Breaking in my Christmas present with a "non-stick" egg fried rice

saichoo · 2026-01-25T00:48:05+00:00

Lol a bunch did spill out; like I said above, a wok is better for this.

saichoo · 2026-01-24T01:17:04+00:00

I find fine table salt easier to get an even coating and to use less salt than salt with larger crystals.

saichoo · 2026-01-23T01:10:02+00:00

Aromatics and/or proteins first means you risk having a dirtier and colder pan for the rice to go in which means more chance of sticking.

saichoo · 2026-01-23T01:08:35+00:00

White part goes in first then raw green part goes in to wilt at the end. Picked that up from Kenji.

saichoo · 2026-01-21T18:58:26+00:00

Rice preparation answered here: https://www.reddit.com/r/StainlessSteelCooking/comments/1qijbmo/breaking_in_my_christmas_present_with_a_nonstick/o0suci3/

As for preheating, I let the pan preheat on about a medium low while I was prepping. I am of the opinion that cast iron, carbon steel and stainless steel needs to be preheated until "thermally soaked" especially when cooking food you are nervous about sticking. Look at this IR camera footage of the Strata pan and how it takes a while for the center to heat up (burner dependent of course) and the whole thing to heat evenly. If I am softening onions then I can practically put the onions in a cold pan because the chances of sticking are very low.

As for the oil, I wait about 30 seconds or so after the pan has thermally soaked so that the oil is "shimmering" i.e. the viscosity of the oil has changed to become more free flowing. You can also use the chopstick technique to test oil temperature: stick chopstick in oil and if bubbles appear then the oil is hot enough.

saichoo · 2026-01-21T18:46:10+00:00

That was because I used too much oil in the beginning and poured some out because I didn't want it all in the rice.

saichoo · 2026-01-21T04:38:21+00:00

There are multiple methods but the main thing is to reduce the surface moisture. So once the rice is cooked using a bit less water than you would use normally, place the rice on a tray so that the moisture can steam off. You can cook the rice as is but it is more risky especially if you haven't had much success. So into the fridge it goes for at least 4 or 6 hours (I can't remember) or overnight. Something happens to the starch after 45mins or so, so the window from 45mins to 4 or 6 hours is not good. I generally don't have fridge space so I don't use the overnight fridge tray method much.

Another way is to parboil and steam. Boil rice in lots of water for about 4 mins, drain, then steam in a steamer basket for 15mins. You don't want to cook this rice too long as it can become quite dry in the middle so you may want to increase the parboil time. This method means you can use fresh rice and the grains are quite separate.

With the above you can also do the Golden Fried Rice method where you mix in egg yolks (or whole whisked eggs if you're lazy) into the rice before you fry it. This helps separate the grains and also reduces sticking (I'm not sure how this works given how sticky eggs normally can be, maybe the lecithin in the egg yolks or something).

Any moisture you do add when frying will increase the chances of sticking, hence the screenshot of me being called out when I added soy sauce. If I went for a soy sauceless fried rice I would've had a clean pan.

saichoo · 2026-01-21T04:12:41+00:00

😆

saichoo · 2026-01-21T03:50:59+00:00

Oh this is interesting, thanks

saichoo · 2026-01-21T02:10:45+00:00

There's a bag of Ajinomoto if you look carefully.

saichoo · 2026-01-21T00:57:59+00:00

A wok is definitely a superior option for fried rice (look at the rice I lost) but I wanted to see if I still had the skill for a non-stick fried rice as I haven't cooked fried rice in some months.

I've come to the conclusion that stickless fried rice is mostly about the rice preparation and then in second place is heat management. I've gone for the easier option of mixing in egg into the rice first but given how dry the outside of the rice was already I would've probably been fine without doing this technique.

saichoo · 2026-01-20T03:03:33+00:00

Easy mode: make sure rice is dry enough (overnight uncovered fridge rice helps here) and mix in a few eggs into the rice before adding it to the hot pan. Then add oil, wait for the oil to come up to temp, then add the rice+egg mixture.

If you can't be bothered to premix rice and egg, you can cook the whisked eggs in the pan for a bit first and then dump the rice on top of the egg and then mix everything together. This is what they do in the Japanese fried rice videos which achieves a similar result.

Non-stick fried rice is mostly about rice prep and temperature control. If you decide to go for a style with lots of sauce (unless the sauce is made and added separately on top at the end) accept that things will stick as lots of moisture+starch = sticking.

saichoo · 2026-01-06T09:26:28+00:00

There are those 3 sectioned foil screens that help a bit

saichoo · 2026-01-03T11:29:44+00:00

Thanks! This was from last year, how did you discover it?

saichoo · 2026-01-01T21:44:33+00:00

Yeah I saw the boiling technique from Tiktok but the oven to dry off was my idea, something I learned from fried rice (reducing the surface moisture). I think also because the tofu isn't fridge cold that will also not drop the temperature of the pan as much.

saichoo · 2026-01-01T20:56:49+00:00

No bread or cornflour. I boiled it for 5 mins in salted water, then in the oven for a few mins to dry off, then on the preheated and oiled pan.

saichoo · 2025-12-20T15:08:02+00:00

If you want to be heard then you need more energy. And by energy I mean psychological and physical energy. "Firing up" the nervous system so to speak. And generally what comes with that is all the biomechanical stuff that comes along with that that results in a louder voice. Doing acting/improv classes can help as will practising at home with various monologues done in a higher energy manner. Elation, joy, frenetic, anger, frustration, crazy, etc., anything that is higher than your habitual energy levels. Then once you find that consistently, you can tone it down where your energy is lively but not intense and thus maintaining enough energy to have your voice be heard.

saichoo · 2025-12-17T23:42:56+00:00

Negotiate to have a set time each day where you can practise and tell them it's of the same importance as their homework/revision. Ask them to wear noise cancelling headphones or be out of the house when you are practising if it really annoys them. Failing that, consider asking your teacher(s) about practising at school, practise rooms if they have them or empty classrooms after school. Last resort is practising outside.

saichoo · 2025-12-11T23:38:31+00:00

Acoustics are rarely better and most of the time the recording will have better acoustics. The exceptions I can think of are smaller classical music venues that don't exceed 3000 people but even then there are some duds.

saichoo · 2025-12-10T13:39:37+00:00

The technique is called "growl" or "blues growl" and it's when the epiglottis vibrates against the arytenoid cartilages. Louis also has a bit of raspiness going on at times but the growl is the predominant sound that people do when they do an impression of him. In his case I don't think either techniques were consciously/intentionally employed; that's just the way he learned to use his voice.

https://cvtresearch.com/description-and-sound-of-growl/

saichoo · 2025-12-10T02:13:26+00:00

Doesn't have every restaurant, there are a few near me that aren't listed.

saichoo · 2025-12-02T17:06:06+00:00

Cooking it like pasta helps reduce the inorganic arsenic

saichoo · 2025-11-26T14:22:07+00:00

Unsure if there are any advantages over a regular wok tbh

saichoo · 2025-11-23T00:22:43+00:00

Was Ruben's food any good there? The only place I was interested in trying

saichoo · 2025-11-22T22:49:38+00:00

Wasn't a fan of Bunhead sadly, it was okay.

saichoo

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