Ginger Fried Rice

Made with just a few ingredients, this fried rice is highly aromatic thanks to a heavy dose of fresh ginger. In traditional Chinese medicine, ginger is a key ingredient in postpartum care and is believed to help balance the body’s yin and yang (cold and heat), restoring the heat lost during childbirth. More widely, ginger is used to aid digestion and treat stomach upset and nausea, so consider this recipe as a pick-me-up when feeling poorly. While many fried rice recipes include garlic; this one does not because I don’t ever use garlic in my fried rice, and there are purported theories that garlic may alter the breast milk and cause babies to be colicky.

While ginger is the undeniable star of this dish, you can vary the amount to your liking. For optimum bright flavor and warmth, it is added to the skillet after the rice and cooked minimally (the longer ginger cooks, the sweeter it gets). While the recipe calls for a cast-iron skillet, a wok can certainly be used—just skip the step where the rice is cooked undisturbed to crisp up. The wok will accomplish this naturally due to its larger surface area.

As always for fried rice, cold leftover rice is best, but if you need to make rice from scratch, here’s what to do: Cook the rice, let it cool about 10 minutes, then transfer to a baking sheet and spread out into a single layer. Let cool 10–20 minutes more before chilling, uncovered, 1–2 hours. The cool air of the fridge dries out the rice, rendering it more suitable for frying.