Fried Rice, Steamed Cuisine Style
Everyone knows fried rice. So why do I even try? Well for one, it’s a kids’ favorite. Second, it’s all steamed, which is the raison d’être of this blog. And third, is as good or better than the one I used to have at my neighborhood Chinese Restaurant. And with clean, healthy, nutrient dense ingredients. All I needed was a Chinese friend giving me pointers on how to make the dressing! Tried it out, and tell me what you and your kids think!
For Asian food lovers, here is another Asian inspired recipe.
Everyone knows fried rice, right? So why do I even bother writing that recipe?
Well for one, it’s a kids’ favorite. Second, it’s all steamed, which is the raison d’être of this blog. And third, is as good or better than the one I used to have at my neighborhood Chinese Restaurant. And with clean, healthy, nutrient dense ingredients. All I needed was a Chinese friend giving me pointers on how to make the dressing! Tried it out, and tell me what you and your kids think!
DISCLAIMER:
This post is written by an Amazon affiliate and affiliate of other brands. By clicking on some of my links, you enable me to receive an affiliate fee at no cost to you. As a personal rule, I do not recommend items I do not already love or would buy for my own us ! Thanks for your support !
Reproducing a Recipe I Loved
As a child I loved going to the Chinese take out. We had an excellent one near my school. And that has inspired some of my recipes, as you saw I you tried my Rainbow Shrimp salad, and more of my upcoming recipes!
I loved pineapple chicken, I loved duck containing dishes, spring rolls ( the raw type chinese take out sell in France) and fried spring rolls which they call “nem”. And of course I loved fried noodle dishes and fried rice.
Later on I tried making it myself, and a Chinese friend gave me a few pointers which changed EVERYTHING. One the most satisfying things about cooking is being able to reproduce a dish you had at a restaurant and loved. The next is to improve on it. Now I’m happy to say, although it is not exactly the same, I am very proud and happy with my delicious fried rice recipe. And so are my kids!
The secret is always the dressing!
Not really a secret, but the dressing changes everything. I didn’t quite know what to add to my fried rice to make it taste similar to what I would eat at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Turns out, it was not the soy sauce but rather the toasted sesame oil and garlic! As I found that out, out of a sudden the taste became much more familiar.
And to make a touch even better, get the toasted sesame oil organic and cold pressed from the Kevala brand, it’s a fantastic oil! I use sesame oil quite a bit and go through a gallon in about a year, so it does not have time to go rancid. Kevala also has organic sesame in bulk ( black and white) and very good tahini, as well as coconut aminos, as soy alternative. Check out their store! I’ve loved every product I’ve bought so far, the toasted sesame oil being hands down my favorite.
Why buy cold pressed Toasted sesame oil ?
Because cold pressed non chemical process of extracting oil that also does not destroy the good fats. Toasting the seeds probably does destroy some of the nutrients, but that’s where the intense sesame taste come from. So the next best thing is to make sure the oil hasn’t been chemically extracted and the rest of the fats has not been destroyed!
Presteam the vegetables to make it fast
Chinese are known for making their foods fast: either steaming in bamboo, or using a wok so the food remains colorful and crunchy. And that’s one of the things I love the most about Chinese food.
In my kitchen, I use a French steam cooker, the Vitaliseur. It is a stainless steel tool that is extremely efficient. And because I am such a big fan, this all website is devoted to steam cooking with it! And until this website is very successful, my affiliation is just out of sheer love.
As a steam cooker, the Vitaliseur is quick, but also gives a steam bath to your foods, which cleanses them. It also does not go beyond 95°C / 202°F, below the boiling point, which preserves nutrients by not boiling them off. That’s why I call it a “Gentle Steam Cooker.”
Remember ! Steam cooking is not the same as pressure steam cooking !
The temperature is not quite the same! Pressure steam cooking reaches temperatures way above the boiling point and destroys many nutrients! Fact is, it also does not cook particularly fast either, compared to the Vitaliseur. How? Pressure steam is too pressurized to have the time to gently get into the foods, so it needs longer to get to the center. That is not the best news for nutrient density, texture and colors of your meal, all of which are signs of nutrient density. Now what, buy more supplements?
I cook all ingredients in the Steam Cooker Before I mix them
Vegetables, peas, shrimps, hams, and rice: all are cooked very quickly in the steam cooker before I dress and mix them together. If they are thawed, they also can be cooked at the same time: since it is a steam bath That makes the processes very fast.
Steam cooker as a Food Prep Ally
The steam cooker is also very useful for food prep. I use it to cook my rice !
With a Great Steam Cooker, a Rice Cooker Is No Longer Needed
Why not in the rice cooker? Well, that’s another machine to buy, own and store. What my steam cooker does very well in a stainless steel bowl and hot water.
The best is: it is very hard to overcook rice with my steam cooker. And there is less to wash and put away: the stainless bowl takes very little space in the fridge, and does not dirty my steam cooker at all! It does not boil the rice – which does not keep the rice from soaking up the water. Cooking time vary on volumes, but it’s give or take 15 minutes for Basmati, 20 for whole grain rice.
