I’ve recently been trying to put some new meals in my repertoire and when browsing for new ideas I’ve noticed that many recipes call for day old leftover rice instead of fresh one. Egg fried rice for example. Some people even seem to insist that it doesn’t work with fresh rice. Why is that?
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Fried rice in general is meant to be done using leftover rice, probably because it has gotten time to dry and fries in a nicer way than freshly cooked, moist rice. At worst your meal might become mushy if you do it with freshly cooked rice, but nothing extra serious.
It’s actually kinda simple. Overnight in the fridge dries it out a bit, so when you add it to your dish it doesn’t turn into a sticky mess and break apart.
Moist rice will clump up, leftover rice will be dried and you can even declump by rubbing in between your hands.
To add to what others have said:
Fried rice is really a “leftovers” food. You take old rice, leftover meat, some veggie odds and ends and make a stir fry out of it. I actually just made a fried rice tonight, but it was rice fried with pork from an American style pork shoulder I’ve been eating for a few days. Fried rice is best for leftovers when you’re tired of em.
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