Cantonese Style Fried Rice

While mum was away, I made my first fried rice, inspired by recipes from my well-used Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking. The combination of ingredients create such an incredibly tasty and satisfying meal, full of wonderful flavours and textures - the salty lup cheong, the sweet carrot, the fragrant sesame oil and shao hsing wine, the delicate egg and the crisp bean shoots. This is my edited version that includes shitake mushrooms, carrot, bean shoots and lup cheong:

Serves 4-6:
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 4 free-range eggs
- 1 white onion, finely diced
- 1 tbs finely diced ginger
- 2 cups finely sliced lup cheong sausage
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 150g shitake mushrooms, stems discarded and finely sliced
- 3 tsp white sugar
- 3 tbs shao hsing wine or dry sherry
- 5 cups steamed rice (Hot or cold is fine, as long as it isn't gluggly. Yesterday's rice is always best. To achieve a similar effect, I steamed rice, then let it cool down with the lid off)
- ⅔ cup finely sliced spring onions (scallions)
- 3 tbs light soy sauce
- ½ tsp sesame oil

Break eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. Heat half the oil in a hot wok until the surface seems to shimmer slightly. Pour beaten eggs into wok and leave to cook on the base of the wok for 10 seconds before folding egg mixture over onto itself with a spatula and lightly scrambling for about 1 minute or until almost cooked through. Carefully remove omelette from wok with a spatula and drain on kitchen paper. Set aside.

Heat remaining oil in hot wok and stir-fry onion, ginger and lup cheong for 1 minute. Add carrot and mushrooms and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add sugar and stir-fry for a further 30 seconds. Pour in wine or sherry and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add rice to wok with spring onions, soy sauce, sesame oil and reserved omelette and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until well combined and rice is heated through. use a spatula to break up the omelette into smaller pieces while cooking. Transfer rice to a bowl and serve.

Cantonese Style Fried Rice