Rich Grain, Poor Grain

It is the dish that traditionally winds up a Cantonese banquet--a last burst of brilliant flavor to enchant guests already satiated with glorious flavors. In Chinese homes, it turns into a thrifty catchall for leftovers.

It is fried rice, both the pinnacle of Chinese cuisine and the poor man’s staple.

No one in Asia wastes food, least of all rice, the staff of life. Even the crust clinging to the bottom of the pot is used.With day-old rice and the remnants of last night’s dinner, a gifted cook can produce a noteworthy new dish.

In a proper Chinese meal, steamed rice is the backdrop for meat, seafood and vegetable dishes. Fried rice is so rich that the cook can get by with fewer accompaniments. That saves work and expense. Put in enough meat and vegetables, and fried rice can be the main dish. That saves even more work. Furthermore, it is easy to prepare--and fast too.

As Chinese migrated south, they taught other rice-eating peoples about fried rice. In Indonesia, this dish is so esteemed that a gastronomic conference once debated just how it should be prepared. Invite an Indonesian to eat in a restaurant, and what will he or she order? Probably fried rice, which is not only delicious but also a safe choice from an unfamiliar menu.

Add seasonings like terasi (shrimp paste), kecap manis (sweetened soy sauce) and chiles for local flavor and the name changes to nasi goreng--nasi meaning rice and goreng , fried. Indonesians make the dish a full meal by garnishing the plate with a couple of sticks of sate , perhaps some chicken, cucumber relish and krupuk , which are puffy chips made of shrimp paste.

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Once, for fun, I rated nasi gorengs during a vacation in Java and Bali. The winner turned up in the coffee shop of the Ambarrukmo Palace hotel in Yogyakarta, Java. The rice itself was deliciously spicy, and the accompaniments were first-rate. They included two skewers of sate in a dark, sweet sauce, a fried egg sprinkled with crisp fried shallots, a sweet red chile sambal (a thick hot sauce), krupuk , cucumber and tomato slices and acar , a sweet-sour relish of tiny raw shallots, carrots, cucumbers and lots of small green chiles. What won me over were the shreds of sweetened beef as fine as floss that were scattered over the rice.

For unrestrained inventiveness, though, it is impossible to top the Thais. What gets into their fried rice is amazing. We’re not talking shrimp and vegetables here but lychees, pineapple, raisins, chestnuts, cashews, lotus seeds, taro, preserved olives, dried shrimp, dried beef and fermented pork.

The Thais are geniuses at combining wildly divergent ingredients, so these odd combinations work. They are also experts at presentation. Sometimes they package fried rice as if it were a gift, wrapped in an omelet that is slit at the top to reveal the contents. They even turn fried rice into sushi, rolling it up in layers of dried seaweed and egg pancake. The slices look like eggy California rolls.

They also make something called American fried rice--a dish you would never find in America. The rice contains raisins and ketchup and comes with a chicken drumstick, sausage and a fried egg.

One theory holds that this dish was designed to please American servicemen on leave in Thailand. Or it may have appeared during the reign of King Rama V (1853-1910), who maintained a Western kitchen and imported Western ingredients. This royal theory is favored by Nidda Hongwiwat, managing director of Sangdad Publishing, a Bangkok company that specializes in cookbooks.

Sangdad has issued what may be the only Asian cookbook devoted exclusively to fried rice. The title is “Khao Pad” ( khao , rice; pad , stir-fried). Unfortunately, it is in Thai only. However, Sangdad has prepared a cookbook in English and Thai on the same topic.

I had always scorned American fried rice but finally ordered it at a coffee shop in Bangkok called Tom’s Quik. What I thought would be terrible turned out to be a fine lunch. Tom’s rice, rosy with ketchup and faintly spicy, contained raisins, green peas and wiener slices. It wore a fried egg like a hat and was surrounded by a sizzling hot, freshly fried chicken drumstick, a square of ham, a sausage and slices of cucumber and tomato. Asians view Americans as heavy protein consumers, which explains the meaty accompaniments.

The Cantonese are more restrained. Mostly they do standard variations like shrimp fried rice or chicken fried rice. But not at the Sea Empress Seafood Restaurant in Gardena. There you’ll find a rice as fanciful as anything the Thais might concoct.

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Called Pataya seafood fried rice, it contains curry powder, coconut milk and peanut sauce along with scallops, shrimp, fish and squid. Partners Jimmy P.Y. Chiu and Alvin Y. Leung, both Cantonese, dreamed this one up and named it after a beach resort not far from Bangkok.

