How to cook EPIC fried rice... the only guide you need _ Marion's Kitchen

Hey , guys , Welcome to a very special master class .

We are talking all things fried rice .

I mean , as a food group .

Fried rice is way up there for me .

Fried chicken dumplings , fried rice .

I mean , do you need anything else ?

Uh , now , this , uh , series of recipes comes from my very new cookbook , which I am so ridiculously excited about .

Uh , this book contains , like , you know , like all the little tips , the little tricks that kind of make everything easier or better or tastier or stickier or yummier or all those things .

Uh , I've gathered together all of my very best little snippets and secret ingredients and all those things and put them in this book .

So we are gonna be going through the how to cook rice for fried rice .

Uh , technique from this book .

We're also gonna be cooking a spicy , uh , prawn and chilli fried rice .

Uh , but we're also gonna do , uh how many ?

How many things can we do ?

Uh , we're also gonna be doing a very classic how to cook Chinese fried rice .

So all the good things coming up now , I'm gonna do how to cook rice for fried rice .

first of all , because , I mean , you cannot cook a good fried rice if you don't start out with the good rice , you know , Um , so on page 90 in here , I have very explicit , pedantic kind of instructions for how to cook your rice and how to cook your rice for fried rice .

So two of the things , um , now let's get on to the rice part itself .

So you wanna rinse your rice off just to get rid of any excess star ?

This is particularly important if you're doing rice for fried rice .

Sometimes I kind of cheat .

And don't do that for my steamed rice , but , you know , don't tell I'm annoying .

Whatever .

Um , but I did do it for this one , because for this , I want my grains to be as dry and lovely and , you know , distinct and beautiful as possible .

So I've rinsed the rice .

I have two cups here , And the important part for cooking rice , uh , for regular rice or the rice for fried rice is the ratio of water .

Now , this is where things get , like a bit .

Well , I think where things have gone wrong with instructions in the past So if you've got , um , one cup of rice , you would typically do one cup and a half for steamed rice .

So right , let's get a little technical here .

We're doing a master class after all .

Uh Oh , By the way , if you guys have any extra comments or questions , um , throughout the class , please do comment below .

And , uh , I will get on to them as soon as I can .

I'll be scrolling through every now and then making sure that we're coming back to answer your questions .

Um , so now , with rice , if you cook rice in a vacuum so no evaporation , no , you know , external factors Rice would soak up 1 to 1 ratio rice to water .

But of course , we don't cook in a vacuum because we aren't cooking in a science lab .

Um , and when things boil , we get evaporation .

So some of that water cooks off .

So basically , you just need to add , like a little bit of water to make up for the evaporation .

So usually people will say , Oh , OK , well , you need 1 to 1.5 ratio of rice , which doesn't actually work out because , um , that's too much water as you keep doubling and doubling and doubling .

Does that even make sense ?

So if you had two by that ratio , if you had two cups of rice , you would be adding , um what to you would be adding two and a no , you'd be adding three cups of water .

Oh , wait , let me do the math on back to your own .

Well , I just wrote it properly , and then I don't have to , you know , like try and explain it again .

OK , let's just get the question .

Lets you ask me , OK , I have tried to explain this so many times , and I always get confused .

So I'm gonna read what I took the time to write in here , so I get it right .

So most often , most cookbooks or YouTube channels will tell you that there's a ratio for rice and water , and it is 1 to 1.5 .

So if you've got one cup of rice , you use 1.5 cups of water that works out fine .

The problem is when you start doubling , so by that ratio , if you are using two cups of rice , you would need three cups of water .

That's too much water if you had .

Um , you know , if you were cooking two cups of rice , all you need is two cups of water .

Plus that little bit extra for the evaporation .

So you only need 2.5 cups of water .

Do you know what I mean ?

Ok , the main point is it doesn't matter how many cups of rice you're doing .

10 cups , 12 cups , three cups , five cups , one cup .

You only need the exact same amount of water plus the extra half cup .

That's it .

That's all you need to know now , because we're doing rice for fried rice .

