Cantonese Fried Rice Ver.2

I posted similar recipe of the same fried rice at the very beginning when I started my site, it’s one of the one-bowl dish I make frequently. But I made small improvements since then, so I would like to share it again.

The key ingredients of this fried rice are dry shiitake mushroom, dry shrimp and Cantonese sausage, three essentials in most Cantonese fridges. Cantonese like dry preserved food products that have deeper flavour than their fresh existences. I guess that’s why it’s called Cantonese Fried Rice. It has comforted tired hearts in any lazy nights.

All ingredients in this recipe are so common that can be easily obtained in any Asian grocery stores.

Serve 2

• Ingredients –
  Leftover rice, 3 cups. Leftover rice is better than freshly cooked rice for fried rice because it’s not very moist. If you use freshly steamed rice, make sure it’s cooled down before cooking;
  Cantonese sausage, 2. These dry sausages are sweet and savoury, usually made of pork;
  Dry shrimp, 2tbsp;
  Dry shiitake mushroom, 50g when dry;
  Ginger, 15g;
  Green onion, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt.

How to do –
1. Prepare the ingredients. Cantonese sausage sliced; dry shrimp soaked in water for a few minutes; dry mushroom soaked in hot water for at least half an hour till soft, then remove the stem, cut into small dices; ginger sliced; spring onion thinly sliced;

2. Heat 2tbsp of oil in hot pan then fry the sausage in medium high heat till golden at the edges and fat released, move aside;

3. Put in the dry shrimps and ginger slices, fry in medium high heat till fragrant and golden, it should only take about 1 or 2 minutes, then remove the shrimp and sausage off the pan, keep the ginger and oil in;

4. Put in the shiitake mushrooms and stir-fry with the ginger till fragrant, add 1cup of water and half tsp of salt, lid on, bring to boil, and simmer in medium heat for about 5 minutes till water dried out. Dry shiitake mushroom is thick and needs to be braised and seasoned. Ginger can eliminate the tiny nasty taste of preserved food; removed the ginger after braising;

5. Add 1 or 2tbsp of oil in wok, then put in the rice, sausage and shrimp, press and break the rice lump gently with frying spoon. If the rice is too dry, sprinkle a little water on the rice. In high heat, flip and stir till mix well. But don’t keep stiring, you need to give a bit more time for the rice to grill on the wok bottom, otherwise there won’t be crust;

6. When the rice is crust enough to your preference, lower the heat, season with 1tsp of dark soy sauce and 1tbsp of oyster sauce. All preserved food are salty so no need to season too much. Flip and stir till rice coloured and seasoned evenly;

7. Sprinkle some chopped green onion on, flip well then heat off, serve hot.