Leung, the restaurant chef, and Chiu offer these tips on making fried rice:

If you want to show class, add sliced Chinese broccoli stems instead of green peas.

Don’t discolor the rice with soy sauce. Use salt or light soy sauce, which adds salty flavor without turning the rice brown. Regular soy sauce is permissible in dishes that involve a dark meat, like beef.

As a flavor enhancer, use powdered chicken stock instead of MSG.

Make the rice more colorful by mixing in egg tinted with a few drops of bouillon food color.

Cook the egg in the wok first. Add the rice before the egg is fully set and mix together. The egg will keep the rice from sticking to the wok.

Use long-grain rice, not medium- or short-grain rices, which are too sticky for fried rice.

The rice does not have to be steamed a day or several hours in advance, as is often recommended. An hour in advance is enough. Spread the cooked rice in a thin layer on a baking sheet to cool and dry slightly before frying.

Experiment with the ingredients you have on hand. Ordinary vegetables like corn, sliced green beans, zucchini and carrots work well in fried rice. You can even put in shredded head lettuce, which contributes pleasant crunchiness.

Leung’s recipe for minced beef fried rice with lettuce follows, along with fried rices from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The Vietnamese recipe is the most elaborate. Packed with enough meat and vegetables to make it a main dish, it even includes tomatoes, which rarely appear in this dish.

MINCED BEEF FRIED RICE

Chef Alvin Y. Leung of the Sea Empress Seafood restaurant in Gardena adds beaten egg to the beef to keep it from sticking when stir-fried. Sliced lettuce added at the last minute lightens the dish.

6 ounces extra-lean ground beef

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

4 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup oil

3 cups cooked and cooled rice

3/4 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

2 teaspoons light soy sauce

2 teaspoons black soy sauce

1 tablespoon chopped green onions, green part only

About 2 cups thin-sliced iceberg lettuce

Combine beef, salt, cornstarch, water and 2 tablespoons beaten egg in bowl. Mix thoroughly.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Add beef mixture and fry, turning with spatula. Beef mixture will form soft paste and will not crumble. Cook thoroughly. Set aside and reserve.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Add remaining beaten egg. When partially cooked, add rice and stir to mix with egg. Add chicken powder and light soy sauce and mix. Add beef mixture and mix well. Add black soy sauce and stir, then green onions and lettuce. Stir-fry until well mixed and hot. Turn out on serving plate.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

503 calories; 962 mg sodium; 237 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 49 grams carbohydrates; 18 grams protein; 0.37 gram fiber.

AMERICAN FRIED RICE (Khao Pad American)

This version of American Fried Rice comes from the cookbook “Khao Pad” (Fried Rice), published in Bangkok.

1 chicken drumstick

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Oil for deep frying

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

2 to 3 small frankfurter-style sausages

1 tablespoon fine-diced onion

1 tablespoon raisins

1 cup cooked and cooled long grain-rice

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 piece green leaf lettuce

1 small tomato, quartered

Wash chicken drumstick and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat oil in skillet or wok. Add chicken and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Heat butter in skillet or wok. Add egg and fry until set. Do not turn over. Lift out with spatula and set aside.

Slit ends of sausages so they will separate to give flower shape. Add to skillet and fry 1 minute or until heated through. Drain and set aside. Add onion and cook until tender, then add raisins. Add rice and toss until mixed.

Add ketchup and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss until blended.

To serve, place lettuce leaf on plate. Mound rice on lettuce leaf. Place chicken drumstick on one side of rice and sausages on other. Place egg on top of rice or alongside on plate. Garnish with tomato quarters.

Makes 1 serving.

Each serving contains about:

649 calories; 1,278 mg sodium; 202 mg cholesterol; 50 grams fat; 36 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams protein; 0.38 gram fiber.

CHICKEN FRIED RICE

Simple ingredients yield wonderful flavor in this Cantonese dish, which also comes from Sea Empress. The rice is not seasoned with soy sauce but only with salt and chicken stock base in order to preserve its pale color.

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, diced

Salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup oil

5 large stalks asparagus, lower parts peeled

1 tablespoon water

3 1/2 cups cooked and cooled rice, about

1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

Combine chicken, 1/2 teaspoon salt and cornstarch in bowl and mix. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons beaten egg and mix well.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Add chicken mixture. Stir-fry until cooked through. Remove from wok and reserve.