Uh , we are going to add a little bit less than the half cup .

We're just gonna do two cups of water , cos I have two cups of rice and just a little quarter of the water .

That's it .

OK , so turn your heat on and what we're waiting for here .

Oh , and this is the other thing .

This is why the Mumma trick always works .

So , like that much water .

So if you stick your finger in and you get the water up to that much , so basically you've got 1 to 1 water , plus a little bit .

That's why that Asian mum trick always works .

So put the heat on and then just wait for that rice to absorb most of that water .

We'll come back , be like five minutes or so .

Um , while that's happening , let's make the , um , sauce for our first dish , which is gonna be the how to cook classic Chinese fried rice .

So what we need here is some soy sauce , some Chinese chaus wine .

Now , I know a lot of you guys do like to keep your cooking alcohol free , and one of the tips that I have in my cookbook is for this recipe .

You could just use some chicken stock , um , instead of the wine , if you would prefer , and we want a little dash of sugar here as well .

I always not just because my mum always did .

But I always do like to put a little dash of sugar , um , into my fried rice .

I feel like you get like a tiny little bit more caramelization , like those sugars burning in the pan , which kind of gives you that smokiness you would get from like a really high heat .

Wok tossed fried rice .

So That's my little secret .

There .

I get my eggs ready as well .

Ok , so while we're waiting for the water to boil for the rice uh , let me just let you guys know that we do have a very special deal for , uh , all of you who have been supporting and following my channels for so many years .

Now , Um , we have a 20% off our , uh , pre-order sales for the cookbook .

So click on the link if you're interested .

Uh , I would love it if you did .

So I hope you love the cookbook as much as I do because I really love it .

Of course .

OK , so we're looking pretty good here .

You can see all of that water that was sitting on the top .

That's kind of evaporated now , So I'm gonna put the lid on slightly ajar .

Um , just so we get a little bit more of that evaporation going , uh , some air flow and I'm gonna turn the heat down pretty low and just let that cook away for five minutes .

Alright , Do some light reading while we're waiting .

No , to be honest , guys like I do wanna show you .

I do wanna show you around this cookbook .

Um , uh , So what I did here was I tried to think of all the like , you know , what are the problems that I have when I'm cooking ?

Because I'm just like you .

I'm busy .

I you know , I don't always have the luxury of being able to cook , you know , you know , for an hour or two hours for dinner , or you know , who has two hours to cook dinner ?

No one .

So I've done things like , you know , made you guys a little weeknight heroes chapter .

This is stuff you can get done in , like , less than 30 minutes .

And , you know , I'm all about , you know , less dishwashing .

So all of those little tricks and tips in there , um , comfort food ?

Because , I mean , who doesn't love a good fried chicken recipe ?

Come on .

Um , carbonara , four ingredients , sticky Asian pork ribs .

I mean , that's what I'm talking about .

Guys just like pork ribs me the couch .

Um , all the noodles and a little bit of pasta , cos you guys know how much ?

Um , I love a bit of a fusion pasta situation .

Uh , so , yeah , I mean , so many cool things and Then there's epic weekenders .

So , like project cooking or entertaining for your friends , there's a whole chapter on rice , including these recipes that we're doing and also like a from scratch chapter so you can make your own Thai sweet chilli sauce , your own chilli oil , your own bow buns .

Um , your own , uh , barbecue pork , Actually , which we have here in this recipe coming up as well .

Alright , now our rice is looking good again .

So I'm going to , um , you can see , like it's really nice and , uh , sort of the water is really well evaporated in there , so I'm gonna put the lid full on now .

Um , and actually , just turn that off and just let that sit for 10 minutes , and that residual steam is going to continue cooking the rice , so that is just perfectly cooked and ready to be stir fried .

So that is your how to cook rice for fried rice .

Uh , now , uh , I typically would do that the day before .

I think day old rice is the best way to go for fried rice .

It kind of like firms up in the fridge .

Uh , so I did that yesterday , and I have some sitting here .