I Can Cook Rice Any Time
When I am busy elsewhere, I’ll turn on my steam cooker and cook my basmati rice. I can use it later to make fried rice. All that is needed is to get the ingredients out ( some need thawing like shrimps and peas) , prep them, which takes about 15 minutes, steam them, mix the whole: done!
My Fried rice is all steamed !
As I mentioned before, I use the steam cooker to pre-cook ingredients in many recipes. For this one, every single ingredient gets a steam bath, except for the scrambled egg and the julienned carrot !
- The rice, as I said
- The vegetables: Leek, (optionally mushrooms)
- Frozen ingredients like green peas, frozen diced ham, and frozen shrimps
- If i did not mention that before, wether it’s thawing or cooking, sea food and ham get precooked here too!
Best of all, since a steam bath makes you sweat, tastes don’t mix in the steam cooker so you can thaw or cook very different ingredients in there.
The only ingredients I would avoid cooking simultaneously would be meat and fish, because of the smell of fish and red meat at the bottom. For those, I’ll give the whole pot a rinse in between and boil new water in the bottom pot.
So for this recipe, green peas, leek, frozen precooked shrimp and ham do cook at the same time for 4 minutes, and then I transfer them all together onto the pan, in which I previously added and olive oil, and preheated garlic in.
Then I add the rice, the dressing, done. It’s blissfully short to make ! Even with rambunctious children around.
Make enough of it and you’ll have a fantastic meal tomorrow, another dinner, or a meal-to-go.
Notes on Some specific ingredients
Leek:
- It is one of these ingredients I don’t often eat outside out home in the United States. And not everyone likes to eat the whole vegetable. Personally, I like it all. I can’t ever find it whole at the store though. I do believe the only reason I like the whole vegetable is because its natural taste is preserved by the steam cooker, so I don’t blame anyone for liking only the white part. It’s a bit sad though, because has a more interesting taste than onions do.
Shrimps:
- If you buy precooked shrimps, all you need to do is to thaw them in water. I always throw them into the steam cooker to kill the bad bacteria and toxins that may be in there. But know that shrimps cook very fast and become very chewy if you don’t watch them close !
- If you buy them raw, they will need to be thoroughly thawed and will need a bit longer to cook. As soon as they turn pink, get them out ! Don’t be scared if there is a bit of grey, they are hot inside and will finish cooking thoroughly in the fried rice ! If you would rather have no amount of grey, that is your preference.
Ham:
I only use the steam cooker here to thaw the ham, which was cooked in the oven. Or precooked ham. Not that I am not open to cooking ham in a steam cooker, but I rarely buy pork raw.
Can I Cook Meat in A Steam Cooker?
Yes, you can cook meat in my steam cooker: chicken and beef, even a whole chicken, chicken liver, beef liver. I would cook steak if I was by myself, but my husband prefers it grilled, so that’s how we cook it. But protein can be thoroughly cooked in the steam cooker (although as in grilling, you will need to learn how long to cook it based on thickness and size, and on your tastebuds). Steamed won’t quite have the same consistency on top as grilled steak, but you’ll find that instead of the grilled, slightly burned taste you get from the Maillard reaction, you perceive the whole flavor of the meat, in all its complexity. It is altogether a different experience. You also get a leaner meat in the end, that has been partially cleansed of fats and toxins – and we know that a great majority of toxins are fat-soluble.
Fried rice in 6 easy steps
It’s so easy I’ll give you a preview of what is involved in making fried rice with the steam cooker
- Steam the Basmati rice in a stainless steel bowl with hot water in the steam cooker while preparing the ingredients on the side and the dressing (15′);
- While the leek, ham and peas steam, crack the egg, then add the julienned carrots garlic oil and salt to the skillet , cook on low fire 3 minutes (5′);
- Add the steamed ingredients to the skillet (1′);
- Add the rice (3′);
- Keep the fire as low as you can to just keep warm while you dress the fried rice and decorate with sesame seeds, cashews, cilantro! (5′);
Voilà!
Tools You Will Need
Steam cooking with the Vitaliseur requires the steam cooker itself, and a few tools you will undoubtedly use many, many times.
- The steam cooker itself: I am an affiliate of the Vitaliseur de Marion, which you can purchase here. By using my code “steamedcuisine” from the United States, you get 10% off. As a non European resident you don’t pay VAT but you pay shipping, which is about the same as the VAT amount. The goal of this website is to guide non French-speakers through using this amazing cooking tool and improve their health and their experience of cooking quick meals every day. Need help? Contact me through blog comments, facebook, or my email bernadette@steamedcuisinelifestyle.com, and I’ll do my best to improve your experience ! That’s part of what I see my job as being an independent health coach.