Add asparagus and stir-fry in oil remaining in wok. Add dash salt and 1 tablespoon water to keep from sticking. When crisp-tender, add to chicken.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Add 1/3 cup beaten egg and cook, stirring. When partially fried, add rice and stir to mix with egg. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and chicken powder.

Add cooked chicken and asparagus to rice. Toss and cook until heated through and blended. Turn out on serving plate.

Makes 4 servings. Each serving contains about:

356 calories; 309 mg sodium; 146 mg cholesterol; 4 grams fat; 54 grams carbohydrates; 24 grams protein; 0.15 gram fiber.

SPICY FRIED RICE WITH CHINESE BROCCOLI (Khao Pad Pak Kana)

Chao Krung restaurant on North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles uses Thai jasmine rice to make fried rice. The plate is prettily decorated with carved vegetables, Chinese broccoli stems and red serrano chile.

3 stalks Chinese broccoli

2 teaspoons oil

1/4 small onion, sliced thin

1 very small clove garlic, chopped, optional

6 medium shrimp, peeled and cleaned

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked and cooled jasmine rice (2/3 cup raw rice)

1 or 2 serrano chiles, quartered lengthwise, or halved if small, optional

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Separate broccoli into stems and leaves and cut stems into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Cut larger leaves into smaller pieces.

Heat oil in wok. Add onion and garlic and stir. Add shrimp and cook until shrimp is done and onion is crisp-tender. Add egg and stir until cooked. Add broccoli, steamed rice, chiles, fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Stir-fry until ingredients are mixed and rice is hot, about 5 minutes.

Turn out onto serving plate.

Makes 2 servings.

Each serving contains about:

493 calories; 546 mg sodium; 138 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 85 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 2.08 grams fiber.

VIETNAMESE FRIED RICE (Com Chien Duong Chau)

Kim Fung of Los Angeles, who grew up in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), makes the style of fried rice that she learned there. The rice contains so much meat that she serves it as a main dish, accompanied by a salad of red lettuce,tomato, avocado and cucumber.

2 Chinese sausages

5 tablespoons oil

3 large cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 white onion, chopped

4 large eggs, beaten

1 chicken breast half, boned, skinned and sliced

1/3 pound shrimp, peeled, cleaned and butterflied

1/2 pound tender beef (filet mignon or top round), sliced thin

1/4 pound Chinese barbecued pork, sliced thin

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/3 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 cup green peas

9 cups cooked and cooled rice (3 cups raw)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

3 green onions, chopped

Cook sausage in simmering water to extract fat, then drain and cool and slice thin.

Heat wok until very hot. Add 2 tablespoons oil. Add garlic, then white onion and stir. Add beaten eggs and scramble. Remove all from wok and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon oil to wok and when very hot, stir-fry chicken, then add shrimp and beef and cook through. Remove from wok to plate and combine with sausage and barbecued pork.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Add tomatoes, mushrooms and peas and cook 3 minutes. Add rice, soy sauce and fish sauce. Stir until rice no longer sticks together. Add meat-egg mixture and toss to blend. Add green onions and stir to mix.

Makes 10 servings. Each serving contains about:

337 calories; 600 mg sodium; 100 mg cholesterol; 18 grams fat; 24 grams carbohydrates; 20 grams protein; 0.72 gram fiber.

NASI GORENG INDONESIA

Selera, a culinary magazine published in Indonesia, produced this basic recipe for Indonesian style fried rice.

2 shallots

1 clove garlic

1 fresh red chile

2 tablespoons oil

1 1/4 cups cooked and coolled rice

1 teaspoon kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

4 slices tomato

4 diagonal slices peeled cucumber

1 fried egg

1 fried chicken drumstick

1 shrimp cracker

1 teaspoon fried shallots

Pound shallots, garlic and red chile together in mortar with pestle until finely ground.

Heat oil in wok or non-stick skillet. Add shallot mixture and saute until fragrant. Add rice, soy sauce and salt. Stir-fry over low heat until rice is fluffy.

Turn out onto plate and garnish with tomato, cucumber, fried egg, chicken and shrimp cracker. Top rice with fried shallots.

Makes 1 serving.

Each serving contains about:

701 calories; 1,116 mg sodium; 226 mg cholesterol; 38 grams fat; 74 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 1.87 grams fiber.