Carrying on the theme of attempting more Chinese recipes, as I am still waiting on the red rice wine to ferment further, I thought I would try and make one of my favourite dim sum dishes called Lo Mai Gai, or steamed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf with meat filling to give its fuller English translation.
The finished product...
Read on to see how I made them.
Firstly, gather all the ingredients. I have the following
- Dried lotus lily leaves
- Chicken wings and thighs. Best not to use chicken breast, but you could.
- Chinese mushrooms
- Bacon lardons or fatty pork
- Chinese sausage, lap cheong. Do not try to substitute with salami or smoked sausage
- I have salted duck yolks, but not necessary
- Glutinous rice
- Garlic, minced
- Ginger, grated
- other bits you need are sesame oil, light soya sauce, salt and oyster sauce if available
- and cornflour mixed with water to thicken the sauce later
First thing to do is to soak the glutinous rice for 6 hours. Then steam for 20 minutes until cooked and then leave to cool. When the rice is cooked, spread out in a big bowl and pour a mixture of sesame oil and light soya sauce over it. Mix and then leave to cool.
If you are using dried Chinese mushrooms (recommended) then steep them in hot water, not boiling, for 20 minutes and rinse thoroughly. Cut the thick stalks off and then slice.
At the appropriate time, slice the Chinese sausage into diagonals cuts. Chop through the chicken pieces and bones. This is more authentic than boring chicken breast.
Have all the ingredients at hand. Heat a wok up.
Stir fry the chicken for a couple of minutes, add the ginger and garlic to taste, then the lardons or fatty pork bits. Continue to stir fry for a minute and then add the mushrooms and Chinese sausage. Cook further then add soya sauce and oyster sauce to taste. Then thicken the sauce with the cornflour mix.
Next, you need to heat a large pan or wok of water. Then gently slide a lotus leaf into it and simmer to soften it. I ended up with a few in the pan at once, which was OK.
Get ready to get sticky, or you could grab a glove Michael Jackson stylee. Shamon!
Cut the thick central stem of the leaf. Depending on the size you may be able to get four wrappings out from one leaf. I just halved one but that was too big and a bit of a waste in the end.
Lay the leaf down, smooth side up, spread a bit of the rice out first, add the filling on top and then more rice to finish the top off. Now tightly wrap.
Depending on how large you like to make them, you may need to tie them up.
The photo of the finished batch was the first time I have made them. They were too loose when wrapped but tastes pretty good.
