so weird. Fried rice is a great way to *use* leftover rice, it's not a requirement!
hm, but yin yang fried rice should be different, similar concept but there's supposed to be 2 different gravies in 1 dish.
@@lepidoptery that isnt the yin yang fried rice in my area.. we dont have fried rice with 2 gravy on it.
Sometimes I just make a really thick egg drop soup and throw it over some rice. It essentially becomes a gravy and reminds me of this.
Good god, that looks amazing!
Forget the frying, I would just have that sauce over the white rice! What a cool steaming technique, I will try it.
Also I don't know what "uncle roger" is if that makes you feel any better haha
I have been spreading the gospel about this rice cooking method. It’s almost fool proof. 90% of my rice is cooked like this, not just for fried rice. The texture is generally superior to my rice cooker, and at least in a 2 person portion, it goes much much faster
@1:19 I want to try that ONE!!!!! Can I UberEat or DoorDash that dish?
the fujian fried rice is also what the Fujian diaspora calls here as Steamed fried rice here in the Philippines. The fuzhounese spoken here (Fookkien, Philippine Hokkien) is linguistically similar to Mainland fuzhounese too. No wonder why dimsum places here have it as its best seller.
I'm making this on the weekend!
Can you cover Nam Ngiao? It's probably among my most favorite Thai dish that I know has some roots in other countries like Myanmar and China. I only eat this dish homemade since it's rarely found in Thai restaurants in the US, so I want to raise some western awareness for these AWESOME noodles.
Most (good) restaurants in China Town in London offer this - sadly the best I had was at one that closed down 9 years ago - will definitely try this at home
Putting rice in the fridge doesn't even always work to dry it out. My rice usually gets soggy where it hits the plate. Very excited to try this steaming method (or I will be once the weather cools off enough for me to cook inside my house again)
You know the whole "day old rice" only comes from the fact that fried rice is an easy way to use leftover rice, right ? It's not a mandatory step and it is absolutely possible to cook fried rice with freshly cooked rice. If you rice is "soggy", it's simply because your water ratio is wrong at cooking. Use less water. Not too little. Not too much. Just enough.
@@mrpepin Yeah I know. I've cooked fried rice with fresh rice fairly often. I'm just saying that putting it in the fridge doesn't always work to dry it out all the way. No matter how carefully I put the ratio of rice to water, no matter how perfect the rice is when first cooked, the next day the rice is always soggy at the bottom
@@LoxalairUse the fast mode of your rice cooker(or higher heat on stove), the rice to water ratio doesn’t really have to be that precise. The heat will get rid of the extra water. Then use the biggest plate you can find, spread the rice evenly, leave it to chill until it’s not steaming anymore. You don’t even need to put it into your fridge.
@@drdre137 Sadly, my cheap ass rice cooker only has two settings: cook and warm. I do know these things, I do them, and the rice still ends up soggy on the bottom. I think it's a condensation thing. More to the point of what I was getting at, I'm very excited to try the steaming method
It could also be the type and quality of rice you're buying. If you're buying a good quality jasmine rice and still getting a soggy result in spite of adjusting the water (I find that most guides online say to use far too much water) you may have a defective rice cooker @@Loxalair
Dang! That looks tasty!
Steamed rice makes the best fried rice.
thank you so much
Great video! Thank you.
Umami is MSG. That's all. Once we hated it. Now, with a new name, we must love it. Umami!!!
Nope. Glutamate is just one of the compounds responsible for the taste. Others include inosinates, guanylates, theanine and basically most amino acids/nucleotides. Glutamate (MSG) is just the best known one and one that was isolated first. I won't comment on isolated MSG but I can guarantee naturally occurring umami compounds are not bad for you.
I think a great addition would be to include the chinese character when you speak chinese (:
Those idiots mentioning Uncle Roger are confusing a god damn comedian to a professional chef.
Hokkien independent fried rice!
Me after not watching this channel for ages:
"Long hair Steph isn't real, she can't hurt you."
(Joke aside, looks great)
The gravy reminds me a lot of Indonesian "Kwetiau Siram", only served with rice instead of rice noodle
one of my favs
It's unbelievable how mean and ignorant people are about fried rice, especially on this of all channels. Nigel Ng's "Uncle Roger" character has done irreparable damage to people's literacy on Asian cooking, no exaggeration.
Honestly, I think he made Asian cuisine way more mainstream to western audiences. But the issue when you educate a large group of people is that most of them will still be dumb and won't understand things right. Before, they didn't take part in the debate since they weren't outside of it. Now they are part of the debate since they think they know, but they don't. It's not Nigel's fault. It's how humanity works. 🤷
Maybe the whole joke about Uncle Roger is that it inspired a whole group of know it alls who actually know very little.
Uncle Roger is a comedic schtick of a trope very common in East Asia. People who take Uncle Roger as a source for cooking only exposes their own gullibility.
@@martytu20the issue is people do take them seriously. i remember pointing this out in a uncle roger video comment section
a comment with 5k likes was going "wow uncle roger is so smart" and i get harassed in pretty low and gross ways by his fans. and then they try and claim "its just comedy, no one takes it seriously" even tho the comment praising uncle roger for his knowledge HAD 5K LIKES
u guys are the best ...
Thank you! Yay starches
Most places in Fujian have these sweet and sour deep fried pork just like other places in China, and some "red-braised" fish dishes as well as the famous sweet chili sauce, but this flavor profile is actually not that prevalent throughout the whole province in general. I think it's just an inside the Fuzhou city walls thing.
I'm curious - you can buy dried parboiled rice (dried as in entirely shelf-stable). Could I steam that directly?
damn! your hair has grown long since i last watched your videos
At last, fusion cuisine😛
What knife brands do you use for cooking with?? i cant find any of the knives in your videos online
People saying the steam method is bad or does not work have either:
1. never cooked rice;
2. are only watching trashtok and gordon ramsey videos... and have never cooked rice.
this seems like it's right up my alley but something about it makes me think it's too involved for me (which is complete bullfinch guano since i at times make things that are way more involved)
maybe i'm just intimidated by having to have two types of fresh meats to work with, though i reckon i can replace the shrimps with frozen stuff in a pinch (i know, iT wOn'T bE aUtHeNtIc AnYmOrE)
This is off topic...but can you show us how to make the condiment chinese olive vegetable? All I know is that it contains olives and mustard greens but am unsure whether it is pickled or preserved in soy sauce.
Excellent clip 👌
i want to make this (properly) so badly, but that's about $30 worth of dried scallop where i live
Guys ... just after the scene where you point out Swiss Chicken Wings aren't Swiss ... there is a brief shot of a Cantonese/English Menu which shows a dish described as 'Germany Sexual Harrassment'. PLEASE (PLEASE) explain the Chinese characters giving rise to this translation!
Literally, the characters (德国咸猪手) are "German Salty Pig's Trotters". BUT, "Salty Pig's Trotters" (咸猪手) is also a Chinese idiom for (physical) sexual harassment…
restaurants and banquet chefs steam rice. home cooks use leftovers. it’s the reason why your home fried rice will generally never be as good as a restaurant’s
Delicious ❤❤❤