But if you didn't do that and you're not as organised as me , you can actually tip that rice out onto a tray , pop it in the fridge and just leave that for I mean , if you can , like , 15 , 20 minutes , even just that little bit of drying out in the fridge is gonna help you out .

So lots of little tips there .

Uh , let's get on to cooking our first fried rice dish , though .

So wok , uh , wok is not essential .

A big , large frying pan would be totally fine .

Uh , what is essential , though , is you get this guy really hot .

Um , the whole idea , I think with a really amazing fried rice is that it should be quite simple .

It's almost like that pe that Italian pizza kind of philosophy where less is more .

But the technique and and and the flavour that you give the rice , uh , is really important .

Now the heat is gonna get everything like all caramelised and smoky and give you that wok tossed flavour .

So even if you are just doing it in a frying pan , you will still get that If you really heat it up .

So get it .

Kind of like scary hot .

You know where you're like .

Oh , is that too hot ?

That means it's hot enough .

Maybe unless you've got really sensitive smoke alarms , then you should probably not .

But I don't , so I'm all good .

Add in a little bit of oil here .

OK , we're gonna go in with some garlic .

One little tiny tip here on the garlic .

Don't cut it .

Don't chop it too .

Fine , because it will burn really quickly .

So just like a rough chop on your garlic onion again .

Guys , please let me know down the bottom if you have any questions , even if there's not questions on , um , on these recipes , I know a lot of you guys , um , cook a lot of recipes from my channel .

It is .

Are there any other kind of master classes that you would like to see from me ?

I'm always interested to know what you guys think .

Um , and what things you're interested in watching , so please let me know .

Alright .

So we toss these guys around until we kind of get a little bit of caramelization happening on those onions .

Um , now , while when is that to happen .

Guys , Why don't you tell me where you're watching from ?

I love to hear whereabouts in the world .

You guys are from what you're doing .

Are you having a glass of wine ?

Are you having a coffee ?

Um , how do you make your fried rice I love .

I love hearing your recipes and your takes on things as well .

So let me know .

Um , photos are always good , too .

Love to see your pics .

Right ?

So this is looking good .

Now I have here some Chinese chael pork or barbecue pork .

You can totally go out and buy this from a a restaurant , a take out restaurant .

Order it in .

Uh , I do have a recipe in my cookbook and on my channels , Uh , on how to make , uh , Chinese chael barbecue pork at home .

So this is the homemade version that's gonna go in here as well , so that pork is cooked , so you're pretty much just kind of heating it through a little , uh , and then just pushing that to the side because we're gonna add in some egg now , depending here on whether your pan looks very dry or not .

You can add in a little bit of oil if you'd like .

Now egg goes in and just kind of , like , spread that egg out as much as you can so that you're sort of making a little little omelette situation here .

OK , so once , that's kind of like set .

So , you know , I can see that the bottom is starting to get a little bit of colour on there , so I'm gonna break that up .

And so I know there are a lot of , like , different classic Chinese fried rice , but like this one to me is based on , like the Chinese restaurants that I used to go to when I was little , Where you get the sweet pots of the pork .

You've got the egg .

Um , but it's a very simple kind of fried rice .

Um , but as I said , it's all about technique and getting that beautiful flav flavour , um , with the minimal ingredients that you've got , so that's all looking good .

I'm gonna go in with my rice , and if we've done our job properly , this rice will end up beautiful , not soggy and just the right amount of lovely sauce sticking to it .

Even the sauce here is our sauce .

That we made now the reason I like to keep also my fried rice uh , you know , a little bit dry before I get started is that one .

I don't want the rice to get sticky and glossy , but two , I want the rice to almost like , kind of finish cooking in the sauce so that the rice grains soak up the sauce .

Uh , and then you're getting , you know , yummy rice grains .

OK , so that's looking pretty perfect .

I mean , see , you should be able to , like , shake that rice .

We don't have any , you know , sticky plumpy stuff going on .

That looks really good .

OK , final little special bits here .

OK , so I'm gonna turn that heat off now because it's done its job .

I'm gonna add in my spring onion .

And then I like to add my sesame oil right at the end because , um , toasted sesame oil typically will lose its a lot of its fragrance .

