Fujian Fried Rice (福建炒饭)
Egg fried rice smothered in gravy that's totally not from Fujian.
I’ve always had a real soft spot for Fujian fried rice.
For many years in Shenzhen I lived right across the street from a Hong Kong style Cha Chaan Teng called Sun Fat, and – like I think happens to us all when you live upstairs from a quality restaurant – ‘Sun Fat delivery’ became practically a food group for me. And yet even amidst the Roast Meat Platters, the Deep Fried French Toast… there were two dishes that I’d get delivered again and again: Cheesy Seafood Rice, which I’ve waxed poetic about before, and Fujian fried rice.
Egg Fried Rice? Check.
A ton of gravy? Check.
Shrimp and chicken for some semblance of protein? Check.
It’s just… one of those comfortable choices when you just can’t be asked to think about what to eat. One of those orders that hits that ‘hangover food’ middle ground in between “brunch and bloody marys with friends” and “saltines and ibuprofen”. Complete enough meal as any (as twenty-something me wasn’t overly concerned about the lack of vegetable).
Now, I’m not going guarantee the dish’ll end up hitting the same spot for you. Recreating this in the home kitchen isn’t difficult, but between making the fried rice and making the gravy… there’s a couple moving pieces which makes the time add up (I’d estimate 90 minutes of cooking door-to-door). So while it probably won’t end up being your comfort food or anything, it’s a good dish, and the sauce is versatile. If you don’t feel like frying some rice? Top it over noodles, or even over rice-rice.
Before we get into it though, there is something that I feel we should get out of the way about Fujian fried rice:
Fujian Fried Rice is Not From Fujian
Okay, so this is Fujian – a province situated right across the strait from the slightly more famous Taiwan.
Now, we do totally need to cover more Fujianese dishes - for the curious, here’s Blondie in China’s Fujian eating playlist, and here’s A Xing’s (in Chinese, but he’s awesome).
But while I am a sucker for their fishballs and their sweet and sours, I don’t want to get into the food of the place too much today, because… Fujian Fried Rice doesn’t really have much to do with Fujian.
It's squarely a Hong Kong dish.
Which I guess leads us to the inevitable follow up question: “So… why the hell is it Fujian fried rice”?
And I mean, perhaps the simple fact that the dish is from Hong Kong should maybe be explanation enough. Because apparently, 20th century Cantonese chefs just seemed to enjoy naming their dishes after relatively random places, collectively trolling the 21st century food world in the process:
In all seriousness, I think it’s fair to say that Cantonese culture – Hong Kong, in particular – is a culture that prides itself on its cosmopolitanism. The instinct that led to the creation of Singapore Rice Noodles, I think, isn’t wholly different than the sort of kitchen-sink-internationalism that forged the Momofuku menu.
So if I had to guess, I’d take a wild stab that Singaporean Hokkien Mee might have been the inspiration? “Hokkien Mee”, of course, translates to “Fujian Noodles” in English. In that dish, noodles are cooked in an umami pork and shrimp based broth, mixed with lard, and topped with seafood. Fujian Fried Rice, meanwhile, makes an umami gravy with dried seafood smothers it over fried rice with shrimp.
It's… a little bit of a stretch, I’d grant. But that’s all we’ve got. There are a couple urban legends surrounding the genesis of the dish, but none of them made much sense to us.
Ingredients:
Soaked Ingredients:
Dried shiitake mushrooms (冬菇), 2 (5g)
Dried scallops (干贝), ~30 (20g)
Hot, boiled water, 1.5 cups
Chicken thigh (鸡腿肉), 150g
Marinade for chicken:
Salt, ⅛ tsp
White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ⅛ tsp
Sugar, ⅛ tsp
Cornstarch (生粉), ½ tsp
Soy sauce (生抽), ½ tsp
Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ½ tsp
Oil, 1 tsp
Shrimp (虾), 6 large. ~150g after peeling.
Marinade for shrimp:
Salt, ⅛ tsp
White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ⅛ tsp
Gailan stems (芥兰), 100g. From about 300g of Gailan, give or take. You could also sub in asparagus or broccoli stems.
Oil for frying, 1/2 cup. For frying the chicken and the shrimp. Also, there will be another 2 tbsp of oil for frying the rice, and 1 tbsp for frying the sauce. You can use the excess oil from frying the chicken and the shrimp for both these applications and the final finishing oil. You can also use lard for the rice frying oil/sauce frying oil - it would be quite delicious.
For the Fried Rice:
Jasmine Rice (粘米/泰国香米), 230g. We’ll be steaming this, but you can use whatever fried rice prep you personally like.
Egg, 1. Beaten well.
Oil, 2 tbsp. For frying.
Seasoning for the fried rice:
Salt, ¼ tsp
MSG (味精), ¼ tsp
Sugar, ¼ tsp
For making the sauce:
Slurry: 2.5 tbsp starch mixed with 2.5 tbsp Water.
Oil, 1 tbsp. For frying.
The mushrooms, the scallop, and the soaking liquid from above.
