Yangzhou (Cantonese) fried rice, adapted
One of the world's most famous Chinese dishes, turned vegan, and adapted. Pick your chopsticks, and drift away from the original recipe with unsuspected ingredients.
This recipe is heavily inspired by this one (fr) from Hervé Palmieri and Margot Zhang (fr). Although I veganized it, and modified it here and there, I wouldn’t have created this recipe if Hervé and Margot hadn’t shared theirs first.
Serves: 4
Preparation: 15 minutes (excluding the time to cook the rice the day before)
Cooking: 40 minutes
Cantonese fried rice, or Yangzhou fried rice, is one of the most known Chinese dishes in the world. As I wrote in my article Chinese water chestnuts and cabbage, stir-fried with whole spices, I ate Cantonese fried rice as a kid, either at the restaurant, or most often when my parents brought it, frozen, from the supermarket. In Europe at least, I know no supermarket which does not feature a frozen pack of Cantonese fried rice. I remember my parents prepared this recipe from raw ingredients occasionally — I can close my eyes and see the white-stripped gray pot which contained it. However, the frozen version was a staple at home for years.
Entering my adult life, I rarely had Cantonese fried rice. Although I was already cooking, and not yet vegetarian, I just didn’t look into it. Once in a while, I would have some at an Asian-branded buffet. After I became vegan, my wife found the recipe mentioned in the foreword of this article, and suggested we give it a try — with the challenge to veganize it for me. I made some experiments, trying regular tofu (tasted okay), smoked tofu (tasted great), and vegan chorizo sausages (tasted great as well, there was definitely something).
I had a bottle of Chinese alcohol sitting somewhere at home. Former colleagues had gifted it to me when I hosted them for lunch, few months after I left the company. I embarked on one last experience, and poured in my wok Mei Kuei Lu Chiew. This was a lucky move, as it gave my vegan Cantonese fried rice a unique touch. We’re now enjoying this dish regularly at home, and it’s every time a success.
About Mei Kuei Lu Chiew
Mei Kuei Lu Chiew, also called Chinese saké, is a liquor made from Kaoliang (fermented sorghum) infused with rose flowers. It’s a variety of the numerous baijius, the Chinese clear liquors which exist. At 54% alcohol by volume, it’s relatively strong, and it’s often offered as digestive in Europe at Asian-branded restaurants. While they serve it at room temperature, this is the kind of liquor one can enjoy freezing cold, or on the rocks. It has a very powerful rose aroma, and tastes sweet due to the sugar it contains. When I mentioned Mei Kuei Lu Chiew to a Chinese colleague, he immediately said this was mainly for cooking. And this is how I used it in the present recipe!
Ingredients
420 g cooked Thai jasmine rice
140 g corn
140 g green peas
1 big carrot ~ 210 g
2 vegan chorizo sausages1 ~ 190 g
1 big yellow onion ~ 270 g
2 spring onions
1 small pinch of ground white pepper (maximum a quarter of table spoon)
1 table spoon of chili pepper (optional, though the one I picked backs the taste of sausages very well; I used Sichuan Chaotian chili pepper, despite Sichuan not even being next to Guangdong, the province Canton/Guangzhou is the capital of)
5 soup spoons of soy sauce2 (I used tamari because this is what I had, regular soy sauce is fine)
5 soup spoons of Mei Kuei Lu Chiew
6 soup spoons of groundnut oil3
Preparation
This recipe contains only three preparation steps, so it shall be blazing fast. The list below doesn’t include cooking the rice, which you should do the day before. Although there’s little to prepare, and that it can be finished in parallel of the first Cooking steps, I still encourage you to complete this part before starting to heat your cookware.
Peel the carrot, cut into 1 cm wide slices, then cut each in quarters
Peel the onion, cut in halves, then slice them length-wise
Wash the spring onions, slice both green and white parts in approximately 0.5 cm wide sections
Cooking
I usually cook Chinese recipes in my carbon-steel wok, which is to date well seasoned. However, for Cantonese fried rice, I prefer to use a non-stick wok; this is because I don’t cook all ingredients quickly on high heat. You’ll read below it takes some time to cook the sausages before slicing them, which I’m reluctant to do in the carbon-steel wok. As suggested in the Preparation steps, complete all of them before moving with the Cooking ones below.
Heat your cookware to 50% of the maximum flame/power; wait for it to turn hot
Add 2 soup spoons of oil, then the sausages; cover for 5 minutes
Turn the sausages so their opposite side now cooks; cover for 5 minutes
Remove the sausages; add the carrot dice with 1 soup spoon of oil and 1 soup spoon of soy sauce; stir, then cover for 5 minutes
Meanwhile, cut the sausages into slices of 1 cm, then each slice into quarters; don’t worry if in the process you smash some of the slices into pieces
Return the sausage quarters (and pieces, if any, even the smallest ones) to the wok; increase the heat to 70% of the maximum flame/power, add 1 soup spoon of oil, 1 soup spoon of soy sauce; stir, then wait for 2 minutes
Unglaze with 4 soup spoons of Mei Kuei Lu Chiew; lower the heat to 40%, then cover for 2 minutes — this is important so the liquor enhances the flavor of the sausages
Increase the heat again, to 60% of the maximum flame/power; add the cooked rice, the yellow onion, 2 soup spoons of oil, 1 soup spoon of soy sauce; stir vigorously to mix all ingredients together
Add the white pepper, and the chili pepper; stir
Add the corn, and the green peas; stir
Add 2 soup spoons of soy sauce, 1 soup spoon of Mei Kuei Lu Chiew; stir (did you see this coming?)
Add the spring onions (both green and white parts) on top of the ingredients; do not stir this time (ahah, this surprised you, right?), lower the heat to 20% of the maximum flame/power, and cover for 5 minutes
Once you’ve completed the Cooking steps, stop he heat, and leave the wok covered until you serve. If you’ve read several of my articles, you know I like to cook recipes, and let them sit covered for long so flavors mingle and make each bite… a true journey. “Long” meaning hours, often overnight. You can still serve and enjoy this dish right away, to delight yourself, your family or friends. It’s one of the dish that my wife and I used to bring to friends’ place when it was our turn to cook. It re-heats nicely, on slow flame/power. It’s perfect so you can play board games without looking after lunch.
This dish also freezes and unfreezes well. The spring onions may fade a bit when re-heating, however the same happens when they’re cooked on high flame in a wok. If you know you’ll store all of the dish for later, you can decide to skip the spring onions, to add them only after re-heating. If ever you’ve bought spring onions before taking your decision, know you can chop and freeze them. I don’t know how I would run my kitchen without a freezer.
Enjoy!
If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment - whether you loved it, or hated it - please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.
Here’s a tip before you go
This recipe asks you to cook the rice the day before. It’s not a posh way to mimic the genuine recipes of fried rice which re-use past day(s) left-overs. It is important, because rice which has cooled down and dried is more suitable for stir-fried recipes. If you can’t afford to cook rice the day before and leave it to cool, then store in the fridge, here’s an alternate approach: spread it on a bake tray in a layer as thin as possible, then either dry it in plain air flow, or put a fan blowing on the grains. If you do, share a picture — and write a fun caption!
Be cautious: vegan sausages can be made of wheat, soy, or other ingredients which are known allergens; always check the ingredient list of what you use
Be cautious: soy sauce is made of wheat and soy; both are known allergens
Be cautious: groundnut oil is made of groundnut (surprised?), which is a known allergen
Thanks to the reader who pointed me to the spring onions that I left out from the list of ingredients. They're now listed!