Cantonese Yang Zhou Fried Rice (揚州炒飯）

Yang Zhou Fried Rice is a popular dish offered by Cantonese BBQ restaurants.  It usually includes egg, BBQ pork (or ham), chicken, shrimp, carrots and peas.  This recipe is my own rendition.  Since I use similar ingredients so I named it after the one you find in the restaurant.  And this is the best way I use up the leftover rice that was left dried and got old in the fridge for several days :)

Ingredients: 

Cooked rice : 4 bowls
BBQ pork (叉燒肉): 5oz (can be replaced by ham, chicken, or pork)
Frozen package of carrots and peas : 1/2 cup
Frozen bamboo shoot: one piece
Dried mushrooms:  5 pieces
egg : 1
green scallion: 1
salt, pepper and light soy sauce for seasoning

Steps:

1.  Cook the rice using a rice cooker (The rice cooker comes with a small cup.  One small cup is equivalent to 3/4 measuring cup).  Using 2 cup of raw rice will make 4 bowls of cooked rice.  The freshly cooked rice is usually too sticky to make fried rice.  You might want to use less water when you cook it.  After it is done,  open the rice cooker,  mix the rice and let it cool for a while.  But, if you happen to have some left over rice that is stored in the fridge overnight, and too dry to eat, use them will get you the best result.

2. Soften the dried mushrooms by submerging them in water for 1 hour or until they are soften.

3. Cut the bamboo shoots, mushrooms (take the stem out), and BBQ pork into small cubes (similar to the size of the carrots in the frozen package).  Chop the scallion and beat the egg (add a pinch of salt in egg batter)

4. Heat up 1 tsp vegetable oil in the cooking pan, stir fry the egg batter and break it into small pieces, take the egg out of the pan.

5. In the same pan, heat up 1 TBSP vegetable oil,  stir fry black mushrooms, bamboo shoots and frozen carrots and peas, add 1/2 tsp salt,  1/2 TBSP soy sauce for 2-3 minutes, then add the BBQ pork.  If you use chicken or pork instead of BBQ pork (which is already cooked),  you will need to marinate the meat and stir fry them until they are cooked first.   Take the meat and vegetable out of the pan.

6. Heat 1/2 TBSP vegetable oil again,  add the chopped scallion and wait until they are turning brown a little bit, add rice and stir fry them for 2-3 minutes.  (If the rice is cold, fry them until they are heated)  Add salt and pepper for seasoning (don't add too much because the meat and vegetable are already flavored).  Add eggs (#4) and the rest of ingredients (#5) and mix well.  Note if there is juice from the vegetables in #5,  drain the juice before you put them back to the rice.

Last Note:  it doesn't need to be precise about the portion of the ingredients.  Many of the ingredients can be exchanged.  For instance,  the one I made yesterday had corns because I bought a mixed package with carrots, pea and corns.  Sometimes, I put chopped fish balls or artificial crab meat.  For meat, you can use sausage, chicken, pork, or ham.   The key of success is that the rice should be loose and dry, not sticky or mushy.   Try not to add any liquid (from the meat or vegetables) in the rice when you make the dish.