Oil, 1 tbsp
Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp
Seasoning:
Salt, ¼ tsp
Chicken bouillon powder (鸡粉), ¼ tsp
MSG (味精), ¼ tsp
Sugar, ½ tsp
Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp
Oyster sauce (蚝油), 2 tbsp
White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ⅛ tsp. To finish.
Frying oil from chicken/shrimp, ½ tbsp. Optional. You could also opt for a drizzle (~½ tsp) toasted sesame oil.
Process:
To prep:
Soak two dried shiitake mushrooms (5g) and about thirty dried scallops (20g) in with 1.5 cups of hot, boiled water from the kettle. Cover and set aside.
Next, cut the 150g of chicken thigh into ½ inch chunks. Marinate with ⅛ teaspoon each salt, white pepper, and sugar; ½ teaspoon each cornstarch, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine. Mix well, and coat with a teaspoon of oil.
Peel six large shrimps – you should have about 150g of shrimp meat in total. Rinse under running water for 30-60 seconds, then squeeze dry with a paper towel. This will remove some of the surface slime from the shrimp. Cut the shrimp into ½ inch chunks as well, then mix with an ⅛ teaspoon each salt and white pepper to marinate.
Finally, prepare the gailan stem. Pick off the leaves and flowers from a bundle (roughly 300g) of gailan and save those for another use (recipe for stir fried gailan is below). There will be about 1 centimeter of hard dry stem at the bottom – simply toss this bit and keep the remainder. We’ll be looking for 100 grams worth of this stem – a little more or a little less is okay. Slice at an angle into about half centimeter thick pieces, and also set those aside.
Then, pre-cook the chicken, shrimp, and gailan. The chicken and shrimp will be fried – heat up a wok (or whatever) with ½ cup of oil to about 150C (or until it can bubble around a pair of chopsticks), then add the chicken and cook until done and the color is changed, ~1 minute. Remove, and repeat with the shrimp at the same 150C for 30-60 seconds. Dip out the oil, but no need to wash the wok. Add 1.5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Blanch the gailan stems for about a minute – you’re looking for the color to deepen, but there still to be a touch of whiteness in the core to remain. Remove and shock the gailan under running water to stop the cooking process.
To steam the rice:
In this recipe we will be using steamed rice for fried rice. You can also use day old rice, or whatever rice prep technique you prefer for fried rice.
To do so, rinse 230g (~1 metric cup, i.e. 250mL) of Jasmine or any other medium grain rice (e.g. Calrose). Par boil for three minutes. Drain, keeping in a strainer. Rinse your pot and add in two inches of water, and get that up to a boil.
Spread the rice evenly on the strainer, and poke a couple holes in the rice. Place the strainer on the bubbling pot. Cover, wrapping the lid with a damp towel (foil is also ok). Steam for 15 minutes, then transfer and spread across a plate.
To fry the rice:
Crack an egg into a small bowl, beat well until no stray strands of egg white remain.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok until bubbling. Add beaten egg and cook until no liquid remains. Add the steamed rice, folding from the bottom. Steamed rice will form clean, separate grains quite fast (1-2 minutes), but if you’re using day old rice it will take a bit of time to break up the clumps (3-4 minutes). When the egg is evenly distributed, season with ¼ teaspoon each of salt, MSG, and sugar. Set aside on a plate.
To make the sauce:
At this point, the mushroom and scallops should be done soaking. Squeeze and slice the reconstituted mushrooms into ½ cm pieces. Press the scallops with a knife to create a floss, then return to the soaking liquid.
Prepare a slurry of 2.5 tbsp starch – potato or tapioca starch, preferably – and 2.5 tbsp water.
In a wok over medium heat, fry the mushrooms in 1 tablespoon oil for 1½ minutes, or until fragrant. Swirl in 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine. Add the scallop floss together with the soaking liquid. Season with ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp chicken bouillon powder, ¼ tsp MSG, ½ tsp sugar, 1 tsp soy sauce, and two tablespoons oyster sauce.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Add the chicken and shrimp, cook for 1 minute, then add the gailan stems. Thicken with the slurry, adding gradually to avoid over-thickening. Once at spoon-coating consistency, stir in ⅛ teaspoon white pepper together with an optional ½ tablespoon of the frying oil from the chicken/shrimp before.
Smother over the fried rice.
How To Use up the Gailan
Good way to complete the meal would be to make a simple stir fried vegetable with it.
Gailan (芥兰), 200g. Or however much left after picking the stem
Garlic, 2 cloves. Smashed
Ginger, ½ inch. Smashed
Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp
Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp
Salt, 1/8 tsp
MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp
Blanch the gailan right after you blanch your gailan stems. Strain, and set aside.
Smash two cloves of garlic and a half inch of ginger.
To a clean wok, swirl in about 1 tbsp oil, toss in the garlic and the ginger. Fry til fragrant, toss in the blanched gailan, quick fry and swirl in a tsp of liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine. Mix, then swirl in another tsp of soy sauce. Then season with 1/8 tsp each salt and MSG, mix and out.
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