Speaking of being prepared...there is a pan that I don't have that I really want. That would be a wok.
I have an obsession with good fried rice. House, chicken, pork, plain....it's all good when it's right. I tried a few times back in the day, but was less than thrilled with my results...which turned me off. With the search power of Gargle and knowing a bit more about food, I thought I would give it another go...which still a long time ago...but I did as much research as I could and had fair results.
Okay....so that brings us to here. Right meow. I watch this channel on YouTube about cooking, simply called Alex.
He's a multi talented 30 year old bike riding Parisian. His channel used to be called Alex French Guy Cooking, but it's just Alex now. So this Alex fella is terrific. He's got quite a noggin he's hauling around. Dude is real smart and efficient, so there is definitely a reason he's hauling that thing everywhere. He's also quite the little filmmaker, his production quality is on point.
Unsurprisingly, Alex is surrounded by some of the best everything you can put in your mouth. From locally farmed beef to the snobbiest cheeses to the legendary bakeries of Paris to the open air farm market near his workshop that has some of the best looking produce I've ever seen to the multitude of Michelin Star restaurants with James Beard chefs in the kitchens. Paris is fucking bonkers.
So....Alex is a bit of a nut. He likes to deep DEEP dive into food. For example, earlier this year he did a 5 or 6 part series about sauces. Proper French sauces and mother sauces to be more specific. It's a killer primer into French discipline and a good starting spot if you're dreaming of espagnole and veloute geysers. That's weird by the way.
How can you make sauces...let alone French mother sauces, without the right pan? You can't obviously, so he started the sauce series by taking a quick detour to Istanbul. His friend is the owner of Soy cookware. Soy is the makers of some of the best cookware money can buy. They're located in this cool ass 450 year old stone building like a mall and they use machines that are almost as old. The only modern gear they use is a digitally controlled precision furnace to fuse the copper and silver sheets that the pans are made of. These pans aren't meant for Kraft Dinner and 'Amburger 'Elper.m,,
I got a little side tracked, but my whole point was to show the lengths Alex goes to make shit right. If you land the Saucier position at a Michelin star French restaurant...this might be the pan for you!! Haha. Check these out though. Ridiculous.
That's what a $4000 heavy duty stockpot looks like in case you were ever curious as to how deep this rabbit hole goes. It's deep enough to pop back out. From what I've gathered, it makes a hard left turn at Albuquerque and then surfaces in Istanbul, Turkey...in the basement of some 17th century stone building where they make some pans. Just a guess, but my logic is sound I think.
Okay....so all this out of the way, we are gonna revisit my first paragraph. Fried rice. Alex did a 6 part series about Fried Rice!!!!! It started with him attempting it and failing miserably.
From there he wanted to take a trip to China to learn the secrets from a master, but COVID travel restrictions and all that, so he went to the Shangri La Hotel in Paris, where the Shang Palace Chinese Restaurant lives.
Shang Palace is a Michelin Star (This hotel has not one, but TWO Michelin star restaurants on site!! Crazy.). He went there to have the bar set, and my god did chef Samuel Lee Sum set it.
This guy is the real deal. Not only is he the real deal...he is a nice guy and is cool with sharing his techniques.
Like you don't want to be eating the best fried rice ever while sipping on a fizzy lifting drink from this table. Yes please Samuel. Ruin me.
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I swear these little Chinese babies are born with a wok and a ladel in their arms. Lucky bastards, I don't even own a wok and I'm like 42½.
A bit about woks from what I've learnt. Woks have a huge inherent flaw baked right into them. Two actually. The first issue is size. The wok that you need is a pig. There is two general wok styles: Mandarin & Cantonese. The Mandarin wok has a long (usually bamboo) handle and the Cantonese style has two small metal handles that are only a couple inches long.
Mandarin Style
Cantonese style
There is also round & flat bottom woks. But let's focus on the right wok. The wok that you would ideally have is a 24" round bottom Cantonese style. Which leads us to problem the second: heat. There is a definite disconnect between what you need and what you can use. The good news is that the fried rice series ended with Alex making some incredible looking rice at home with a 14" cast iron skillet and an induction burner.
Good to know!!!!