And it's punch if you heat it up too much .

So if you drizzle it at the end , you get the maximum amount of flavour from your sesame oil and a little pinch of white pepper , OK ?

And that my friends is your typical beautiful classic Chinese fried rice .

Yes , it smells so good .

Hm .

And like that sesame oil kind of gives you that pretend smokiness that you would get .

Well , it's not pretend .

But like if you were cooking in a Chinese restaurant high heat , all the things bells and whistles , you would have a really smoky kind of situation going on .

And the sesame oil kind of gives you a little bit of that when you're cooking at home .

Hm .

Perfectly cooked rice .

Just the right amount of saltiness and sweet pork .

All of it .

Perfection .

Yes .

Love , love , love .

OK , so let's get on to our next fried rice .

I'm just gonna clear this down .

Alright , so everything is looking beautiful again .

We're ready to go on our next fried rice , which is a Thai basil and chilli fried rice .

Uh , this one is like a , um it's a combination of two of my favourite things .

One fried rice , uh , and two .

A dish in Thailand called Papa is the name of the basil that we use in Thailand for this dish .

But we'll get to that a little bit later , but the main thing is that It's really punchy , like it's punchy , spicy .

It should be like coughing , coughing , fit , spicy when you're frying in the frying pan .

So , um , I'm gonna start off with some garlic .

I'm gonna make a little chilli paste here and some birds eye chillies , as many as you dare .

I'm gonna put five in because you know , I'm hardcore today .

I'm getting , um uh you can use more or less obviously .

Now , this is a weird thing .

Um , but I like to leave the stems on because I want this to be kind of really rough .

So when we're when we see the paste in the rice , I want you to almost see the little bits of garlic and a little bits of chilli .

OK , so you're looking for this kind of situation here .

You've got a really rough paste .

I'll just take a couple more of those sticks out that's looking good .

Let's get going .

Oh , no .

We're gonna make stir fry sauce first , So this one is really simple .

We just want soy sauce , fish sauce , and again , this would be like the stir fry sauce that you would use for the Biba .

Um , stir fry .

So that's where you're getting that kind of flavour from and oyster sauce and a little dash of sugar .

Alright , so here we go guys , we're all ready to go in our walk and again Super hot , Scary hot , please .

And while we're waiting for that to heat up , let's come back .

And because I didn't actually show you my finished rice cos I was waiting for it to kind of steam through .

Remember I said leave it for the 10 minutes and I want you to know , you know , make sure that I've done it right for you guys .

So if you have a look in here , you you can see we have some really beautiful rice grains .

They're not too fluffy like I .

I get in here with my fork as in Fluffy by fluffy .

I mean , they're not too saturated with with , um moisture like they're kind of like very distinct grains , almost a little bit firm .

And that's exactly what you want .

Because , as I said , the rice now , when it cooks in the , um in the pan for your fried rice will soak up and almost finish cooking in the sauce .

Perfect .

Just the tiniest little bit of bite through the centre .

OK , so things are looking scary hot here , A little bit of smoke .

And I want some oil gonna go in with some onion and our chilli garlic paste .

This is the kind of point where you might need to open up your windows .

It can get a little hectic when his chilli is frying off .

Now , I know a lot of you love this recipe , and a lot of you have made it because you've told me so .

If anyone has pics of their , um , spicy fried rice or their Chinese fried rice recipe that you've made before , please do post them .

Um , send me your comments .

I love to hear all about the recipes you guys are making .

And I can't wait to see the recipes that you make from here .

So , um , you know , actually , on the back cover is one of my favourites .

So this is a ham and cheese toasted sandwich pot sticker ?

Yeah , like ham and cheese .

Toasted sandwich flavour in a dumpling .

Oh , my goodness .

It's epic .

I love it .

I ate so many when we shot the cook and I did this OK ?

Yeah .

This is but Can the crew get through the cook without coughing ?

That is the question .

OK , so can I get through ?

Alright .

Prawns are going in is where your eyes start to water a little bit .

