(Joyful music) (audience clapping) - Rice is always a very big part of my life.

I remember when I was growing up in China, my mother never feed me any baby formula.

She always prepared a little rice creamy, rice porridge, in Chinese called jook.

It's no joke, it's wonderful.

Even up to today, after 75 years.

Every night, I still eat not just one bowl rice.

I actually have three bowls of rice.

How many, you know that in America average.

American only eat about 17 pounds .. but in China, many parts of Asia, a 50 pound bag of rice for a pot for a family of three or four, they'll finish everything in two weeks.

Not all rice are created equal.

There are over 4,000 varieties of rice.

Different color, different shape, different size.

I wanna show you few variety that I'll be using today.

Here, look at that.

(bumping spoon) This is the regular long grain rice.

When it's cooked is nice and dry and fluffy, they use for fried rice.

Of course, everybody know that this is very healthy brown rice without removing the rice husk.

After you remove it it's white rice.

And this is the sweet rice or glutinous rice when it's cooked, it's nice and sticky.

They make a lot of desert.

This is the California wild rice, it's native to the American.

This is wonderful long and got a wonderful texture and flavor.

This is the Basmati Rice, the Basmati rice also is very good and kind of wonderful texture.

And as well as aroma and flavor.

This is the Thai Black glutinous rice.

When it's cooked got a wonderful dark purple color and also got a wonderful texture, and I'm going to put this, we're going to use a lot of these variety of rice in the next few dishes.

Now, the first thing I want to show you is the Penang, Penang Pilaf.

See!

Here, I have four pieces of chicken right here.

You can use chicken thigh or chicken leg, whatever.

I slightly marinate a little bit of soy sauce.

And then I also have some rice long grain rice, bell pepper some snow pea or frozen green peas.

And here is the spicy sausage.

This is a spicy sausage.

Normally they don't have this, but I add the tiny bit of this to make it nice and flavorful.

And of course, this is the Chinese sausage a little bit skinnier, and also very flavorful.

You can use either one.

I'm going to heat up my wok and we're going to brown the rice.

Okay.

First hit up the wok and I am going to, Oh!

Oh!

Let's turn this down a little bit.

Put a tiny bit of oil, one and a half to two teaspoon.

Move from around and then, brown your chicken.

We're going to brown the chicken.

Okay.

One skin-side first.

Wow.

Can you hear the sizzling sound?

Very exciting.

(frying sizzle) Brown, brown moved them around.

(frying sizzle) Woo hoo!

(frying sizzle) It doesn't take too long.

Turn it upside down.

Turn it upside down.

Make sure they jumped but don't get out .. (frying sizzle) Look at that!

Brown, nicely brown by the idea of doing you render some of the fat.

You don't want to get all the fat into your food.

So you're browning and you'll make it nice and shiny.

And then at the same time, we're going to cut up some sausage.

Okay.

I'm going to cut up some sausage.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Cut up.

Make sure your things roast.

Make sure you're holding to a firm grip.

You stand with forward motion.

Okay.

And then you can also put this right into your wok to get the flavor out, right here.

(frying sizzle) (knife clinch) Okay.

Always remember to clean up.

Okay.

And then of course, cut off a tiny, tiny bit of red bell pepper.

This will give some nice color contrast to your dish.

You'll have nice red and green at the same time.

We set it aside.

Put it right here and get ready the rice.

Now look at this well browned.

Wow!

Look at this.

(frying sizzle) (frying sizzle) Toss.

And then, while your browning this.. We want to add this food seasoning?

Look at this.

I have cumin.

I have turmeric and black pepper, (frying sizzle) chopped garlic, and some shallot.

(frying sizzle) We'll put them all right in here.

Now everybody know chicken and rice always tend to end up in the same pot.

(frying sizzle) Dishes like Cajun Jambalaya, Mexican Arroz Con Pollo, (frying sizzle) Spanish Paella.

(frying sizzle) Whoa!

Look at this.

Stir when it's all nice and done.

