If I ask you what’s your favourite rice meal, you probably would say fried rice or Jollof rice.
However, today is not about your choice of rice meal, but how to make the perfect fried rice if that’s the category you fall under, or if you know someone that knows someone that likes fried rice.
To get the best fried rice result, one or all of these must be applied. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.
1. For your best fried rice texture, use long grain rice to prepare it, because it has lesser starch.
2. If you want your vegetables to be more flavourful, marinate them for like 30 minutes before frying them.
3. If you want your fried rice not to spoil quickly and also to have separate grains, you can pan roast the rice before you start cooking it.
4. Colour, texture, flavour are the main things needed for a perfect fried rice.
5. If you want to cook a simple fried rice, you can just use carrot and green beans to make the fried rice. Fried rice is fried as long as it has separate grain texture, beautiful yellow colour and aromatic flavour.
6. Tomato, paprika, tatashe, crayfish, dried fish, soy sauce, egg, palm oil or ketchup must not be used to cook your fried rice.
7. When frying your fried rice vegetable, it is better to continue with the same oil you used to fry the chicken/meat, but that will only be done if you fried your chicken/meat, not by grilling them in the oven.
8. A perfect fried rice is the one that the grains are separated from each other, resistant to the bite, but not hard.
9. Nigerian Fried rice can go bad very quickly. You can avoid this by spreading it on a tray to cool after cooking it, then refrigerate immediately otherwise, eat it once you finish preparing it. If you want to serve it at a party, please cook it very close to the serving time, if not, it will go bad. If refrigerated, it can last for 48 hours without loosing its taste.
10. The curry powder used in this fried rice recipe is there for colour and flavour. You can use turmeric to enhance the fried rice colour.
11. Using beef liver to prepare your fried rice recipe is not compulsory, but it will make the fried rice to be much richer and nutritious.
12. Don’t over cook your rice before frying it, otherwise, you will end up with a soggy fried rice. Fried rice is best enjoyed when the veggies remain crunchy, so don’t overcook your veggies.
13. Although fresh veggies are the best for Nigerian Fried rice, but frozen veggies can also be used after ( thawing ).
14. You can use the method of blanching, to prepare your vegetables for the fried rice. Place the carrots, green beans or green peas in boiling water for 5 minutes, strain out and place in a bowl of cold water, leave to cool in the water, then pour into a sieve and set aside for frying. This method helps to parboil the veggies without cooking it through, thereby cutting down the stir-frying process. It also helps to preserve the vibrant colour of the vegetables.
15. Do not overcrowd the pan/pot when frying the fried rice, make sure there is a little space in the pan/pot for easy distribution of heat.
16. Make sure that all the rice grains are firm equally. It is best to fry in small batches. Frying in batches helps to separate the rice grains and gets all the ingredients and spices into every grain of rice and making it taste better.
17. Fried rice does not stay fresh for too long. You can store your fried rice in an air tight container and put in the freezer (not fridge) within 2 hours of cooking the rice. Don’t wait until the fried rice has gone bad before placing it into your freezer. Note, do not put a hot food in the freezer, let the fried rice cool completely before storing it. So whenever you need it, just defrost and warm it up in a microwave.
18. After finishing frying the rice, do not place a lid/cover over it immediately; Allow the steam to evaporate from the fried rice for few minutes before transferring it into a food warmer or cooler.
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19. Adding butter to prepare your fried rice would make the rice to look shiny and also, would make the rice not to stick together. Also butter adds better taste to the fried rice.
20. Do not put too much Veggies in your fried rice, so that they don’t overshadow the rice
21. You can use either vegetable oil or butter to fry your fried rice or both can be used at the same time, but on health ground vegetable oil is better.
22. When frying the rice, you must be very careful with your spices and seasonings because the liquid stock already contains some spices/seasonings like (onion, curry powder, thyme, stock cubes, pepper and salt). Always taste to check the spices/seasonings and add more if necessary.
23. When making fried rice, it is best to use chicken or turkey stock because of their massive taste. Beef or goat meat stock should be avoided as it can overpower the taste of the fried rice.