Arroz chaufa

As tradition built it

Arroz chaufa

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice, cooked and chilled at least a day ahead
• 3, beaten egg, cut into ribbons
• 6 sprigs, thinly sliced cebolla china
• 20g, grated kión
• a quarter cup sillao

Method

1. Cook and chill the rice at least a day ahead so the grains separate properly rather than clumping in the wok.
2. Stage everything, egg cut into ribbons, cebolla china, kión and sillao, before the wok is lit.
3. Fry at real heat, tossed continuously rather than left to sit.

Notes

The name itself, like chifa, derives from Cantonese, chaufa read as the Cantonese term for fried rice carried whole into Peruvian Spanish. Home cooking absorbed this dish so completely that kión, sillao and cebolla china now sit in ordinary Peruvian domestic kitchens as routine ingredients, not markers of an outside cuisine.

What a modern chef changes

A further drying stage, a distinct egg ribbon

Rung 06

Method

1. Dry the cooked rice a further stage beyond an overnight chill, a brief low pass through the dehydrator to pull out the last surface moisture a fridge alone leaves behind.
2. Cook the eggs sous vide to a specific soft-set point first, then cut and fold them through at the very end, rather than scrambling directly in the wok.
3. Toast and grind a small amount of white pepper fresh in the spice grinder rather than using pre-ground, finished over the dish rather than cooked into it.