– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

This is every tip and trick to make a

great fried rice that you might be

missing out on that I've picked up from

being a small Asian child who loves

fried rice to being a large Asian adult

who still loves fried rice. This is not

an easy position to get into for a large

person.

[Music]

Now, there are four pillars that I

believe hold up a great fried rice. The

first of which is rice. Now, if at any

point in your life you've been watching

someone make fried rice or tell you how

to make fried rice, I'm sure you've

heard the phrase day old rice. But

personally, in my humble opinion, I

think it's a lie because what people

mean when they say day old rice is they

just mean they want the rice to be dried

out. You don't want to use fresh rice.

Fresh rice has too much moisture.

Moisture is the enemy of frying. You're

not going to get a good crisp. You're

not going to get a good fry if your rice

is too wet. Plain and simple. So, for

me, I believe the sweet spot for day old

rice is 2 to 3 days. If you're planning

to use your rice the next day, it helps

if you lay it uncovered on a sheet tray

in the fridge overnight and then in the

morning go ahead and break it all up so

that way that bottom layer of rice can

also get that air dry treatment in the

fridge if that makes sense. And now that

you've achieved your day rice, it is

important before you put it into your

walk to break it up because as you can

see it is just a big rice clump and you

don't want a rice clump. So I like to

just use my hands and crumble it all up.

Break up any of those chunks so that way

you can get even coverage, even surface

area and it cooks nice and even. And if

you have a thing about textures, this is

definitely something you might want to

put a glove on for because it's weird.

And now for the second pillar, fillings.

Now, one of the things I love about

fried rice is that it truly is a

leftovers meal. It doesn't have to be a

thoughtout, prepped out meal. It is

truly like what's left in my fridge,

what's left in my garden, what's left in

my pantry that I need to get rid of

because I don't want it to go bad. For

instance, this steak. My wife and I had

steaks earlier in the week and so I had

this still left in the fridge that I was

either going to freeze bag or I was

going to just cook up with breakfast.

But in this case, fried rice. And it's

important that you know for your

protein, it can be whatever you want.

Nine times out of 10, if I'm making

fried rice, I'm making it with spam

because I love spam and I have a lot of

spam. But that other one or two out of

10, I'm just using whatever's left from

the week. Leftover teriyaki chicken,

leftover pork, leftover bacon, leftover

steak, whatever it is that you have, use

it. Now, for the steak, I knew ahead of

time that I was going to be using it

last night. So, I went ahead and salted

it both sides and then let it sit

uncovered in my fridge overnight. And

now I'm just going to cut this into

small cubes so that way I can get a nice

little bite of steak in each bite of my

rice. And don't feel like you have to

add a meat into your rice. Egg fried

rice is super common. You can just use

eggs or you can not use eggs if you're

not an egg person. You could literally

just have fried rice with literally no

toppings. It's one of the pillars and

then you take a pillar and then you just

have a tripod and then you know, but you

could still do it. Like I it it's not

it's not the end of the world. While I'm

cutting this steak up, I'm going to cut

away some of these fat chunks so I can

use that in my rice later. And now for

our produce, which again is the same

thing. Same concept. What's left in your

fridge, what's left in your pantry,

what's left on your countertop, use it.

In my case, we have half a sweet onion,

two green onions, a singular lone

carrot, and don't feel like you have to

have all this or have to have more. The

beauty of fried rice is that it's

adaptable. It's whatever you need it to

be in that moment, in that time, and

then next week it's whatever you need it

to be then. It's truly something

beautiful. Now, for our sweet onion, I'm

just going to roughly dice it up. I like

it nice and small, so that way I don't

get a big chunks of onion in my rice.

But you're welcome to cut it however you

like. If you want it in julian, you can

do it in julian. If you want it in

chunks, do it in chunks. The only thing

that I'm going to tell you you need to

do is make sure that your pieces are

roughly the same size and shape so that

way they cook evenly. Man, I was so

focused on what I was saying that I

didn't even realize that I was giving

this completely wrong cut that I wanted

to give it. And now I'm over here doing

extra work. So, it is what it is. And

now that I've fixed my mistake, our

green onions, which are funny because

you're going to cut these in two

different ways. And this is something

that you don't technically have to

listen to me on, but I think that it

works out better way. And most most

people would agree. On your green onion,

you have the greens and you have the

whites. The whites, you want to cook

down a little bit more. But the greens,

they're gentle. They're fragrant. You

want to leave them more or less raw. So,

we're going to cut them up and then

split them up.

Now, we'll find roughly where it turns

from white to green or green to white.

Separate those whites over there. Oops.

