Dear Home-Ec 101,
Is there any way to keep rice good in the fridge? I love that nice and sticky rice they give you from take-out Chinese places, and I’ve never been able to recreate it, so I usually keep it in the fridge for the next day or so. When I heat it back up it just doesn’t taste the same, maybe it’s drier or something. Is there any way to keep rice the same nice fluffy consistency while it’s in the fridge?
Signed,
Liz
Ivy says:
First, I’d like everyone to not keel over in shock that I’m answering a food question. I don’t cook American fare very well, but I’m hella at cooking ethnic cuisine. Not, of course, as fab as Heather. (Yes, Brown Nose is my middle name, tyvm)
The reason your rice is not the same the second day is because it dries up rather quickly. You can sprinkle it with water and then microwave at half power. For me, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work.
I generally like to take my day old rice and make fried rice with it. Day old rice makes the very best fried rice because the rice is drier and will soak up flavors better. I make my fried rice with a very, very loose recipe; I hope this makes sense to you.
I heat up about 1/2 tablespoon oil (sesame oil, if I have it but more often than not I use olive oil) in my wok-like frying pan and then I toss in an egg and scramble it til it’s firm and not runny. Then I take out the egg, add a bit more oil (about one tablespoon) and then add 1/4 cup diced onion and 1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic. Sautee for a minute or two then add the rice. When the rice starts to brown ever so slightly, I then add frozen peas and carrots. Then add the egg, mix completely. Make sure you are constantly stirring and flipping the rice so it will not burn. Finally, add soy sauce to taste.
Remember your food safety when reheating rice: the longer it sits at room temperature, the more likely it may harbor bad toxins, so refrigerate quickly after eating.
Thank you Ivy!
I will be trying your recipe tonight as it is the first fried rice recipe that truly looked easy to me. LOL
Let us know how it turned out.
Shorter grained rice is used in Chinese restaurants. It is “stickier”
You can also get a rice cooker for reasonable price. That makes the “sticky” rice you speak of. I’ve been told that they don’t last as long as the big expensive ones but if you don’t plan to use it that often, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
So I’ve decided to always come here for recipes. We had fried rice for dinner tonight. I’d like to say that it works well with brown rice too.
Sticky rice is really tasty. My daughter’s husband is Thai, and she often makes Sticky Rice for him and their boys (our two grandsons). She buys a specific rice to make the sticky rice from the local Asian grocery. Regular rice doesn’t work. The rice that you want to buy is called glutenous rice. Glutenous rice sticks to itself, and that’s why it works. You just can’t use just any old rice. There are instructions on the glutenous rice package that will tell you how to make Sticky Rice. So try it and see. Its easy when you have the correct ingredients. I have made it successfully in my rice cooker. It is a wonderful finger food for a toddler to eat while learning to feed himself.