XO Sauce - Straight Up Condiment, Noodles Seasonings, How about Some Tasty Fried Rice?

XO sauce is one of the popular Asian sauces usually used as a condiment or mixed with dry noodles. It is also a common flavoring agent for fried rice. This sauce's main ingredients are dried scallops, dried shrimps, and red chilies. Imagine the aroma when mixed together with rice and heated up in a high temperature wok, simply mouth-watering.

XO sauce fried rice - 

Ingredients (for 3 to 4 portions)?

• 1 1/3 cups XO sauce
• 2 cups uncooked white rice or some leftover rice
• 1 stalk chopped scallion
• 3 tablespoons peeled and chopped shallots
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Some cilantro

How?

Cook 2 cups of white rice using less water in order to get a chewier, harder texture. Leftover rice works really well since some of the moisture has already been evaporated after storing in the fridge for a day or two.

Drizzle some olive oil to a wok or to a big pan and turn to medium high heat. No need to use more oil since the XO sauce is quite oily already. Add in shallots, scallion, salt, and black pepper. Give it a quick stir and cook till the shallots turned slightly burnt -

Pour in the XO sauce but try to drain out some oil if possible, otherwise might end up with greasy fried rice. Let the high heat further brings out the aroma. Pour in some oyster sauce and mix well -

Mix in the rice and make sure every grain is coated with the sauce. Cook a little bit longer to draw out even more moisture.

Once ready, plate and garnish with some chopped cilantro -

Besides Asian recipes, XO sauce should also pair well with simple seared fish fillet or barbecued shrimps. Give it a try, you'll be in love with such a versatile sauce.

Other fried rice recipes:

• Uni and crab fried rice, pampered with extra fresh uni on top
• Light version: smoked salmon fried rice 煙燻鮭魚炒飯
• This time, no chicken eggs, but salted duck eggs for Chinese fried rice 鹹鴨蛋秋葵炒飯
• Kimchi and shirasu fried rice with a hint of shiso, and of course the sinful egg yolk
• Sirloin fried rice with crisp red onions and a hint of Japanese seasonings (蒜香味噌牛排炒飯)