Tutorial on Fried Rice

I have been asked a couple times about how to make fried rice. I always thought that it was a fairly easy dish because it's basically diced up leftovers heated up with day-old rice. It wasn't until I saw the episode of Sam the Cooking Guy demonstrating how to make fried rice that I realized how easy it is to screw this up.

He made the recipe way more complicated than it had to be. I thought his whole show was based on simple ways to making complicated recipes? No wonder people are confused. Anyway, I digress...

So I've decided to create a tutorial on how to make fried rice. You can make this dish with fresh ingredients or yesterday's leftovers.  I like using leftovers (meatloaf fried rice, anyone?), because everything is already cooked and all you need to do is heat it through.

The most important thing is to start with day-old rice, or at least cold rice. Otherwise, you'll end up with a very mushy mess.

You might want to stir the rice around a bit to separate the clumps.  You don't have to be meticulous about it, but you don't want big lumps of rice either.  The only basic ingredients are the rice and eggs. You can add whatever else you want to your fried rice.   Of course, don't forget a bit of oil so that everything doesn't end up sticking to your cookware.   Order of ingredients to go into the pan is aromatics (garlic or onions) first, then meat, then veggies, and last egg-rice mixture.

Fried Rice
3 cups day-old rice
2-3 cloves of minced garlic (use ginger if making seafood fried rice)
1 1/2 cup choice of meat diced into bite sized pieces
1 cup choice of assorted fresh, frozen or leftover veggies, roughly chopped (if using snow peas, leave whole)
1 small diced onion
2 stalks of finely chopped green onions (parsley or cilantro are also good substitutes)
2-3 drops sesame oil (optional)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
vegetable oil
salt or soy sauce to taste

In a bowl, mix the eggs into the rice until well coated.  Set aside.  Heat wok or large nonstick saucepan.  Add olive/vegetable and sesame oil and heat over medium flame.  
Add onions and cook until translucent.  Remember to always stir constantly when cooking this dish. 
Add garlic and stir for about 1 minute.
Add meat, stir until halfway cooked.
Add veggies. Cook for another 2 minutes or until heated through.
Add egg-rice mixture.
Stir in green onions. Stir until egg is no longer runny. Turn off the heat and add salt or soy sauce to taste.  Makes about 3 servings.