And move our greens to the side. And now

for our carrot. I'm just going to give

this a quick peel. I'll be honest, I

don't like carrots. And the reason I

don't like carrots is cuz I think

they're gross and yucky. But it's in my

fridge and I probably should eat more

carrots. At least the people on the

internet seem to think so. So, I'm using

a carrot. But because I don't like

carrots, I'm just going to cut them into

really fine dice. I also don't like

peas, in case you're wondering, cuz I

know peas are very popular in in fried

rice. Uh I I don't like peas.

First, we slice them into these oblong

discs. And we're just going to line them

up nice and flat like this. This will

help us get to a nice julen. And then

from the julen, we'll turn them into

dices. And if you like carrots, you

could just leave it like this. Like it

really doesn't matter. I just don't like

the taste of carrots. So I want my

carrots to be as small as humanly

possible.

And I really, really want to emphasize

this. It's okay if it's not perfect. Do

not let your fear or someone else

telling you that, hey, this needs to be

exactly this way prevent you from making

this because you should be cooking like

everything. You can do it. And you can

tell that I don't like to eat carrots,

nor do I cook with carrots often because

these are far from uniform. And lastly,

we have our garlic. Now, I'm sure you've

seen people on the internet just take

their knife, throw on the back, and

smack it down. I do it, too. It works,

but it runs the risk of chipping your

knife or dulling your blade out or

cutting yourself. So, grab a bench

scraper, throw on the edge, and it does

the same thing with no risk. Or, I guess

less risk, cuz I guess there's still a

risk, but I I don't know. Whatever.

We're just going to crush up our garlic,

take off our skin, dehusk, de-kin. I

guess it's not really a husk. Is it a

husk? And then we're just going to

roughly chop it up. You can make it as

fine or as large as you want. I like to

make my garlic spread, so I like to do a

little bit finer. And for my final

filling, the humble yet delicious and

quite unfortunately overpriced egg. Now,

you can crack these straight into your

walk when you're cooking. I don't like

to. I like to make sure they're really

scrambled. Some people like their white

yolks broken up a little bit more. It's

all preference. If I'm in a hurry,

that's the way I'll do it, but I'm

obviously not in a hurry, so I'm going

to do it this way. Add in a little bit

of salt. Optionally, you can add in a

little bit of milk to give it a little

bit more volume. You can add in sesame

oil. You can add in soy sauce. I like my

eggs to taste just like eggs, so I leave

them this way.

And now for our third pillar, umami.

Now, for fried rice, you're using soy

sauce. And soy sauce already has umami

in it, but generally speaking, you're

going to want more umami. And for that,

I present to you my three favorite

options. The first monos sodium bud MSG.

Now, if you have feelings about MSG that

are less than positive and you think

that they still give you headaches and

things like that, I encourage you to do

some reading and do some research

because it's wrong. I'm not saying you

don't have a headache. I'm just saying

it's not because you had a sprinkle of

MSG in your fried rice from that takeout

place last night. MSG is a very easy and

cheap way to add in umami into whatever

you're cooking with a very minimal, and

I mean minimal amount. I'm talking like

a teaspoon. Next up is oyster sauce. One

of my personal favorite add-ins,

something that I grew up on and my dad

used a lot. This adds more than just

umami. You're also going to get that

oyster flavor and it's not a bad oyster

flavor. It's not going to turn your

fried rice into some oceany tasty super

salty fried rice. Like this adds a

little bit of oyster flavor in all the

right ways. And if you'd like to try

this but you have a shelfus allergy,

they do make oyster flavored mushroom

sauces that are very very similar. So

similar that I have regularly bought

them thinking that they're regular

oyster sauce and not realized until I

looked at the bottle like six or seven

uses in. And finally, for a less common

option, but definitely goatated chicken

powder. It's not only going to add umami

into your dish, but it's also adding

flavor. It's adding another depth,

another layer, and more flavor is more

better. So, today I'm using chicken

powder. And for our fourth and final

pillar, preparation. That means your

whole cooking station, everything you

need is ready to go. It is within arms

reach, and you don't have to think about

it. But preparation extends beyond that

cuz it's not just the things you have

around you, but it's knowing what you're

going to do. When you're cooking in a

hot walk, fried rice cooks exceptionally

fast. So, you need to know what you're

going to do and the order you're going

to do it. So for me, I know I'm starting

with my meat, then my veg, then my rice,

then my egg, then my green onions.

Versus if you have it out there, and

yes, it's here, but you're not sure

what's coming next. That's when you

start to burn things, and that's where

it starts to go wrong. So for me, being

mentally prepared about what you're

about to do and the order you're going

to do it in is just important as having

everything physically in front of you.

Now, I'm starting by preheating my walk.