- Stainless steel bowls to cook rice, such as this one ( I recommend 18/8 or 18/10 stainless as safest and long lasting types of steel) . I own many different sizes of bowl, from small to big. This one is over a 1.5 quart which will cook 3 cups of basmati rice with no problem. Want a set? German brand Rösle has many sizes of that quality. Other stainless steel bowls do not always specify the steel quality, which may or may not affect the safety of use.
- A bowl grabber, and this is the one I have been owning a few years and that I love, to grab the bowl once cooked without burning yourself, although this one would be a good choice too!
- Julienne grater, you can also use a mandoline slicer, but for one carrot, that’s faster to clean!
- Of course a garlic press, measuring spoons and cups, a few wooden spoons, and a good skillet.
Alternative versions
- Add some shiitake mushrooms or simply some mini Bella mushrooms, sliced, steamed three minutes, dried with a cloth to if you want to soak out extra moisture, and finished in salt, olive oil and garlic in a pan.
- Swap shrimps for chicken. But honestly I do prefer shrimp !
- Before cooking the rice, add a dried shiitake mushroom in the rice water. The mushroom will soak the water but release an amazing mushroom aftertaste in the rice! It gives in a great vibe !
- Add a few thin slices of cabbage ( also steamed 3-4 minutes) for color and crunch
- For deco I’ll add a few raw cashews, but I often get requests for more, coz it’s delicious!
I hope it gave you some appetite and that you are going to give it a try, add your own things in and share ideas!
Bon appétit!
DISCLAIMER: This post is written by an Amazon affiliate and affiliate of other brands. By clicking on some of my links, you provide me with an affiliate fee at no cost to you. As a personal rule, I do not recommend items I do not already love or would buy for my own us !
Fried Rice, Steamed Cuisine Style
This is a l fast dinner that is very popular: it's tasty, quick to make, and you can make it heathier than the real thing with a few tweaks ! Try making it the Steamed Cuisine style, with a great steam cooker! You'll enjoy the toasted sesame- garlic dressing, the colors, the crunch ! And your kids will ask for more!
Ingredients
- 5 cups of cooked basmati rice or whole rice.
- 1 cup of leek, thinly sliced
- 1 cup of cooked ham, diced
- Dozen to twenty large shrimps
- 2 eggs, scrambled
- 1 cup sweet peas, thawed
- Half a carrot, julienned and cut smaller
- 4 cloves of garlic
- optional: one dried Shiitake mushroom, to give a taste to the rice before cooking or 4 oz mini bella, sliced
- 2 tsp sea salt
Dressing
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Add 2 inches of water to the bottom pot of your steam cooker ( The Vitaliseur is my go-to steam cooker). Turn on the stove under the steam cooker.
- In a stainless steel bowl, put 2 cups of basmati or Thai rice, rince it, then add 3 cups of water . If you add hot water from a kettle or a thermos, the rice will cook faster. You can add a dried Shiitake mushroom to the water and give a mushroomy taste to your rice! If you have cooked rice already, you will need 5 to 6 cups of cooked rice in this dish.
- While the rice is cooking, put the peas, and ham into a bowl, ready to be cooked. Thaw the shrimps in water, ad cut half of a leek in thin slices. Don't waste the green part, it is also delicious! I usually cut half white, and half green part to have a taste and color balance. Keep them aside, ready to be steamed after the rice.
- With a julienne slicer, grate the half a carrot. Optionally, cut a few slices of cabbage for color.
- Turn on the stove under a pan. Oil it and after a few minutes when it is hot enough, scramble two eggs or make it into a flat omelet, with nothing added other than salt. Once cooked, cut the eggs into pieces to add into your fried rice. Set aside.
- After around 15 minutes, check on the rice. If the grains separate nicely and are no longer crunchy, you can take the bowl out. If there is some water left, the rest of the rice will soak it up.
- Now you can add ham, peas, leek and if applicable, mushrooms and cabbage, into the sieve of the hot and steamy cooker for cooking. 4-5 minutes should be enough to cook all ingredients, which you can heat together so long as the steam can freely travel through the holes.
- While vegetables are cooking, heat up a skillet with three crushed garlic cloves, olive oil and 1 tsp of kosher salt. Add the julienned carrot for a minute or two before you add the vegetables.
- Transfer vegetables from the sieve of the steam cooker into the skillet, and replace them by the thawed shrimps, which you will cook 3 minutes for large cooked shrimps, 2 for medium, 1 for small. If you cook them any longer, the shrimps will shrink and become chewy which would be sad.
- While the shrimps heat up, add the rice and the egg, and mix with a wooden spoon.
- Transfer the shrimps to the skillet, mix them in, then add the dressing ( which includes the salt). For deco, add a tablespoon of black or white sesame, a few leaves of cilantro, a few cashew bits.
- Serve, and bon appétit!
I will right away clutch your rss as I can’t find your email
subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service.
Do you’ve any? Kindly permit me recognize so that I could subscribe.
Thanks.
here you are
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let me know if you have another problem
thanks for the interest!
Bernadette