While Chinese New Year is around the corner, it’s always good to have something hearty and with wok-hay flavour on the table. This dish represents wok-hay in all ways. Wok hay is a Cantonese phrase used to describe a particular essence and aroma that is created in a dish when authentic stir-frying is performed. “Hay” means “energy” or “breath”; therefore, “wok hay” means “the energy or breath of a wok”.
Traditionally, it is a custom for Winter to eat glutinous rice. During the solar term, Cantonese not only dress the most but also eat some stomach-warming things to keep out the cold, such as glutinous rice. Glutinous rice warms the stomach and nourishes the stomach, replenishing qi and blood. It is most suitable for eating in the cold winter, and it will feel warm all over the body.
This Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage, commonly also known as Chinese sticky rice is loaded with dried shrimp, sausage, shiitake mushrooms, and a flavorful sauce that’s all cooked up in the rice cooker! It’s an easy way to make this deliciously popular Cantonese dish!
Preparing the Glutinous Rice
As you will need to cool the glutinous rice before frying it with the ingredients, prepare it ahead first. Our first try with the glutinous rice is a failure. We try cooking it like the usual rice and it turns out mushy. Thus on our second try, we steam the rice on a cloth instead. The grains of rice are tender with just the right amount of stickiness, no mushy rice or wet clumps!
Start by preparing it overnight, soaking the glutinous rice in water or for at least 6 hours. Next day rinse the glutinous rice, drain and leave it on the cloth on the steamer. We leave it to air dry more to get rid the excess water before bringing it to steam for 15 minutes on high temperature.
Main Ingredients
Chinese Sausage
Chinese sausage (Cantonese is known as Lap Cheong, 腊肠) is made from fatty pork. It is normally smoked, sweetened, and seasoned with rose water, rice wine, and soy sauce. Depending on the brand, the sausage itself can be quite tough. But once cooked with the rice, it becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender. The fat and sweetness melt into the gooey rice and taste so good!!!
Dried Shiitake Mushroom
We highly recommend using dried shiitake mushrooms because they have an intense smoky flavour that fresh ones do not have. To prepare it, soak it in the water overnight. Use a bowl to cover your soaking mushroom, making sure it is submerged well.
Sauces
The sauces are the main lead that allows all the ingredients to combine well in the pot. Combine all the sauces well ahead before you start cooking. You will need chicken stock, oyster sauce, sesame oil, light and dark soy sauce.
Why there’s Lotus Leaf?
Many would wonder why do we serve it with lotus leaf even it wasn’t Lotus Rice. We did it for a few reasons, we love the scent of the lotus leaf and it is also pretty to serve it to the guest when coming to gatherings. However, the most important reason is that it traps heat and avoid glutinous rice to turn cold.
Undeniable, having too much of glutinous rice you will feel bloated. Therefore without a doubt, there are left-overs, the lotus leaf served an important purpose as you could wrap and restream it. When you steam it, the lotus leaf infused a great fragrance into the glutinous rice.
How to wash a lotus leaf?
We got the dry lotus leaf instead of the fresh one where it’s easier to find in the market, all you need is use a wet cloth and clean it. And you are all ready to use. However, for the dry lotus leaf, you need to dip it in the hot water for 20 mins allowing the flavour of the lotus flows out. Only remove the water when you are ready to use as it dries up fast. After remove from the pot use a dry cloth dap and dry it.
Despite we living in a tropical country in Singapore, we don’t experince Winter but during the period of the solar term, we do felt colder than other days of the year. While during this period, having a little flavourful like this wasn’t a bad idea. A quick, tasty dish prepared without a hassle, Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage delivers a balanced smoky, savoury & sweet taste.
xoxo, Joe
Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage | 腊肠糯米饭
Sticky rice with Chinese sausage is a dim sum favorite, and really easy to make at home. You’ll be delighted with this authentic Chinese sticky rice recipe!
Ingredients
2 cups uncooked sticky rice (400g, also known as “Sweet Rice” or “Glutinous Rice”)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
¼ teaspoon sesame oil
¼ cup chicken stock (60 ml)
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
¼ cup dried shrimp (soaked for 15 minutes in warm water)
1 medium onion (finely diced)
5 dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked in warm water until softened and diced)
3 links Chinese sausage (cut into small discs)
1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
white pepper (to taste)
▢ 2 scallions (chopped)
▢ Cilantro (to garnish, optional)
Methods
- You can also use our method for soaking and steaming the sticky rice to pre-cook it.
- Combine the oyster sauce, soy sauces, sesame oil, chicken stock, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the shrimp and stir-fry for 30 seconds to bring out the flavor. Next, add the onion, mushrooms and Chinese sausage, and stir-fry for another minute, taking care not to burn the onion. Add the Shaoxing wine and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
- Add all of the cooked sticky rice to the wok and break it up as much as possible with a spatula. Spoon half of the sauce mixture over the rice (it helps to add the sauce over any clumps of rice to help break them up). Mix well, using a scooping motion to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the wok. Add the rest of the sauce and stir-fry until the rice is uniform in color.
- Season with white pepper to taste and mix in the scallions. You can serve it as is…or if you want to get fancy, you can pack the rice into a nice round bowl rinsed in warm water and turn it over on a plate. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
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