You put the rice in, toss the rice.

(frying sizzle) Move them around toss, toss, and kind of let it cook.

And of course, Penang is a city a little Island off of Malaysia.

And this is a wonderful family dish and everybody love it.

That's why you call Penang rice pilaf.

This is done.

(frying sizzle) And then, cover this and cook for approximately 18 to 20 minutes (frying sizzle) in medium, low heat mixture.

Turn it down.

So it's nice and done.

And when it's done, almost done you sprinkle some (frying sizzle) Oh!

I'll show you.

Sprinkle some red bell pepper (frying sizzle) and then (knife clinch) frozen green peas, right on top.

And just like the one that I have just done I have done one for you already.

Right here.

We shut it off because we have so many people in the audi..

I don't want to waste the time.

So we cooked.

Whoa!

Look at this.

This is marvelous.

We have two of these.

And then, we'll transfer this and look at how beautiful this rice is, huh?

And to make it nice and delicious, (wok clinch) or even more wonderful?

What I do is I garnish with tiny bit of basil and a tiny bit of cilantro and you have a beautiful Pin Nam rice pilaf.

(audience clapping) (audience clapping) Now, we're going to go to another country, India Basmati rice is actually native in India.

Got a wonderful rich nutty flavor.

Perfectly well served with nuts and dry fruits is a wonderful Indian festival rice dish.

That's served in many locations.

Here all I have is rice.

Long grain rice.

Basmati long grain rice, some green onion serrano and garam masala.

This is a very unique Indian spice some ginger and garlic, while I'm heating up my frying pan.

I'm going to quickly mince some ginger.

Done.

Mince ginger, done.

Then when is hot enough, use a tiny bit.. Now this is wonderful.

Very easy to do.

And then I put some garlic, (saute sizzle) minced ginger, (saute sizzle) jalapeno or serrano chopped, (saute sizzle) and also some green onion chopped.

Stir this.

(wok shrieking) Wow!

Look at this.

This is hot.

I feel the heat already.

Then put the rice in sauteed, for a little while.

(saute sizzle) Make sure I don't lose a grain.

Very expensive.

Very nice.

And then when it's almost ready, you put a tiny bit off these Garam Masala spices right in here.

Put dark water.

So it can let it cook.

You know, you can cook on the stove top.

You can also cook this in the oven.

This is very unique.

Some of the unique frying pan the handle can withstand up to 350 degrees.

That's what we're gonna to do.

We're going to put this right over there and let it cook.

Oh, in the wonderful oven.

that we have here and let it cook around 350 degrees.

In the meantime, this is done.

We take this out because we have cooked another portion of this so we can feed everybody in the studio.

This is very hot.

So I want to put it right here.

In the meantime bring it all, brown.

This is walnuts, peeled dry peeled prunes.

And this is apricot.

You can use any nut and any of these fruit but this is my favorite.

Besides prunes is very healthy.

So we would use this and also give nice color contrast.

Stir this.

Stir this.

When the rice is ready, we are going to put the rice in a nice serving platter.

I'm going to show you I'm going to put everything back here.

Remove these so everybody can see better.

Okay!

And the rice should be serve right in here.

This is marvelous.

Just perfectly done.

Very easy, very easy to do.

Put it here, still hot and then sprinkle the fruit which is have been brown.

Put it right here.

This will give a wonderful, wonderful flavor, color, texture, and everything and nutrients.

The wonderful thing about this is you should serve these with extra, extra roasted coconut.

And my version of the Indian chutney.

I serve these with plums sauce.

This how you can make beautiful (audience clapping) Basmati rice with nuts and dry fruit, (audience clapping) But now the question is, how do you eat in India?

The real experience of Indian food is more than just cooking.

We have to learn how to eat like an Indian.

(Indian instrumental music) Let me show you what I mean.

(indian instrumental music) I found this popular Indian restaurant in Singapore.

That is truly I heard of his car.

Everybody knows that I always use my chopsticks to eat but I am in this traditional Southern Indian Curry restaurant like all my good Indian friends, they used t..

