Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope you all had a great long holiday.  Normally, after the new year celebration, we will be looking forward to another festive celebration, that is Chinese New Year.  This year the Chinese New Year falls on 8 of February, so left another a month plus for preparation.

The atmosphere of the festive is stronger now, especially when you see those seasonal food displays in the most of the supermarkets.  One of them is Chinese sausage and how could I resist to get some.  It took me a while to think what should I do with these sausages and the answer is here!

I used the sausages as one of filling ingredients in the steamed glutinous rice.  It blends so well with the rest of the ingredients - the chicken meat and mushrooms.  This recipe is more popular to name as "Lo Mai Kai" (Steamed Chicken Glutinous Rice).  As I prefer the whole recipe to be more flavorful, I have made use the lotus leaf to wrap over rice and the fillings.  Lotus leaf is another traditional "tool" of Chinese cooking, which normally use in steaming method.  It can be found in fresh or dried.  As usual, I normally will get whatever is more convenient for me - that's the dried type which I got it through a friend (thank you Susie for the effort).

The whole process of preparation of this recipe took about 5 to 6 hours but is worth the effort on the satisfaction of the result.  Love it so much!  Let's waste no time and see how this delicious recipe process is.

Ingredients

The glutinous rice

500 g glutinous rice, soaked for at least 3 hours

1 tsp salt, you may adjust to your desired taste

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 1/2 cooking oil

1 1/2 cup of water

The fillings

300 g boneless chicken meat (preferably chicken thigh meat or fillet), cut into small sizes

6 dried mushrooms, soaked until softened, slice to small pieces

2 Chinese sausages, thinly sliced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp cooking oil

The marinate for chicken & mushrooms

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp Shao Xing Chinese cooking wine

1/2 sugar

1/2 pepper

1/2 salt

The wrapper

1 piece of lotus leaf, soaked until soften

Garnishing (optional)

2 tbsp chopped spring onions.

The above ingredients serves 6.

Instructions

The glutinous rice

1.  Wash and clean glutinous rice and soak for at least 3 hours.  

2.  Drain the rice and get them ready in a steaming tray.

3.   Mix the seasoning ingredients with the water and pour on top of the rice and steam on high heat for 30 minutes.  Set aside once done.

The fillings

1.  Marinade the chicken meat with the marinate ingredients for at least an hour.

2.  Heat up oil in a skillet or wok, saute minced garlic until fragrant.  Add in Chinese sausages and the marinated chicken meat and mushrooms.  Cook until chicken meat and mushrooms are cooked.  Set aside once done.

The wrapping steps

1.  Lay the lotus leaf on a round plate on a flat surface.  Remove the small stem at the back of the leaf.

2.  Place the fillings on the leaf.  Make sure the fillings are equally filled on top of the leaf.

3.  Covered the fillings with the cooked glutinous rice on top.  Fold the edges over the rice and make sure the rice are completely covered.

4.  You may transfer the parcel to a bamboo round tray or a round plate by overturning the whole parcel.

5.  Place the wrapped parcel of rice in the a ready boiling steamer and steam for 20 minutes.

6.  Once ready, you may just cut the leaf on top and garnish with chopped spring onions and serve immediately.