Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

Since fellow bloggers Jo, Reid, and Kathy have already figured out that we were going to make these; I'll get right to the point. We did see these during our Thanksgiving visit to Pearl (Yes Angie, we really did see them), but since I had just gotten the book Dim Sum - The Art of Chinese Tea Lunchby Ellen Leong Blonder, we decided to give this a shot:

We headed off to 99 Ranch Market and purchased some Dried Lotus Leaves, though I enjoy calling them Water Lily Pads.....which is what they are:

We made many changes to the original recipe, mainly because we wanted to use what we had on hand, and also because we enjoy having a bit more "filling" then the usual "smear" of filling that is the norm.

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

Makes 8 "packets"

2 Cups Glutinous Rice
1 Tsp Salt
6 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms - soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, then drained and sliced.
4 Dried Lotus Leaves
2 Tb Soy Sauce
2 Tb Oyster Sauce
1 Tsp Xiao Tsing
1/2 Tsp Sugar
3 Tb Vegetable Oil
1 Boneless, skinless Chicken Breast - Chopped to coarse texture
4 Oz Dried Shrimp - Soaked in water for 15 minutes and drained
1 Lup Cheong sliced to 1/4" rounds
2 Oz Char Siu cut into 1/4" dice
4 Boiled Duck Egg yolks cut in halves
1 Tb Corn Starch mixed in 1/3 Cup Water

1 - Rinse and soak Glutinous Rice in water to cover, add Salt and let soak for 1 Hour

2 - Cut each folded lotus leaf in half and cover with hot water. Soak for 30 - 45 minutes, turning occasionally to make sure leaves are totally soaked. (Since I didn't do a turkey this Thanksgiving, it was good to actually use a roasting pan for something!)

3 - Cook rice in 2 cups of water. Once rice is cooked allow to cool slightly.

4 - Combine Soy Sauce, Oyster Sauce, Xiao Tsing, and sugar to create a sauce.

5 - Heat wok or skillet, add 1 Tb oil and stir fry the shrimp and lup cheong for 1-2 minutes, add chicken and stir fry until the chicken starts turning white. Add mushroom, char siu, and sauce mixture and cook for 1 minute. Stir in cornstarch mixture and remove from heat when the sauce has thickened. Place onto a plate and put aside to cool.

6 - After leaves are soaked, rinse briefly and shake of excess water. Cut off about 2 inches from the "point end" of the leaf and trim any ragged portions of the curved edges with a scissors. Stack the leaves in the same direction and set aside.

7 - Divide the cooled rice and into eight portions.Divide the filling into 8 portions as well.

8 - Place the stack of leaves with the outer edge facing away from you. Spread a light coat of oil evenly over the leaf.

9 - Divide one portion of rice into two. Place this half potion of rice onto the lower center of the leaf and form into a 2"x3" rectangle. Place one portion of filling onto the rice, and place 1 half piece of egg yolk on filling. Place the remainder of rice portion on top of the filling. Press the layer gently together.

10 - Fold bottom end of leaf over the rice. Then fold over first the left then the right edges of the leaf over rice. Then roll up the rice packet to form a rectangular packet.

11 - Place seam side down in a steamer and steam for 20-35 minutes. (The book called for 15 minutes, but it was too short and the sauce and essence of the leaf had not permeated the rice).

Some notes: The recipe in the book used raw shrimp, but we decided to just use the dried shrimp we had on hand. The recipe did not use egg yolk, which I thought was odd. We've always had this with a quarter to a half egg yolk in it. The next time we may add some peanuts for texture, and maybe a scallop. But overall these tasted really good, and weren't that hard to make - just a "whole lotta soakin' going on.

Next Up, Shrimp and Chive Dumplings????

Comments

[Jo]

oh my gosh! Those look devine! I happen to like the lite "shmear" of stuffings though. Peanuts are and excellent "next up" addition. Chestnuts as well perhaps? I was also struck by the thought of roasted sweet red peppers. Just a strip or 2...

[Kathy]

Droool! Those look better than what you get at dim sum restaurants! I checked that book out from the Kaimuki library over the summer but didn't make anything from it. Looks like I'll have to check it out again when I go home in a few weeks.
Nice touch with the egg - no sticky rice is complete without the egg!

[Kirk]

Hi Jo - Yes, I think peanuts would add a nice texture. But sweet peppers might be a bit too sweet with the lup cheong, and the already slightly sweet glutinous rice......so don't really know.

Hi Kathy - Kaimuki Library, huh? I used to work there for a short period. It looks like the recipes from this book are pretty good, though adjustments have to be made.

