Lap cheong (Chinese sausage) fried rice
- Portion size: Serves 4
- Hands-on time 20 min, plus 5 min cooling (see tips). Simmering time 12 min
- Difficulty: easy
Fried rice is the ultimate use-it-up dish. Frying fragrant lap cheong – cured Cantonese sausage – before the rice goes in means every grain is coated in its aromatic oils, in this delicious recipe from chef Yvonne Poon.
Yvonne says: “Lap cheong is a wind-dried, cured Cantonese sausage traditionally made with chopped pork speckled with pork fat, and characteristically infused with a rose wine called mei kwei lu (or simply with Chinese rice wine) along with sugar, salt, soy sauce and spices. It has a fragrant, sweet umami flavour, and when it’s fried it gives off a wonderful caramelised smokiness that transforms simple dishes like rice.”
Born in London with a Hong Kong heritage, Yvonne trained at Leiths School of Food & Wine. She then worked as a development chef, recipe writer and food stylist. Recently she’s been a chef at popular pop up restaurant Poon’s Wontoneria in Fitzrovia, London
Loved this? Try Yvonne’s Chinese chicken, prawn and lap cheong stuffed peppers next.
Ingredients
- 250g jasmine rice
- 3½ tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 celery stick, finely chopped
- 120g raw peeled sustainable king prawns
- 2 lap cheong sausages, sliced on the diagonal
- 2 slices fresh ginger
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2 medium free-range eggs, beaten
- 50g peas, defrosted if frozen
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- ¼ tsp salt
- Pinch sugar
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
Method
- Rinse, wash and drain the rice, then put in a medium saucepan with 350ml water. Bring to the boil over a high heat, then cover and turn the heat right down to low. Leave to gently cook for 12 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave to finish cooking for 5 minutes. Remove the lid to let the rice cool and dry out a little (see Tips).
- Put a large wok or frying pan over a high heat and add ½ tbsp of the oil. Once smoking hot, add the celery, stir-fry for 1 minute, then lift out onto a plate. Add another tbsp of oil to the wok, followed by the prawns and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry for 2 minutes until the prawns are pink and cooked, then lift them out onto the same plate.
- Pour the remaining 2 tbsp oil into the wok, turn down the heat to medium, then add the lap cheong. Stir-fry for a few minutes until the sausages crisp up and have released some of their oil. Remove the sausages to the same plate, leaving as much oil in the wok as you can.
- Turn the heat back up to high, add the ginger and garlic, then stir-fry for 30 seconds. Pour in the eggs, stir-fry until nearly cooked, then tip in the rice and stir-fry for a few more minutes, ‘punching’ the rice with your spatula to break up any clumps.
- Add the cooked celery, prawns and lap cheong to the rice mixture, along with the peas, spring onions, white pepper, salt and sugar. Stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes until well combined. Gather the rice in the centre of the wok, then pour the soy sauce around the perimeter. Stir-fry for a final 30 seconds to mix, then serve immediately.
Nutrition
- 526kcals Calories
- 25g (5.2g saturated) Fat
- 21g Protein
- 53g (3.5g sugars) Carbs
- 2g Fibre
- 3.6g Salt
Leave a comment, question or tip