The classic combo of rice fried with eggs, sesame oil and veg is one of the
best ways to use up fridge leftovers, the acclaimed chef tells Liz Marcy.
Moreover, his recipe is blissfully quick to prepare - all you need is a very hot wok.
Ken Hom says egg-fried rice is the recipe he's most often asked about in the UK. 'Everybody seems to love it, but people aren't sure how to cook it,' he says. 'In fact, in China it's not actually eaten that often. When it is, it's either served as a snack by itself, or else you'll have it at the end of a banquet.' He admits to being slightly puzzled by the enormous popularity of this lowly dish.
It retains a special place in his heart, though, partly because it's so practical. 'It's how we use up leftovers - I tend to use it to clean out my fridge!' He likes it, too, because it's so versatile. 'It's great with things like sweetcorn and cucumber, or leftover meat, and can be spiced up with chilli paste or fresh chillies.'
But, says Ken, the key thing to remember is that it should be a clean-tasting, dry dish, with no extra liquid added. 'Adding soy sauce is really a bastardisation. Even the egg that's added at the end should be cooked until it's dry.'
But perhaps this dish is most important to him because it was one of the first he ever learned to cook. Born in Tucson, Arizona, to Chinese parents, he and his mother moved to Chicago after the death of his father, where Ken went to work in the kitchen of his uncle's restaurant in the city's Chinatown. 'I was 11 years old - way too young to work, it was illegal, in fact! But my mother and I needed the money.' In the afternoons the chefs would take a nap, so if an order came in for a bowl of fried rice, he would cook it.
As a student in California, he started giving cookery lessons to supplement his income. It was then suggested he write a book on Chinese technique, and eventually he came to the attention of BBC executives who, in the early 1980s, gave him the first of many cookery series. He says that it has recently become easier to find and cook authentic Oriental food. 'When I first got here 30 years ago, you could hardly ever find fresh ginger, now it's in every supermarket.'
He's written numerous books, launched his own range of cookware, and
regularly cooks for prime ministers and presidents. Sadly for them, he probably doesn't make them fried rice with leftovers from his fridge.
Ken says:
- 'The rice must be cooked in advance and be thoroughly cold. If it's still warm you will get sticky lumps as your end result.'
- 'When cooked, the rice should be slightly chewy, but it shouldn't taste starchy; it's not like risotto.'
- 'The water is never salted. Rice is a foil for other flavours, and it should be plain.'
- 'Get the wok really hot before frying the rice. If you have a ceramic or halogen hob, heat the wok for five or even ten minutes before you start. People are always afraid that the rice will burn, but good fried rice should have a smoky, grilled taste. You will also need less oil this way.'
- 'Cover the wok when you're not stirring. It retains the heat and helps the food to cook more quickly.'
- 'The Chinese cleaver is so versatile you can prepare most dishes using just one tool. This is very practical if you don't have space to hang up dozens of knives.'
- 'If you're making several dishes, you can use the same wok for them all - just pour in water and swill it around over the heat to clean between dishes.'