THE BEST FRIED RICE
5 Cups cold cooked rice (cook the night before)
1 Cup small raw shrimps, shelled, deveined, and split in half lengthwise
1 Teaspoon baking soda – Optional – atheistic reasons only, see #2
1 Teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons peanut, vegetable, or corn oil
2/3 Cup cubed Chinese sausages (2 small) or cooked ham
3 Eggs
½ Cup cooked fresh or frozen green peas
1 Tablespoon salt, approximately
2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
1 Cup fresh bean sprouts
½ Cup chopped scallions, green part included
1. Flake the rice with a fork so that the grains do not stick together. Set aside.
2. Combine the shrimps with the soda and salt and let stand 15 minutes or longer. Rinse thoroughly in cold water and pat dry on paper toweling. (Optional, if shrimp is at all smelly.)
3. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet until it is almost smoking and add the shrimps. Cook, stirring quickly and turning them in the oil until they turn pink, about 30 seconds. Remove them to a sieve fitted over a mixing bowl and let them drain well. Return the oil from the drained shrimps to the pan.
4. Add the sausages or ham to the pan and cook just to heat through (until translucence) on low heat, stirring. Add the rice, stirring rapidly, and cook until thoroughly heated without browning (high heat.)
5. Do the following quickly: Take the pan off the burner, and make a well in the center of the rice. Turn down the heat to medium. Put the pan back on the burner and add the eggs into the center of the well. When the eggs start to congeal/soft-scramble stir the eggs. Turn the heat back to high and start incorporating the rice, stirring in a circular fashion.
6. When all the rice and eggs are blended, add the peas and the tablespoon of salt, stirring. Stir in the oyster sauce and the cooked shrimps, tossing the rice over and over to blend everything. Stir in the bean sprouts and cook, stirring and tossing about 30 seconds. Add the scallions and server immediately.
YIELD: 8 to 12 servings
Note: If you really want to be refined in this dish, pluck off and discard the head and threadlike "tail" of each bean sprout. But whether plucked over or left whole, there should be 1 cup to go into the dish.