Uncle Roger Egg Fried Rice (My Redemption Attempt)

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

Rice
2 cups (340g) medium grain white rice
2 cups (480ml) water

Fried Rice Sauce
1 piece galangal (about 2.5cm), peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon sambal (any decent one with a bit of kick works)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1.5 tablespoons dark soy sauce (original calls for double aged soy sauce)

Fried Shallots
3 shallots, peeled but still whole, cut into thin 3mm rounds
3 cups vegetable oil, for frying
Pinch of salt

Fried Rice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3.5 tablespoons cold smoked duck fat (optional)
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 shallots, finely diced
2 red chillies, finely diced
2 spring onions, finely sliced, plus extra for garnish
3 large eggs, whisked
Pinch of salt
3–4 cups cold, cooked rice
2 teaspoons ground white pepper
2 teaspoons MSG
Fried rice sauce (from above)

Unit conversion table Print recipe

So, a while back Uncle Roger reacted to one of my videos. The funny thing is, it wasn’t me showing off proper fried rice — I was mostly chatting about MSG. The rice itself was leftovers from a family dinner, not rinsed, not cooked in a rice cooker, and definitely not the kind of fried rice you’d want Uncle Roger to see.

If you want to watch that original MSG fried rice video I made, you’ll see exactly why redemption was needed.

Why I Tried Uncle Roger Fried Rice Again

To be fair, Uncle Roger didn’t go full foot-stomp on me. He actually liked that I was into MSG and only poked fun at my cooking. Still, it felt like I needed to give fried rice a proper go this time.

So here’s my attempt at Uncle Roger fried rice, loosely based on Joshua Weissman’s recipe. If you want the official version, check it out on Joshua Weissman’s website.

And if you’re curious, you can also watch Uncle Roger’s video reaction here.

Ingredients Hunt for Uncle Roger Fried Rice

The recipe meant a trip to the Asian supermarket. I found galangal, sambal (though there were about ten types and I just grabbed one with a kick), and sweet soy sauce, which tasted like black honey.

The tricky part was the aged soy sauce. The shopkeeper laughed when I asked for it and explained they only sell it in giant barrels for restaurants. So I swapped in a nice dark soy sauce instead, which worked well.

And yes, I did get distracted and bought some carbonara-flavoured noodles and Calpis soda, which tasted like creamy lemonade.

Cooking the Fried Rice

Here’s where it came together. The shallots got fried into a crunchy topping, the wok was heated until smoking, and I stir-fried garlic, shallots, chillies, and spring onions before cracking in the eggs.

Cold rice chilled after cooking in the rice cooker overnight went in next, and this time it toasted properly. Then came the magic: a sprinkle of MSG and white pepper, plus that sweet and dark soy sauce mix off the heat. Everything got tossed until glossy and fragrant.

The Result

The finished Uncle Roger fried rice was a huge step up from my earlier effort. Crispy shallots on top, glossy rice, proper flavour — and no sad leftovers in sight. Would it pass Uncle Roger’s test? Maybe not 100%, but I think he’d give me a nod instead of a stomp.

If you enjoy these kinds of recipe redemptions, check out more in my Barry Tries recipe attempts playlist.

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