What is Bào Cài Fàn?
Bào (爆) stands in Chinese cooking for quick frying over high heat, cài (菜) for vegetables and fàn (飯) for rice. The dish belongs to everyday cooking: you use up cooked rice and whatever vegetables are in the fridge. Cabbage keeps for weeks and turns sweet in a hot pan. This gives you an Asian cabbage dish that fills you up as a main course or goes with fried meat or tofu as a side.
Green cabbage, pointed cabbage or napa cabbage
- Green cabbage: It is firm and slightly sweet. Cut out the hard core and the thick ribs and slice the rest into strips of 5 mm (1/4 in) at most. This way it cooks in 4 minutes and keeps some bite.
- Pointed cabbage: It is more tender and cooks faster. Shorten the frying time by a minute.
- Napa cabbage: It releases a lot of water. Fry the white stems first and add the green leaves at the end. A separate recipe for it is stir-fried napa cabbage with vinegar sauce.
How to make the cabbage fried rice
Day-old rice
Freshly cooked rice sticks in the pan and turns mushy. Cook the rice the day before, spread it on a tray and put it in the fridge covered. For 600 g of cooked rice you need about 250 g of raw rice. Long-grain rice stays looser when fried than short-grain rice. You can find the basics under cooking rice.
High heat, small batches
Preheat the wok or pan until the oil shimmers. Add the cabbage in one layer and leave it for a minute before stirring. It browns at the edges and does not release water. In a pan 28 cm (11 in) across, fry the four servings in two rounds. A seasoned carbon steel wok holds heat best, and the instructions are under seasoning a wok.
Seasoning
Pour the soy sauce onto the hot edge of the pan. It sizzles briefly and picks up a toasty aroma before it colors the rice. Stir in the sesame oil at the end over low heat, because its aroma disappears in a hot pan. Light soy sauce seasons, while dark soy sauce turns the rice brown. The article light and dark soy sauce explains the difference.
Common mistakes
- Too much cabbage at once: The pan cools down, and the cabbage steams in its own juice.
- Garlic fried too long: Over high heat it turns bitter in seconds. Fry it until fragrant and add the cabbage right away.
- Salted too early: The soy sauce brings salt. Season with salt only at the end.
Variations
For more protein, crack two eggs into the pan before the rice goes in and scramble them. Diced bacon or Chinese sausage (lap cheong) gives the cabbage a smoky flavor. Fry them before the garlic. Without meat and egg the dish is vegan. With kimchi instead of cabbage you make Kimchi Bokkeumbap, and with shrimp, ham and peas Yangzhou fried rice. A version with crispy rice is Chao Fan.
What goes with it
A napa cabbage soup works as a light starter. If you eat the rice as a side, add fried chicken, fried eggs or tofu with oyster sauce. A few drops of chili oil or sambal at the table give everyone the heat they like.
