Dried Scallop & Egg White Fried Rice
This luxurious fried rice showcases simple ingredients and good technique!
Cooking Summary
Ingredients: (detailed list)
- Main Ingredients: jasmine rice, water, dried scallop, egg, green onion, ginger, corn oil
- Seasonings: salt, sugar, fish sauce, sesame oil
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Top 3 Mistakes
- Starting with soggy rice:
Use rice with the dry, separated texture described in the recipe. Wet or clumped rice is harder to stir-fry evenly and can turn sticky instead of giving you distinct grains.
- Skipping the soaking step:
Rehydrate the dried ingredients before you start cooking. Follow the recipe’s soaking instructions so they soften properly rather than staying tough in the finished dish.
- Starting with a cool pan:
Heat the wok or pan as directed before adding the ingredients. Starting before it is ready changes the initial cooking stage and makes the intended browning harder to achieve.
Overview
Does dried scallop and egg white fried rice sound simple? It really is! Dried scallops are super fragrant, aromatic nuggets of flavor, and the idea of this dish is to really highlight them against a light background of simple egg white fried rice.
The story goes that a chef invented this dish for a Hong Kong billionaire who wanted to eat healthier food. Cooking fried rice with egg white and no yolk is also a great way to accommodate people who avoid egg yolks.
Also, this is Daddy Lau's favorite style of fried rice!
Ingredients
Why this recipe
Most dried scallop & egg white fried rice recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 263.6K views, 4.4K likes on YouTube.
Dried scallops in Cantonese cuisine
This is an essential pantry ingredient in Cantonese households for two main reasons.
First, it's a seafood ingredient, and Cantonese cuisine loves its seafood! It's flavorful and kind of briny, and the umami flavor is very concentrated.
Secondly, because it's dried, it has a fantastic shelf life. You can keep it in the fridge for a pretty long time. Some people say they're good for several months, and some people say that dried scallops keep for 2 years in the fridge. Use your best judgment and toss out any suspicious pieces with weird discoloration or unusual texture.
Dried scallops will last even longer in the freezer, which is where my parents store theirs.
Are my dried scallops okay?
It's not unusual to see a dry, white, powdery coating on dried scallops. This powdery coating is typically excess salt from the normal processing of dried scallops. Sometimes, dried scallops that are older will develop more of this white powder over time if they dehydrate further in storage.
If there's anything fuzzy, and definitely if there's discoloration that's not white, then it's not salt, and it's probably mold. Be safe and discard dried scallops with that kind of discoloration.
It's really important to keep dried ingredients like dried scallops and dried mushrooms... well, dry. Store them in a dry, sealed container, away from sunlight. If you have an extra silica packet that can help absorb moisture, you can drop it into the container as an extra precaution.
How to make Dried Scallop & Egg White Fried Rice
Wash the rice (3 cup) by swirling and massaging the rice in clean water. Pour the starchy water out and repeat two more times. Transfer the rinsed rice into your rice cooker, add water (24 fl oz), and set it to start cooking.
Wash the dried scallops (1 oz) to get rid of possible debris. Soak in hot water; small scallops will take at least 20 minutes to soften and rehydrate, and large pieces may take longer.
Chop the green onions (1 oz) into small pieces. To save time, you can chop the green onions in half, so they are half the length, and stack them all up to chop together.
Mince the ginger (0.50 oz) by first slicing thinly, cutting the slices into thin strips, and then chopping the ginger strips into even smaller pieces.
Since this is an egg white fried rice, you'll only want the whites of each egg. To separate the whites and yolk, prepare two separate bowls. Crack the egg carefully over one bowl, and as you pull the eggshell halves apart, catch the yolk on one eggshell half. Let the egg white drip down into the bowl.
Pour the yolk back and forth a couple of times, allowing the egg white to slip away and drop down into the bowl. Be careful not to catch the yolk on any jagged shell bits, which may rip the membrane holding the yolk together.
When you're satisfied with the amount of whites you've separated from the yolk, pour the yolk into the second bowl. Repeat with the rest of the eggs.
If you accidentally get a bit of yolk in your whites bowl, it's not ideal, but it's also not the end of the world.
