Vegetable Fried Rice...Chinese Style!!!

Chinese cuisine is my most favorite after Indian cuisine though I make it rarely at home.This cuisine is quite different from the others as the cooking style itself is bit different,the whole dish should be prepared on high flame taking care to retain the crispiness,color and crunchiness of vegetables and the flavors in it.
If you search for Chinese fried rice over internet you would get so many recipes and also all recipes would be similar.Though the recipe sounds easy you might easily mess up with this simple recipe if you do no follow few important things while making this.Chinese cooking involves more usage of oil and sesame oil is ideal for Chinese cooking as it has the nutty flavor which enhances the taste of any Chinese recipe.I am not so comfortable using lots of oil in my cooking and hence the better option for me is to choose olive oil where an extra tbsp of it would not hurt me much.Hence I choose olive oil over sesame oil for Chinese cooking,if you want to enjoy the real flavor I suggest you to go ahead with sesame oil but with olive oil also it tastes nice.Fried rice is ideal to make with left over rice and I always prefer Basmati rice as it has wonderful flavor which is very important again in Chinese cooking.I have mentioned few tips in the recipe and I hope it will help you in making perfect fried rice.

Vegetable Fried Rice Recipe:
(Serves 2)

Ingredients:
1 cup Basmati rice
1/2" Ginger,finely chopped
3-4 Garlic pods,finely chopped
3/4 tsp dark Soya sauce
1/2 tsp Vinegar
3/4 -1 tsp black Pepper powder,freshly ground
3-4 tbsp Olive oil
Salt to taste

veggies needed:
1 medium Carrot,finely diced or length wise chopped
1/3 cup Cabbage,finely shredded
1 small Capsicum,sliced thin
7-8 french beans,sliced diagonally
5-6 Spring onions( greens-finely chopped,whites-finely sliced)

Method:

• Soak Basmati rice for 10 mins and cook in rice cooker with (1-rice:2-water) ratio and cool the rice completely.Apply some olive oil to it and mix well and keep it aside,it is best if you refrigerate for 1/2 hr so that rice holds its shape when frying it.
• Heat olive oil in a big wok over a high flame and add finely chopped ginger and garlic pieces and fry until they turn slight crisp.
• Add thinly sliced spring onion whites and fry them on high flame until they turn soft.
• Add chopped carrot,beans,cabbage and stir fry on high flame for 2 mins.Do not let the carrots and beans loose its crunchiness,they should be crisp and crunchy and hence do not stir fry for long.
• Add sliced capsicum to it and fry again for a minute.Add salt,pepper powder,vinegar and soya sauce and mix well.
• Add cooled rice and spring onion greens,slightly run the rice through your fingers while adding to the wok so that it does not have any lumps.Mix everything well until the rice is hot and do this gently and take care not to make the rice mushy.

Serve it piping hot with any Manchurian gravy.

Notes:

• In chinese cooking Ajinamoto(chinese salt) is added to give extra taste,I have not added to it as it is supposedly not good for health.If you would like to add feel free to add 1/2 tsp Ajinamoto along with pepper powder.
• It is always better to use finely chopped ginger and garlic bits in the recipe instead of Ginger-Garlic paste as a bite into crisp ginger adds a nice taste while eating fried rice.
• I recommend you to refrigerate the cooled rice at least for half an hour which helps the rice in holding the shape while frying.
• The entire cooking is to be done over a high flame which helps in retaining the crispiness of vegetables and the flavor of the dish,so you should be quick while sauteing the veggies and rice.
• I have used dark soya sauce in the recipe,if you are using light or regular soya sauce increase it to 1 tsp soya sauce.

Variations:

1. You can add a handful of sweet corn along with the other vegetables.Blanch sweet corn before adding to it.
2. If you do not have olive oil the best alternative to use in Chinese cooking is sesame oil as it has nutty texture and it gives nice flavor to the rice.
3. You can even add a tsp of chili sauce and a tsp of tomato sauce along with soya sauce,it also adds nice flavor and spiciness to rice.
4. You can use white pepper powder instead of black pepper powder,as I did not have it at that time I used freshly ground pepper in it.