And let me just say, you don't need a

walk. You don't need a walk burner. This

is an induction walk burner. You don't

need it. You can use your stove. I don't

use that stove because it's really hard

to film over there. As long as you can

get your pan hot, you can make fried

rice. Now, as far as what you're cooking

it in, it doesn't have to be a walk. It

doesn't have to be carbon steel. I think

it should be carbon steel, but it

doesn't have to be. I would definitely

stray away from stainless steel if

you're not super comfortable cooking

with stainless steel. I also don't think

stainless steel walks are very good, but

that's just my personal opinion. Carbon

steel is great. If not, if you're not

ready for that, if you're not ready for

the maintenance that comes with carbon

steel, that's okay. You can get yourself

a nice non-stick walk. It's okay. And

now that my walk is ripping hot and

adequately preheated, I'm just going to

add in a little bit of neutral oil. This

is just going to help me fill in those

pores. And I'm just moving it around to

make sure I coat the whole pan anywhere

the food's going to touch. Now, like I

said before, I've got some beef fat

here. So, I'm going to toss that in. If

you don't have any beef fat, that's

okay. You can skip this step and just

add a little bit more oil. Then, I'm

just going to keep moving this around

and letting that fat render out as much

as I can.

And now that I've got a good amount of

that fat rendered out, I'm just going to

get it out of my pan, leaving all that

oily goodness inside, and then adding in

our steak.

I'm just going to flatten it out. Make

sure I get as much surface area as

possible. I'm going to let it sit and

sear.

Good. And if you're just reheating

something you've already cooked, this is

going to go a lot faster because you're

not waiting for it to cook. And now that

there's no more red that's visible, I'm

going to go ahead and add in my veg

and just keep it moving and let it cook

down. Because remember, there's garlic

inside here and I don't want any of it

to burn.

And go ahead and spread that out as much

as possible because we want to make sure

we get all that moisture out. we don't

trap any of it in there. Because if we

do that and we add our rice in, it's

just going to steam. This also can be a

problem if you're using a pan that is

too small or isn't hot enough or you're

going to want to end up doing this part

in batches. Cook your meat, take it off,

cook your veg, take it off, cook your

rice, take it off, such and such. And go

all the way through and then add it all

in together. Got it? And once those

veggies are nice and cooked down, I'm

going to go ahead and add in our rice.

I'm noticing my rice is sticking a

little bit, so I'm just going to add a

little bit of oil. And once that rice is

starting to get some color, we're going

to go ahead and add in our soy sauce

around the edge. Do not add it to the

center of the rice because if you add it

to the center of the rice, you're going

to end up steaming the rice versus if

you add it around the edge, it sears and

gets a deeper flavor. Now, we're just

going to add in a little bit of our

chicken powder

and some fresh black pepper. You can do

white pepper, but I'm feeling black

pepper today. Now, we're just going to

push all that rice to the side. Add a

little bit more oil. Make sure that's

nice and spread. And then we're going to

pour in our eggs. Now they set a little

bit. I'm just going to mix them all up.

You want them nice and fluffy. Little

ribbons. You can break it up because

obviously it's going to be broken up. So

don't worry about keeping it all in one

piece. Once it is mostly cooked, I mean

like a light scramble. Go ahead and

start folding it into your rice. So that

way you can keep that nice bright yellow

color.

And finally our green onions.

And then we'll just move it on to a

bowl. And this is fried rice.

[Music]

Now, I'm not saying I know everything

about fried rice. What I am saying is

that if you follow these steps, you'll

make a good fried rice. Thank you so

much for liking, subscribing, and

hitting that bell.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
rice /raɪs/ A1	noun - a type of grain used as food
fry /fraɪ/ A2	verb - to cook food in hot oil
cook /kʊk/ A1	verb - to prepare food by heating
add /æd/ A1	verb - to put something into a mixture
use /juːz/ A1	verb - to employ something for a purpose noun - the act of employing something
cut /kʌt/ A1	verb - to divide using a tool
oil /ɔɪl/ A1	noun - a viscous liquid used for cooking
sauce /sɔːs/ A2	noun - a liquid or semi-liquid food
egg /ɛɡ/ A1	noun - an oval object from poultry
flavor /ˈfleɪvər/ B1	noun - the taste of something
hot /hɒt/ A1	adjective - having a high temperature
crisp /krɪsp/ B1	adjective - firm and brittle
moisture /ˈmɔɪstʃər/ B2	noun - water or wetness
fresh /frɛʃ/ A1	adjective - recently made or obtained
layer /ˈleɪər/ A2	noun - a sheet or coat of material
pillar /ˈpɪlər/ B2	noun - a supporting element
filling /ˈfɪlɪŋ/ B1	noun - material used to fill something adjective - satisfying hunger
leftover /ˈlɛftoʊvər/ B1	noun - food remaining after a meal
protein /ˈproʊtiːn/ B2	noun - a substance in food that builds body
render /ˈrɛndər/ B2	verb - to melt fat from meat