Rice

Now to the vexed subject of rice, which is, of course, virtually the staple diet of China. The dishes I have selected for this book, in my view, either do not need rice at all, or if they do, it should be simply boiled, or better still, cooked in an electric rice cooker, which keeps the rice warm over two or three hours, as that is how long my feasts take to eat.

You can, of course, flavour the rice with a little saffron, or indeed you can cook it and leave it to go cold and then stir-fry it in vegetable oil or a little sesame oil and add into it, for example, cooked peas, small shrimps or prawns, little pieces of chicken or roasted Chinese pork, and maybe a chilli or two if you wish. One of the popular but very simple rice dishes is to take cold cooked rice, stir-fry it and stir in a couple of beaten whole eggs. Again you may wish to add some peas or shrimps. Or you can cook my Luxury fried rice below.