chiuchow fried rice with salted radish 潮州菜脯炒飯

I have a bag of Chinese preserved radish that I recently opened to make pan fried beef buns 生煎牛肉包 with. I also have abundance of ground beef that I try to use it up for different dishes. I thought of using some of the beef to make a beef fried rice dish. Then I conceived a rough recipe to make a Chiuchow fried rice with salted radish 潮州菜脯炒飯 inspired by the one that I had while in Hong Kong five years ago.

I want the fried rice to be light and fluffy, and with a symphony of textures, flavors, and looks good. What better than adding bits of sweet Chinese preserved radish 甜菜脯? The preserved radish is not simply sweet. Rather it is salty and sweet 甘甜. It is important to use just enough so not to ending up with a plate of disgusting sweet rice.

Chiuchow fried rice 潮州炒飯 that I had while in Hong Kong five years ago

sweet Chinese preserved radish 甜菜脯 from Thailand

the challenge is to estimate how much preserved radish 甜菜脯 to use; I sliced a piece into two thin slices and then cutting them into tiny cubes

the eggs are for coating the rice gains which is the secret to nutty tasting fried rice

I spotted this gorgeous hawk on my fence

The fried rice is light and flavorful 甘香. You can certainly taste the bits of preserved radish 甜菜脯. I used vegetable and olive oil to make this dish so it is not greasy at all. If I were to tweak the ingredients I would cut back to half the amount of preserved radish 甜菜脯 as they are quite sweet. I would also reduce the amount of beef as well. I would prefer if the sweet preserved radish 甜菜脯 is less sweet. One way to reduce the sweetness is to rinse them in water and squeeze dry but that will also remove some saltiness.

So often how something tastes is affected by our palate of what we ate before. I had a bowl of this rice the following day by re-heating in the microwave oven and it tasted less sweet. The sweetness of the preserved radish 甜菜脯 is lessen the the dish is mellower  - probably because the sugar has leeched into the adjacent rice particles. The rice grains are still al dente instead of became mushy. There is still another meal worth of the fried rice left.