If you order Yangzhou fried rice in restaurants, you can be pretty sure of what you’re going to get: small pieces of various vegetables, char siu (Chinese roast pork) and small shrimp (usually frozen). Some places get a little fancier and add crabmeat instead of shrimp but, thankfully, it hasn’t gone to the extreme where chefs are adding caviar or gold leaf.
You only need the gai lan (Chinese broccoli) stems for this dish; the leaves and leafy tops can be cooked and served with the rice, although you will probably want to cook more than just the eight to 10 stalks called for in this recipe.
You can either stir-fry the gai lan with oil and salt, then stir in a drizzle of sesame oil just before turning off the flame, or blanch it by cooking in boiling water until crisp-tender, then drain, place on a plate and drizzle with oyster sauce and sesame oil. Whichever method you use, the stalks will take longer to cook than the more tender leaves, so add them to the wok or pan first.
Once the ingredients are prepared, cooking the fried rice takes only about five minutes.