So I got to wash my hand.

(water splash) so we didn't get ready to eat.

(footsteps) Can you show me how to properly eat what?

(inaudible) What?

I have no idea, but we'll just follow.

Okay.

It is fish.

This is fish cooked in a Curry sauce.

Put it over here, right next to the rice, long grain rice.

(spoon clinking) (spoon clinking) (spoon clinking) (spoon clinking) - When joined the famous fish head Curry, which is served with bitter melon and pickled cabbage to cool our palate.

We're drinking fresh limes coolers.

Indians have very strict customs.

For instance, they only eat with the right hand.

This give a new meaning to the word finger food.

Don't you think?

Here is the best part.

There are no dishes to wash.

When you fold a banana mat in half it signals the waiter that you are done with your dinner.

Here's my breakfast for tomorrow.

(Indian music) (audience clapping) - See what I mean - Indian food is a hands-on experience.

That's why there's always plenty of rice on hand to soak up all the spicy sauces.

The next dish I'm going to show you is white rice orange walnut vinegarette.

Is a wonderful, wonderful salad is actually a rice salad.

I use this California wild rice grown, right here in the sunny Sacramento Valley and all over the state.

It's wonderful gala, wonderful nutty chewy, texture and nutty flavor.

All you have to do is cook this rice.

Right here in this pot.

Look at that and then put approximately two and a half portion of water of rice raw, either water or broth.

Okay!

How do you know that when you cook wild rice sometimes they triple the volume and sometime even quadruple.

Why rice is wonderful in soup, in main dishes in salad, side dishes, or even deserts.

You can use it all kinds of thing.

You just let it cook.

Now, normally it takes approximately 40 to 55 minutes cook this rice.

That means you should let it cook and cover.

Just let it cook and their extra water liquid.

Just drain it off.

When it's done.

Look at this.

When it's done, you fluff it as nice .. And we're going to mix with all of these ingredient where so.. (chopping sound) Wop!

Done.

We have mushroom.

(dropping knife) We're going to put some mushroom right here.

Okay.

Sliced mushroom, button mushroom and some fresh shitaki mushroom sliced.

Once again, good healthy food dry peeled prunes.

Mix it.

Give the texture and flavor.

Some roasted walnut, mix it.

Give the texture and then some celery.

Ah, and then some green onion and then some cilantro.

Very, very good.

Mixed them all up and set it aside.

Okay.

And in the meantime I also want to make a salad dressing.

This is a salad dressing right here.

Look at this.

I'm going to make some salad dressing right..

Here.

I have some sort of sauce some orange juice, freshly squeeze orange juice tiny bit of salt, tiny bit of sugar, not much.

And also tiny bit szechuan peppercorn, right here.

Half a teaspoon of salt and sesame.. Look at that!

And then finally mix them more up.

We're going to have some Walnut oil, this add some extra flavor.

Look at this.

Okay.

Now, how many of you know, that there's a lot of things that you should know about the wild rice.

Where does some California or elsewhere?

This happened to be California white rice?

They only have about 70 calories per cup cooked rice.

This is a great source of protein, niacin, potassium and calcium.

And the great thing about this is u.. white rice can be kept in cool dry place, on the freezer indefinitely.

So it's very, very easy to do and want to take this off and put it on the side.

And then we are going to show you how wonderful, how easy it is to serve this.

When this is nice and ready, we put this right over here.

Look at how beautiful.

How interesting?

This is not only delicious, but also very, very nutritious.

And I put some roasted Walnut right on top.

I am nuts about this thing.

And then a tiny, tiny bit of Oh!

Look at this orange or lemon zest.

Put it right here.

You know what you're going to have.

You have a wonderful, wonderful white rice salad with orange walnut dressing.

(audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping) Are you ready for rice dessert?

Everybody knows rice pudding.

And most of you love rice pudding.

Will you believe this is how it looks in Thailand?

Look at this.

No, I don't burn it.