[Kristy]

Great pics! Mmm...I'm drooling too! Had some dim sum the other day too! Yum! I just went to my first 99 Ranch Market the other day! Wow! Too bad it was just for a quick stop. Will definitely have to go back to stock up on some good eats. :)

[Angie]

That is very cool. Although it's one of my favorite dim sum dishes, I've never actually seen how those sticky rice bundles are made. And for some reason, I always thought they were wrapped in banana leaves. Nice post, good detailed photos. Yum.

[Jo]

Well, if you could find a "real" pimento (as in the varietal "pimenton)it would be an incredible foil with the sausage mushroom and pork. In Spanish cooking those flavors are frequently combined. Also, the short grained rice varieties used there tend to be a bit sweet as well, though not glutinous. In my mind, the REAL unknown would be the essence imposed by the lotus leaf. I think it would be fabulous, or at least worth a try. If you go for the pepper, they are not easy to track down but possible. I get mine at the Milk Pail and they are seasonal. Here is a link to a photo and description: http://www.chili-pepper-plants.com/html/sweet_peppers.html
These peppers should have very thick walls. IF you can locate them canned, imported from Spain, that would be a viable substitue.

[Robwonton]

Pan's favorite Dim Sum dish and you had to make it look easy to make. Seriously, Great job on this post. Will have to try it out sometime.

[Greg]

Glad to hear these turned out well. Looks like you guys did a nice job on them. Two questions: First, how long did it take you to make these? Second, how is that dim sum cookbook overall? I've yet to find a really good cookbook for dim sum items.

[Kirk]

Hi Kristy - 99 Ranch Maket can be fun, so long it's not super crowded - it can be almost relaxing in a way.

Hi Angie - Thank you though these were fairly easy to make.

Hi Jo - The fragrance of the lotus leaf is almost mildly "tea-like" in nature, leaves a similar taste.

Hi Rob - The recipe was much easier then I thought it would be.

Hi Greg - Thanks for visiting and the comment. Most of the time was taken up waiting for items to "soak", Actual cooking time was minimal - a few minutes to stir fry, 30 minutes or so to steam. And about 10 minutews to put together. We made adjustments to the recipe in the book, but I'm pretty sure that they would come out fine if you followed the recipe verbatim. We did have a bit of advantage because we understood the ingredients - though we had never made these before. This is about a 3 on a scale of 10 to make. We'll be trying other recipes from the book soon, I'm pretty confident they'll turn out good.

[clare eats]

OH!!! This looks so good! Vey exciting :) I will have to attempt them :)

[kirk]

Hi Clare - So nice to "hear" from you. This was a pretty easy dish to make, and very tasty as well.

[milgwimper]

Oh my my...*sigh* is this another cookbook I will have to add to my Christmas list to Santa??? Huh??? *sigh* this list keeps getting longer and longer. I have to say that usually I do not like the sticky rice and lotus leaves, but yours looks really good. I might have to try it, but I don't know when. The list of recipes to try is getting longer as I keep reading these blogs!

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

I like your take on this dim sum classic even though I enjoy mine "plain" (with just salted duck egg and pork, maybe a few peanuts). The dried shrimp can stay or go...I'm not too picky about it.

At the Taiwanese restaurant that I normally visit, they serve it with some kind of sauce, some grated ginger and some hot chilli sauce on the side. Yummy!

[Kirk]

Hi Mills - Another cookbook request for Santa, huh? :o)

Hi Reid - These at almost a 3/4 pound, are a whole meal in one.

[Lorraine]

Thanks for the photos of how to put the parts together in the leaf. I made mine just in a pot, tonight, without benefit of a leaf, as I had seen at a party recently, and that was good. I added some market roasted lemon-pepper chicken, walnuts and the shitaki mushrooms with a sauce of sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, white wine vinegar and a little water because it's what I had in the house. I would have put in chives which I usually have around, too. It tasted great, but, I know the leaf flavor makes it and I'm looking forward to doing it the traditional way.

[Kirk]

Hi Lorraine - Sounds good, sticky rice also makes a great stuffing.

[Jo]

Ya know, I forgot about this post? I've gotta get to my little stores and see if they have lotus leaves and lup cheong. I've been all about noodles lately and and adequate supply of shoya. Speaking of which, I can source Aloha shoya! How about that?!?!

[Kirk]

Hi Jo - Don't know about the Lup Cheong, but Lotus Leaf can be ordered and shipped...it'll keep ok.Aloha Shoyu, huh? That's a hoot....

[Annie]

this is a great post! love this stuff!

[Kirk]

Hi Annie - Thanks so much! Come to think of it we haven't made this in a while......