Once the dried scallops have rehydrated, shred them into short threads by pulling them apart with your fingers or by smashing them with a knife. Use the broad, flat side of the knife to press down on 1-2 rehydrated scallops, then pull carefully towards yourself or to the side. This will loosen up the scallops a lot, and you'll have a much easier time pulling them apart.
When the rice is finished cooking, fluff it to help release some steam and moisture.
Heat the wok on high heat. Once it's hot, not quite smoking, add oil (2 tbsp) and swirl it around to coat the wok. Turn the heat to medium.
Have your spatula ready! You'll need to move fast with the egg whites.
Beat the egg whites slightly, then add them to the wok. Stir and flip them immediately, and continue to stir and flip as they cook. It'll take about 15 seconds for them to cook through. Take the cooked egg whites out and put them aside for later.
Add more oil (1 tbsp) to the wok, and turn the heat up to medium high. Drop half of the rehydrated, shredded scallops into the wok, and fry for 50-60 seconds, until they turn golden brown.
Turn off the heat and scoop the fried shredded scallops out with a slotted spoon or mesh strainer. Allow the oil to drip back into the wok as you scoop them up. Set the fried scallops aside. You'll be sprinkling these crispy goodies on top as a garnish at the end.
There's enough oil in the wok, so there's no need to add any more. Plus, this oil now carries all the umami seafood-y aroma of the dried scallops you just fried!
Turn the heat to medium. Add the minced ginger and remaining rehydrated shredded scallops to the wok. Cook and stir for 10-15 seconds.
Lower the heat so that the ingredients don't burn as you add the cooked white rice.
Use your spatula to press the rice down and loosen it up. You want the rice to break up into individual, flavorful grains. No one wants a fried rice full of clumps of unflavored white rice.
Cook for 80-90 seconds, mixing everything well to distribute the flavor.
Season the rice by adding salt (0.50 tsp), sugar (0.50 tsp), and fish sauce (0.50 tsp). Mix to distribute.
Add the cooked egg whites, using your spatula to break them down into smaller pieces. Cook and stir for 90 seconds.
Give it a taste. Add extra salt as needed and stir to distribute.
Add sesame oil (1 tsp) and stir for 30-35 seconds.
Add the chopped green onion and stir it in for about 10 seconds, just enough to warm them up and take the raw edge off.
Turn off the heat and plate. Sprinkle the fried shredded scallop over it just before serving. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
Are bigger dried scallops better?
When you purchase dried scallops, you may notice that the large ones are more expensive. That doesn't mean they're better! It just means they had more time to grow before being harvested. Larger dried scallops are more expensive because of prestige, not flavor or quality.
In terms of flavor and quality, it doesn't matter if you get large or small dried scallops. Just be on the lookout for weird discoloration, debris, and moisture in the packaging.
For our Dried Scallop & Egg White Fried Rice, small dried scallops are actually the better option! They're more affordable, take less time to rehydrate, and are easier to shred. (Also, since they're shredded, no one ever knows how big they were when you bought them...)
Do you use fresh or dried scallops in fried rice?
For dried scallop egg white fried rice, you definitely want to use dried scallops. Like dried shiitake mushrooms, the drying process concentrates the flavor and results in a more intense umami flavor. You only get the aromatic and fragrant flavor by using dried scallops in this dish.
That's not to say that you can't use fresh scallops in a fried rice! You definitely can. Add a few more types of fresh seafood, like squid and shrimp to make a delicious seafood fried rice.
Do you use overnight leftover rice to make fried rice?
You can, but we don't. The two main advantages of using leftover rice for fried rice are that the fridge dries the rice out, making the rice easier to separate and the fried rice less clumpy, and that it's a great way to use up rice that you just didn't happen to finish eating the night before.
However, we don't typically use leftover rice. If you use a touch less water, it'll be dry enough to fry fresh. Also, hot fresh rice won't take as long to heat up and fry through. It just takes a little more attention to break up clumps.
How do you prevent rice from sticking to the wok?
It's all about patience. Let the wok get hot, almost smoking. Wait until the wok is hot before adding the oil. Swirl the oil around to coat, and then start cooking.
Your food will definitely stick and burn if you add the oil too early, before the wok is sufficiently hot, or if you don't thoroughly coat the wok surface with oil.
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Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.