Fried rice is nice if you can master getting the right texture

In theory, fried rice is a great dish for home cooks. You take leftover rice, leftover meat, fish or poultry (or some tofu), scallions and soy sauce, and you've got yourself a low-cost, low-effort, filling and delicious meal. The "delicious" part, however, is where many recipes fall flat.

The problem for the home cook is getting the right texture - not too oily, not too dry - as well as some crunch and vibrant flavor. Homemade fried rice often lacks depth. It tastes like soy-sauce-drenched rice, with some limp veggies and overcooked meat thrown in. It becomes a kind of kitchen-sink dish, especially for those of us who are not students of Chinese recipes and technique.

Not that fried rice is specifically Chinese. Food historians tell us that throughout the Far East and Southeast Asia, dishes of rice mixed with vegetables, and sometimes eggs and/or meat, have been popular since ancient times. What they also tell us is that there are almost as many recipes as there are cooks.

Fried rice in the United States is often associated with Cantonese cooking, but according to "The Food of China" (Whitecap Books, 2001), it comes from Yangzhou, a city on the Yangtze River in eastern China where none other than Marco Polo once served as a public administrator. In China, it is often served as the second-to-last dish in a traditional banquet (which may include 40 dishes, each served as a separate course), just before dessert. In Chinese restaurants in the United States, however, diners tend to eat it simultaneously with other dishes (often in place of white rice), which is considered to be a Western custom.

Recently, by chance, my husband - who is a student of Chinese recipes and technique - found the recipe here at kitchendaily.com. It's from chef and cookbook author Curtis Stone. This recipe was great right from the get-go, but with a few tweaks (hot pepper, cilantro, more fish sauce), it has become one of our favorite dishes. Serve it for lunch, or as part of dinner with some grilled fish, poultry or tofu.

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (2005 Perigee). More at marialisacalta.com.