Recipe: Golden Salted Egg Fried Rice
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I first learned about this technique for making golden fried rice from one of my favorite YouTube cooking channels, Aaron and Claire. Their version of golden rice is simply about coating the rice in raw egg yolk before frying to give it that namesake color. But because I am obsessed with salted egg yolk things, I decided to take that golden rice to the next level with my golden salted egg fried rice!
Unlike the fried rice that you get at Chinese-American takeout places, this fried rice recipe does not include veggies or meat to turn it into a whole meal. Instead, it is meant to be a flavorsome and visually stunning base that is best eaten with anything where you would normally eat plain rice. It is great with char siu as seen below! The eggy taste from both the raw and cured egg yolks is subtle, but combining these ingredients with the rice transforms it into a luxurious-feeling, salted carby base that then helps bring out the flavors of whatever you’re eating it with.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, salted egg yolk is simply an egg yolk that has been cured salt. It is quite a common salty umami flavor in Chinese food, and can be found coating vegetables in a stir fry or inside dim sum items like lo mai gai (sticky rice packets with chicken and Chinese sausage) or as the center of a mooncake. It has become quite a popular flavoring for packaged snacks like potato chips or fish skins. Unlike in European cooking, cheese is really not present at all in Chinese cooking, and I have seen the addition of salted egg yolk being compared to adding parmesan to a dish; though they do not taste the same at all, I get where this analogy is coming from because they both have a deep salty umami and a rich mouth feel.
The traditional way to make salted eggs is to cure whole duck eggs in their shells in a salt brine for an extended period, but lately I have seen a lot of recipes for separating out regular chicken egg yolks and burying them in a big bowl of salt for a few days. I always just buy the salted yolks ready to go in vacuum sealed packs from the Asian supermarket. If you are able to find those, this recipe will be super easy!
How to Make Golden Salted Egg Fried Rice
Ingredients
1 cup jasmine rice
1 1/8 cup water
3 egg yolks*
1 tbsp shao xing wine
1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
2 tbsp ghee or neutral oil
2 salted egg yolks
salt, to taste
*If the color of your yolks are not very rich or saturated, add 1/2 tsp turmeric to compensate
Procedure
Make the rice the night before. Wash rice a few times, drain thoroughly, then add the water. Cook in a rice cooker, cool, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day: When ready to cook, transfer the cold rice to a large mixing bowl. Add shao xing wine and fish sauce (or soy sauce) and use the added liquids to help break up the rice until no clumps remain. Add the egg yolks and mix until each grain of rice is coated.
in another bowl, crumble the salted egg yolks into fine crumbs.
Heat up a wok on high. Add the ghee (or oil) then add the crumbled salted egg yolks. Stir until the mixture is completely foamy, then add the rice. Stir fry until the rice no longer feels sticky or wet. Add salt to taste.