With The Breath of a Wok

The simplest dishes are the hardest to make. These are dishes that test one's skill and stretches the potential of one's kitchen equipment. For my entire adult life, I have envied the zi char cooks their kickass gas stoves that roar with a fire that gives wok fried dishes their "dragon breath"... that elusive breath of the wok. I don't have a commercial standard gas stove.

In no other dish is the presence of the breath of the wok so necessary than fried rice. I have never made good fried rice at home. Never.

Till now.

After decades of pining and desiring, I finally bought a Le Creuset #32 cast iron marmite and for the first time in my life, I made really good fried rice complete with "wok hei" and individual fluffy grains. Finally, I put fried rice on the dining table that smelled like a dragon had breathed gently over it. Cast iron really makes a huge difference to fried rice. Simple to make. Hard to do perfectly well.