Fried rice is what a Chinese cook makes when the fridge is nearly empty, and the pickled greens are what push this version past plain egg and beef. The meat gets ten minutes in soy, pepper and starch first, and that is the difference between dry strips and a soft mince.
Chinese home cooking · Main
Beef and Pickled Mustard Green Fried Rice
Cold rice, marinated beef, a handful of pickled greens and three eggs, which is a weeknight fried rice built from what a Chinese kitchen already has.
- Prep20 min
- Cook10 min
- Serves2
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 200 g | beef , chuck or sirloin, chopped small |
| 1 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 2 tsp | cornstarch |
| 1/3 tsp | ground black pepper |
| 1 tsp | caster sugar |
| 3 | eggs |
| 1 bowl | cooked rice , cold, from the day before |
| 8 | green beans , cut into short lengths |
| 1 small handful | pickled mustard greens , chopped |
| 1 | spring onion , sliced |
| to taste | salt |
Method
- Mix the beef with the soy sauce, cornstarch, pepper and sugar, and leave it for 10 minutes.
- Blanch the green beans in boiling water for a minute, then drain them well.
- Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and scramble them in a hot oiled wok, taking them out while they are still soft.
- Sear the beef in the same wok over high heat until it just changes colour, then set it aside with the eggs.
- Fry the pickled greens for 30 seconds, add the rice and press it into the pan to break up the clumps, then stir the beans through.
- Return the egg and beef, season with salt, toss in the spring onion and serve.
Notes
- Rice from the fridge is drier and fries into separate grains. Freshly cooked rice steams and goes gluey.
- Pickled greens differ a lot in salt, so season at the end, once they are in the pan.
- A cast iron or carbon steel wok needs to be properly hot before the egg goes in, or the rice will stew.
Ratios and technique checked against B妈小厨 on Douguo (咸菜牛肉蛋炒饭). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.