If you were making fried rice in a restaurant, you would have a huge Cantonese wok, a ladel, and a wok ring with a freaking flame thrower inside. Remember that Alex is a nut, so he made a propane powered outdoor dragon burner and wok ring. Complete with a tube around the ring for proper tossing technique. The good news is that the insane heat that this thing is capable of producing, is only needed for like the last 20 seconds. The whole rest of the dish is more like medium.
The two main secrets are the rice and the movement.
The rice to use is Jasmine rice that has been cooked in a bamboo steamer or cooking equivalent which is to steam it inside of a strainer. Even the best rice makers would struggle if they weren't starting with proper steamed jasmine. Many folks say to use day old rice, but the real pros use it within a few hours, as the rice isn't stale at that point.
The other secret is the movement...which is what allows each grain to shine and be not sticky whatsoever. You can achieve this with years of practice, or you can use a silicone spatula. Hahah. Not quite as elegant, but it's all about the finished product.
The seasonings: green onions, scrambled egg, low sodium soy, and a pinch of salt and sugar. Other things can include sesame oil, garlic, ginger, scallions...but they are not required whatsoever. Fried Rice is a demonstration in clean flavors and perfect seasoning.
I will include the typed recipe from the last video below. The best part is that this shit is almost free. Just gotta learn to nail it. This whole topic is quite exciting as I said before, I've been DYING to absolutely crush some fried rice....or at least as good as your average takeout. I am gonna go out on a limb here and say you'll be hard pressed to find a better recipe or one that can actually get cooked at home. Trust me, it's like an exercise in futility.
Fried Rice soon!!! Now I just gotta make some char sui pork first for some bright red pork fried rice. Ohh boy.
Here's the recipe for making fried rice at home :
1 egg (whisked)
2 spring onions (use the 2 greens but only 1 white)
a pinch of salt
a tiny pinch of sugar
1 tbsp of neutral oil ( plus a few more to coat the pan before you start)
~250g of steamed rice (use either the method from this episode or the one from episode 7, also written below)
a few drops of light soy sauce
a skillet
a spatula
Instructions for making homemade fried rice :
Get the pan to medium heat (on mine it's the setting "4" out of 9). Leave the skillet for a few minutes, for it to accumulate heat.
Coat it generously with oil, make sure the skillet is nicely coated. GEt that oil out in a bowl. Don't discard it, you can use it again for the same purpose.
Add a tbsp of fresh oil to the pan.
Drop the egg in, and stir it vigorously. It should blend in, almost emulsify with the oil in the pan. Hard to describe but it kinda fluffs up int there.
Drop the rice before the egg is fully set.
Don't lift the pan. Move fast. Use your spatula to break lumps gently, spread the rice, and then flip it on itself. Repeat.
When the rice starts dancing, add the seasoning, add the white part of the onions. Stir a little.
Now, Wake up and Crank up the heat to the max.
Drop the soy. Stir. Stir. Stir. Green part of onions. Stir. Stir. Stir. No more than a minute total. (chef Samuel did that for ten seconds but it was on a rocket stove)
Remember : It should steam and toast, but not smoke and burn.
Off the heat. Little more green spring onions on it. Eat asap.
As a reminder, here's he Steamed rice for Fried Rice from EP7
Ingredients :
1. Thai rice 100g
2. salt 1/4 teaspoon
3. 1/4 teaspoon of oil
4. 100 ml of water
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Instructions
1）Drain the rice as much as possible after washing
2）Mix the rice with salt and oil
3）Add in water
4）Steam the rice on high heat for 20 minutes.
And5）Wait for 10 minutes and then take it out.
6）Stir the rice until it cools down.
7）Put it in the refrigerator withoaing it for a 1-2 hours
I have made some mother fucking sauces - you know the ones you scorch or they break. I just don't go to that kind of effort anymore. I know how but it is just too much effort. My wife is the only one I know that would even appreciate or understand what a mother sauce is. She is a graduate of the SF-CCA. Sad they are gone now. The fire on your wok is more important than the pot itself. It must be enough BTUs for the wok to cook as intended. High heat is what it is about without any cooling from the food. The walls must remain hot.
