Shrimp Fried Rice

Step 1

First, wash the rice, and pour off the excess water. Combine the drained rice with 1 ½ cups water, the soy sauces and turmeric powder in a thick-bottomed pot or your rice cooker. Cook the rice per our instructions for perfect stovetop rice or press the button on your rice cooker! If you have not purchased a rice cooker yet and consider yourself a rice-lover, consider purchasing one! Check out our Chinese Cooking Tools page for more information and some useful links to products.

Step 2

When the rice is cooked, fluff it with a fork or rice paddle. You will see that you now have a nice uniform golden brown rice. You can use this rice fresh or refrigerate it, and use it the next day. If you use cold refrigerated rice, you’ll have to break it up with your hands before cooking as well as add a sprinkling of water and cover your fried rice when cooking to heat it through.

Step 3

Now onto the “fried” portion of this fried rice. Heat your wok over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil, and add the eggs, scrambling them until they’re just cooked. Use your spatula to break up the large pieces into smaller chunks. You can start scooping them up when they look like they are almost done, and put them back into the same bowl you mixed them in. Set aside. You will cook them again in the rice.

Step 4

Heat the wok until just smoking, and spread 1 tablespoon oil around the perimeter of the wok. Spread the shrimp out in a single layer, and let them sear for 20 seconds. Stir fry the shrimp until opaque, transfer them back to their bowl, and set aside. Again, they’ll get cooked again in the rice! For the record, when cooking large volumes of shrimp fried rice in restaurants, shrimp are usually pre-boiled (like they do for shrimp cocktail). Wok cooks then grab handfuls of the precooked shrimp for each order, which makes the process go quickly and smoothly, but at home, searing the shrimp definitely makes for better flavor!

Step 5

With the wok over medium high heat, add the third tablespoon of oil, and sauté the onions until translucent.

Step 6

Add the rice, using your metal spatula to flatten and break up any remaining clumps. If the rice is cold from the refrigerator, continue stir-frying until the rice is warmed up, which will take about 5 minutes, or sprinkle a tablespoon or two of water around the rice, lower the heat slightly, and cover for one minute to let the steam do some of the work.

Step 7

Once the rice is warmed (this is very important or the sauce will not mix as well and the color of the rice will not be as uniform), add the salt, sugar, sesame oil, and freshly ground white pepper, and mix with a scooping motion until the rice is evenly coated with the seasonings. The rice should be hot by this time. Now add the shrimp and snow peas, and stir fry for another 30 seconds.

Step 8

Add the eggs and scallions and continue stir-frying the rice for another 30 seconds. Gather all of the rice into the middle of the wok to let the sides of the wok heat up. After about 20 seconds, spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok, and stir-fry for another 20 seconds. This step gives that little extra wok hei that you taste when you get fried rice from a good Chinese restaurant!

Step 9

Plate and serve!