The first thing Erica learned how to cook...

...was fried rice. I am Chinese after all! LOL I never really "learned" how to cook. My parents never passed down family recipes or sat me down for a cooking lesson. There was no 'Measure this to this amount and cut that exactly right;' no 'Heat this up to exactly 350 degrees;' not even a lesson on how to not over-salt. Luckily, I've never poisoned myself with under-cooked meat or eaten expired goods.

When I was younger, I simply grew up watching my dad make dinner and when I became old enough, I became the family sous chef. I STILL am my mom's sous chef. Every time Wes and I go over for dinner, I'm doing most of the work in the kitchen. And I insist on helping in the kitchen when I'm invited to friends' for dinner. But I really don't mind, I love cooking...and I love eating even more! It works out quite wonderfully.

So back to fried rice... I remember in middle school, my best friend at the time (Jessica) wanted to learn how to cook Chinese food. I sat down one night and attempted writing her a recipe. I don't know if she ever made it or not, but I think it was at that moment that I decided fried rice was going to be my go-to recipe. When people ask for Chinese food, this is what I cook them. And when they ask how to make Chinese food, this is what I teach them.

Fried rice recipe:
Ingredients (serves 3) - 2 cups of uncooked rice; Wes and I recently ventured into brown rice so that's what I'm using. I've used white or jasmine rice my entire life until now.
                                     1 egg
                                     soy sauce

1. Make the rice (in a rice cooker. I had a friend who made her rice in a pot. I am neither that talented nor patient.) Try to make the rice a little drier than you normally would. Soft or soggy rice is really hard to fry.
2. Let the rice sit in the fridge over night.  You have to leave it over night to let it dry out and get hard. When I was younger, my parents never let me order fried rice at Chinese restaurants because they said I'd be eating old food. Supposedly, they take all the leftover rice from the week before and fry that up to serve instead of using new rice. Not because they're cheapskates but because old rice just works better.
3. Break up the rice until its not clumped together. No being lazy here... it won't fry if its in ginormous clumps.

4. Dump it all in a wok (I don't know what to tell you if you don't have a wok, I've never made it in anything else.  A skillet would be too shallow and you'd get rice everywhere.) Have the stove on high heat. You can add a little bit of vegetable oil to your wok so the rice doesn't stick but you're supposed to be stirring the rice around so much that it won't stick anyway.
5. Stir vigorously and fry the rice. You want to break up the rice until its back to individual grains again. Keep stirring!!

6. When its all broken up and lightly fried (about 3-5 minutes), break an egg into the wok.
7. Keep stirring to break the egg up and completely mix it into the rice. This is a good arm workout!

8. Add as much soy sauce as you'd like.

9. Stir again until all the soy sauce is mixed in and dried out. Your rice should not be damp and soggy from the egg and soy sauce.
10. Serve hot.

Lunch is served!

You can add peas or shrimp or whatever you want to it at step 8 after the soy sauce. I usually just do plain fried rice and have stir fry or pot stickers with it. I do like the fancy fried rice, though. Maybe I'll do that next!