Egg fried rice from yesterday's rice

Freshly cooked rice is wet. In a wok it steams, and you get porridge with soy sauce. Cold cooked rice has dried at the surface, so the grains separate and fry. If you only have hot rice, spread it on a tray and chill it uncovered for 20 minutes, or leave it overnight. 600 g of cooked rice is about 4 cups. A cup of cooked rice weighs about 158 g on the cooked rice chart. Dry rice is a different number. Do not use the uncooked chart here.

Heat, then eggs, then rice

Get the pan hot before the oil. The eggs should set in seconds. Take them out before they brown. They go back in at the end so they stay tender.

The rice needs room. A crowded pan drops the temperature and the rice sweats. If you are cooking for more than four, do it in two rounds. Toss for a few minutes until you see a little color on some grains. That toast is the flavor. Soy sauce goes in at the end. Add it early and it burns and turns the rice dark and bitter.

Sesame oil is a seasoning, not a frying fat. A teaspoon at the end is enough. More than that tastes like a candle.

Frozen peas can go in still frozen. They thaw in the pan and do not water the rice down the way fresh vegetables do. If you add raw carrot or pepper, cook those before the rice, and make sure they are dry.

Leftovers reheat in a hot skillet, not a microwave pile, or the rice goes soft again.