Wh do so many Asian recipes explicitly call for leftover rice?

1.98K views

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?

In: 362

105 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Clearly it’s ‘a thing’ — nobody eats stale food by choice. In the age of covid, I’m sure more people have more older food around. Be careful When rice or pasta goes bad it decomposes without a stink, but can cause serious nasty illness.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Clearly it’s ‘a thing’ — nobody eats stale food by choice. In the age of covid, I’m sure more people have more older food around. Be careful When rice or pasta goes bad it decomposes without a stink, but can cause serious nasty illness.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you have a jet wok burner you can probably cook fresh rice easily like restaurants. The wok will get hot enough. Not possible with traditional home stoves though.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you have a jet wok burner you can probably cook fresh rice easily like restaurants. The wok will get hot enough. Not possible with traditional home stoves though.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I worked at a Greek place where we would cook potatoes and let them cool for at least 48 hours in the walk-in before using them for certain dishes. If the potatoes were only 36 hours old, we just would say we were out of those dishes, but would have them tomorrow. The boss made us do it because it made the proper texture for the dish, which you couldn’t get with freshly cooked potatoes. But I had to find out WHY!

Basically it becomes less digestible (and therefore healthier) to let it cool for a while instead of eating it freshly cooked.

It lets amylose and amylopectin to reform into a resistant starch, so you digest it less, making you not have the blood sugar spikes that generally come with eating carbs. Good for preventing your pre diabetes from becoming diabetes. Good for keeping your two feet from becoming one feet/no feet.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When i cook basmati rice, boil the water first, cook it for 7 minutes if you are going to stir fry it, 8 minutes for plain rice and 9 minutes if you want it sticky. This method means the 7 minute rice is not fully cooked and is a bit al dente, it will absorb more when making something like egg fried rice.
I usually let it stand for about 3 minutes while i cook off some veg then put it in, re heat it up and add eggs. This method has worked for me for over 20 years.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I worked at a Greek place where we would cook potatoes and let them cool for at least 48 hours in the walk-in before using them for certain dishes. If the potatoes were only 36 hours old, we just would say we were out of those dishes, but would have them tomorrow. The boss made us do it because it made the proper texture for the dish, which you couldn’t get with freshly cooked potatoes. But I had to find out WHY!

Basically it becomes less digestible (and therefore healthier) to let it cool for a while instead of eating it freshly cooked.

It lets amylose and amylopectin to reform into a resistant starch, so you digest it less, making you not have the blood sugar spikes that generally come with eating carbs. Good for preventing your pre diabetes from becoming diabetes. Good for keeping your two feet from becoming one feet/no feet.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When i cook basmati rice, boil the water first, cook it for 7 minutes if you are going to stir fry it, 8 minutes for plain rice and 9 minutes if you want it sticky. This method means the 7 minute rice is not fully cooked and is a bit al dente, it will absorb more when making something like egg fried rice.
I usually let it stand for about 3 minutes while i cook off some veg then put it in, re heat it up and add eggs. This method has worked for me for over 20 years.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I worked at a Greek place where we would cook potatoes and let them cool for at least 48 hours in the walk-in before using them for certain dishes. If the potatoes were only 36 hours old, we just would say we were out of those dishes, but would have them tomorrow. The boss made us do it because it made the proper texture for the dish, which you couldn’t get with freshly cooked potatoes. But I had to find out WHY!

Basically it becomes less digestible (and therefore healthier) to let it cool for a while instead of eating it freshly cooked.

It lets amylose and amylopectin to reform into a resistant starch, so you digest it less, making you not have the blood sugar spikes that generally come with eating carbs. Good for preventing your pre diabetes from becoming diabetes. Good for keeping your two feet from becoming one feet/no feet.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When i cook basmati rice, boil the water first, cook it for 7 minutes if you are going to stir fry it, 8 minutes for plain rice and 9 minutes if you want it sticky. This method means the 7 minute rice is not fully cooked and is a bit al dente, it will absorb more when making something like egg fried rice.
I usually let it stand for about 3 minutes while i cook off some veg then put it in, re heat it up and add eggs. This method has worked for me for over 20 years.