It becomes like an endurance game .

Yeah , While I'm waiting for those prawns , I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about Basil .

Let's talk about Basil .

So , um , as I mentioned in Thailand , um , the stir fry that we make is called , um pad Kara .

Um , and ba Kara is the name of the basil , and it's translated as well .

It's also called an English holy basil or spicy basil .

It's very difficult to get a hold of outside of Thailand .

I think so .

Even here in Australia , I have a lot of trouble trying to find it .

Um , so I will often use thai basil , which is different to the spicy basil .

Uh , it just has .

It's a little bit sweeter , um , and has more of an annoyed flavour .

Whereas the holy basil or the biker brow has a more of a medicinal kind of flavour to it .

Oh , my goodness .

Um , so there .

That's like a basil breakdown for you guys .

But look , the point of this recipe , and I don't want you missing out because you can't get some obscure basil from Thailand for this .

Um , the point of this recipe is you want a lot of basil .

It can be Thai basil like I've got here .

It can be , um , regular Italian Basil .

You just want a lot of it .

So I'm gonna pick some basil while I'm waiting for my prawns to cook .

And actually , we have a really lovely neighbour here , right next door .

Who grows this beautiful basil that we're using today ?

His name's Trev , if you're watching Trev .

Thank you .

Actually , I think Trev Basil is a bit of a hybrid , because , um , I can see that it's kind of got the ridged .

The holy basil has , like , the ridged edges .

Like like Trev .

Basil does here .

Um , but Holly Basil has a lot more of a furry leaf and a slightly different flavour .

So I reckon Trev has managed to grow himself a little hybrid here .

It's not quite spicy , Basil , but still beautiful .

Lovely .

OK , so if you have a look in here , we are looking totally awesome .

Things are getting all charry .

Um , you know , everyone's starting to cough .

It's all .

It's all happening .

Um , I'm gonna go in here with our rice , our perfectly cooked fried rice rice and have season sauce .

Oh , that is looking really special .

I love that .

OK , now I wanna go in with our basil , and that is it .

And what you're getting right now , like , if you go , I wish you guys could be here to smell it .

But you're getting this beautiful hit of that fresh basil , uh , fragrance .

Uh , you're getting a lot of that chilli fragrance as well , but , um , yeah , it's smelling absolutely deli .

Delightful .

Um , Now , what I like to do with this one is , uh , um I like to go a little bit old school with this one .

I kind of I kind of quite like an old school , like moulded fried rice .

You know how you would get it in , You know , like an old school Chinese shophouse in Bangkok or something like that .

So my little bits and pieces , I've got some decorative cucumber .

I love a decorative cucumber .

It's got , like , this kind of ridged edge on it .

I like that cute chilies first .

So I've got some little chilies that I'm decorating my bowl with here .

And I'm gonna get some really beautiful choice , like pick of the drawings here , pop them in , but OK , and pile that rice in there now , at the moment of truth .

Ah , beautiful .

I just moved .

I just cheat this little chilli piece in here .

Oh , that's so cute .

You can see your prawns and the chilli .

Oh , I love that .

And a little bit of your cucumber on the side and a little stalk of spring onions .

So I mean , typically in Bangkok , we always kind of have a little bit of spring onion on the side here .

And it's like you kind of eat your fried rice .

You take a bite of the spring onion , you've got the cool kind of cucumber as well .

So you've got it all kind of going on .

Um , and there you go , guys .

That is your Thai basil and prawn .

Spicy fried rice .

Good .

I'm gonna get in here who that is .

This one is kind of like a really big wow punch in your face kind of guy .

Mhm deli .

Alright , guys , thanks so much for joining me .

This very special .

Um fried rice .

Master class .

I love being able to chat to you guys and make these videos for you guys .

And I am so excited now that we now have this book with all of my very best tips , techniques and recipes that you can rely on time and again .

I hope you love it .

Uh , if you're interested in having a look , click on the link and , um , yeah , we hope you love it as much as I do .

Thanks , guys .

Bye .

Hey , friends , I hope you enjoyed that one .

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