I didn't burn this.

It is make from black glutinous rice.

Look at that the same one that I show you earlier.

When it's cooked it has a dark deep purple color li..

When you serve it you just basically cook it with ginger, brown sugar.

And then when you serve it, you just top it with a teeny tiny bit of sugar, extra sugar, tiny, tiny bit and also some coconut milk or coconut cream just looks at like this.

Look at that.

This is how beautiful it is.

And of course you want to make it more interesting put some toasted coconut on top.

This is a wonderful, wonderful black glutinous rice dessert.

It's a little bit different.

The people in Thailand loved particular desert.

Still, it is not for everybody.

So take it or leave it?

It's a black tie optional.

(audience laugh) This is no joke.

I love it.

The next one, I want to show you as a mango with coconut glutinous rice.

Let me show you this and other Thai wonderful dessert.

That is a little bit more user friendly.

I caught it, as I said, because of mango.

I'm going to call it coconut mango glutinous rice.

Here, look it up.

I have steamed some glutinous rice.

When you steam glutinous rice, you should use less sugar, less water than the regular long grain rice.

Nice and moist and still nice and hot.

You want to set it aside and put it right here.

In the meantime to save time I'm going to mix some brown sugar and coconut.

And in here, we'll mix this coconut milk.

You can use coconut cream or coconut milk.

Mix all of these to get these softened because this is slightly warm.

So we dissolve these.

(knife clinch) Look at that, mix it up.

In China, they have no whisk.

This is what they do.

Your burnout.

45,000 calories in less than three seconds.

(audience laughing) (breathing heavily) You're totally exhausted.

(audience laughing) Look at that!

When that's done you put us right in here and get the flavor out.

Now allow the rice to soaked this into and the flavor permeate.

Look at this.

This really, really unique.

And you cannot have mingled glutinous rice unless you have mango.

So we're going to show you how to get the mango ready?

Let us sit aside.

Let the coconut flavor and the sweetness of the brown sugar permeate into the rice.

And then I want to show you how to do this mango.

A lot of people love mango.

Mango some of them are from Mexico.

A lot of them from Philippines and different parts of Southeast Asia.

You use your knife and you cut this piece out.

Oh!

Done.

Magic!

You put it in and it don't think, done.

And then you I'll show you, how easy it is to peel this.

Look at this pill this, pill this.

I use this big pairing knife to peel it.

And then I cut this up.

Look at that.

(knife slash) Now, (knife clinch) I'm going to show you two things, .. One is with the skin still on, I want to show you how to serve mango and to eat it.

And then another one is already peeled, the one that's already peeled.

I do it like this, one, two.

I slice it.

I slice it.

Thin slices, thin slices, thin slice (knife slash) all the way.

(knife slash) Everything I do today is rice.

(knife slash) (knife clinch) Look at that.

I immediately can open it up like t.. Look it up.

Can you see that?

Very easy to do.

I just spread it out.

And then this way we can serve the rice later I will set it aside.

In the meantime I will show you something even more interesting.

Now, when you eat mango, this is how you do it.

You first hold on to it and they cut it at an angle.

45 degree, 45 degree, 45 degree, 45 degree, 45 degree.

Okay!

45, 45.

And then you go 1 2 3 4 When you open it up, you know what?

It looks like this look, isn't it cute.

It's an amazing, absolutely interesting.

And then you put this over here and we're going to serve this.

This is wonderful.

Everything we do today is interesting.

Look at that.

We put this over here and then we put this over here.

And then we put this over here.

Look at that!

(knife clinch) And we put this over here and finally, top it with some roasted coconut and roasted Walnut.

Look at how beautiful.

This is marvelous dish.

Everybody can do.

I like (audience clapping) to (audience clapping) (audience clapping) I like to think of rice as a blank canvas.

It is a perfect flavor carrier for cuisines from all around the world.

From Malaysia to Minnesota.

Variety is the rice of life.

Enjoy it until next time.

Remember if Yan can cook, So can you!

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping)