Yangzhou fried rice

Fired rice (炒饭) and chow mein (炒面) possibly are the two most popular types of dishes based on staple foods of China—rice and noodles. Home-style fried rice can be as humble as basic egg fried rice or as luxury as this Yangzhou fried rice, a star throughout the country.

Yangchow fried rice (扬州炒饭 Yángzhōu chǎofàn) is a classic fried rice you have to try at Chinese restaurant. Oddly enough, if you travel to Yangzhou, the locals don’t do the Yangchow fried rice you will get out of Yangchow . It is in Guangzhou , this city that chefs do fried rice the most popular version of fried rice.

And so Yangchow fried rice has distinguished itself from thousands of types of fried rice in China and has gained its own name. It is not the popular Chinese-style wok fried rice dish in many Chinese restaurants throughout the world. That is rather Guangzhou  fried rice. It is commonly sold in the UK as special fried rice and in the US as house special fried rice.

The standard flavorsome ingredients of Yangchow fried rice are peeled shrimp, diced ham, carrot, mushroom, baby bamboo shoots, crumbled egg, and corn. When all the ingredients have been cooked and their aroma has been brought out, they are stir-fried with rice till it becomes golden yellow.

The difference between Yangzhou fried rice and ordinary fried rice is that Yangzhou style invariably includes a combination of proteins. Rather than using a single protein like shrimp or pork or chicken as the dominant ingredient in fried rice, Yangzhou uses a variety. Most commonly used is a combination of pork, shrimp and frequently chicken or duck. The rest of the ingredients vary as well, but what makes Yangzhou fried rice Yangzhou style is the mixture. Ordinarily, some of its staple items include: verification]

Cooked rice (preferably day-old, because freshly cooked rice is too sticky due to higher water content)

Chinese style roast pork or lup cheong sausage

Some sort of seafood, generally shrimp

Roasted or boiled chicken, duck or other protein

Scallions (spring onions or green onions), chopped, including green end

Fresh vegetables such as kai-lan, carrots, peas, corn, bamboo shoots, etc.

Egg

Sea cucumber and crab meat are sometimes traditional elements for this fried riece cooking style of the provinces on the China’s coastal region. The peas may be a replacement for the green onions. Some recipes include Shaoxing wine. Some western Chinese restaurants also use soy sauce to flavor the rice, and add meat such as chicken.

Yangzhou fried rice is a perhaps the most well-known dish of the city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. The recipe was believed, invented by Qing China's Yi Bingshou (1754–1815) and the dish was named Yangzhou fried rice since Yi was once the regional magistrate of Yangzhou. It is often served with thousand fish soup. There are two ways of cooking the dish in terms of the preparation of the egg scrambled. The first variation is known as "silver covered gold", in which the egg is scrambled separately before mixing with the rice. The alternative "gold covered silver" method is described as pouring the liquid egg over the rice and vegetables mix and frying the two together. Various traditions call for a rice–egg ratio of 5:1 or 3:1.

People in Jiangshu province always insist that a real Yangzhou fried rice should at least includes egg, carrot, green peas, Chinese ham, shrimp and green onion. Those ingredients not only bring different tastes and textures, but more importantly different colors.