Clay Pot Sticky Rice

Remember when I cooked Claypot Chicken with Mushroom ? I've been so eager to whip up another one of my favorite claypot dish - Claypot Sticky Rice. After drooling over Lyrical's "Claypot Chicken Rice", Precious Pea's "Lor Mai Gai" ( Sticky Rice with Chicken ), and WMW's Sticky Rice Feast, I screamed to myself, "I've got to have them all !" Oh well, since I only have two hands, I guess I'll stick to what I had originally planned on - Claypot Sticky Rice. Luckily I already have most of the ingredients I needed at home. Some leftover peanuts from my last peanut soup dish, chicken, dried shrimp, dried chinese mushroom, and wood ear mushroom (I enjoy the crunchiness so I tend to use it in any dish I can). All I needed from the Asian grocery store were just the glutinous rice and some quail's eggs.

There are numerous popular glutinous rice dishes in Asia. In Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Burma, glutinous rice is commonly used to make sweet savory desserts such as Durian/Mango sticky rice steamed with coconut milk and black sticky rice pudding. In Chinese dim sum, it is stuffed with meat, chestnuts and salted eggs, wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed. In Japan, it is used to make you see mochi, and in Korea and Shanghai, sticky rice cakes.

Sticky Rice aka glutinous rice or labeled as sweet rice comes in different grains - short, long, round and black, and it is usually soaked for hours before cooking to yield a sticky, chewy texture. The glutinous rice resembles the Arborio, Carnaroli Rissoto because they do exude more starch when cooked, becoming sticky, with one exception - glutinous sweet sticky rice is actually gluten-free.

Claypot Sticky Rice Recipe

Ingredients :
4 pc dried chestnuts ( skinless )
10 oz dried peanuts ( soaked and rinsed )
3 oz dried shrimps ( soaked and chopped )
1/2 a can of cooked quail eggs
4 oz wood ear mushroom ( soaked and shredded )
12 oz dried chinese mushroom ( soaked and shredded )
3 chicken drumsticks
chopped green onions
fried shallots
sesame oil
oyster sauce
thick sweet soy sauce to taste
thick black soy sauce for taste & color ( optional )
white pepper
salt to taste
chinese cooking wine
3 cups glutinous rice ( OR labeled as Sweet Rice )

Method :
1) Soak glutinous rice in water overnight ( or 12 hours ).
2) In a crock pot, boil peanuts and chestnuts in enough water to just cover them for 1-2 hours OR until soft.
3) In a wok, stir-fry green onions, dried shrimp, dried mushroom, and wood ear mushroom until fragrant.
4) Cut chicken drumsticks into smaller pieces and marinate with a dash of sesame oil, fried shallots, oyster sauce, and a splash of chinese cooking wine. Refrigerate for 30 minutes ( preferably overnight ).
5) Pan fry chicken until slightly browned on both sides. Add ingredients from Step (3). Stir-fry for 1 minute, add water ( enough to cook the sticky rice later ), white pepper, sesame oil, thick sweet soy sauce, thick black soy sauce, fried shallots, chinese cooking wine, and salt to taste. When the broth starts to boil, turn to low heat, cover, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes OR until chicken is done.
6) Remove chicken, debone and cut into bite size chunks.
7) Strain the broth to cook the glutinous rice with.
8) Rub some cooking spray all over the inside of a claypot, put in glutinous rice and pour in broth ( covering 1/4 inch above rice ), cover, and cook to a boil. Turn to low heat and cook for 5-10 minutes.
9) Remove cover. Use a fork to fluff the rice around. Check the texture of the rice. Add more broth if needed and continue to cook on low heat for another 5 minutes.
10) Add all the cooked ingredients and quail's eggs in. Stir until rice and ingredients are evenly mixed and simmer on low heat for another 5 minutes or until rice is done.

My Buddha's Feast, A Lotus Root Stir Fry

Traditionally, Buddha's Feast or Buddha's Delight is a vegetarian dish served on the very first day of Chinese New Year. The use of vegetables signify purity, therefore no meat or seafood is eaten on the first and fifteenth day of the New Year celebration and no animals are killed on those two days.

During Chinese New Year, using shitake mushroom symbolizes the welcoming of Spring and the calling of opportunities in life, whereas using water chestnuts signify unity. The one mushroom I enjoy the most is the Bunashumeiji mushrooms. It adds a really sweet, smoky, mushroomy flavor to the dish.

Since today isn't the first or the fifteenth day of the New Year, I have tweaked my Buddha's Delight recipe using Chinese waxed sausage and lotus root. In the Chinese New Year tradition, cooking with lotus roots also carries the meaning of bonding and strong family ties. You can also find lotus root candies in many boxed candied fruit trays sold at Asian markets. Lotus root may enhance the sweetness of soups but after all the boiling, it ends up a little soggy and tasteless. Stir frying, on the other hand, preserves the crunchy texture and the sweetness of the lotus root for a really satisfying end result.

Chinese sausages and other waxed meats like duck or bacon are also prevalent in many Chinese New Year festive foods. The rose wine flavor preserved in the chinese sausage is really brought out and adds a mildly intoxicating aroma to any stir fry or clay pot dish.

Lotus Root Stir Fry Recipe

Ingredients :
1 piece lotus root, sliced
2 links of chinese duck liver sausage, sliced ( OR regular chinese sausage )
1 bunch bunashimeiji mushroom
chinese shitake mushroom, shredded
3 water chestnuts, peeled and sliced
green onions, shredded
sesame oil
white pepper
shaoxing cooking wine
2 tbsp oyster sauce
sugar and salt to taste

Method :

1) Cook chinese sausage in microwave on high for 2 minutes, and then set aside.
2) Stir fry the the green onions and mushroom until fragrant. Toss in the sliced lotus root and water chesnuts. Continue stir frying for 2 minutes.
3) Dash in some sesame oil, white pepper, oyster sauce, and cooking wine. Stir fry for 1 minute and add the sliced chinese sausage, sugar and salt to taste. Mix well and continue stir frying for an additional 2 minutes OR until cooked.

Claypot Chicken And Mushrooms

I was recently fortunate enough to pick up a clay pot for only USD $2.99 at one of the many popular "99 Ranch" Asian grocery stores here in Southern California. Since then, my regular pots have been collecting dust in the sidelines. My tastebuds, on the other hand, aren't complaining about the more tender and flavorful dishes produced with my new "toy".

Clay pot cooking is very much like a steaming process. Before cooking, soak the clay pot in water for about 15 minutes. That way, the water that's absorbed in the clay is released as steam during the cooking process, thus sealing the juices of the dish inside the clay pot while keeping any meat moist and tender.

Clay Pot Rice and Clay Pot Noodles are two of the more popular clay pot recipes in the Cantonese cuisine. I can't wait to whip both of them up anytime soon. But for today, since I'm short on Chinese sausage and salted fish, I'm going to stick with one of my mom's that I enjoyed growing up - Clay Pot Chicken and Mushroom recipe.

Other than shitake mushroom, I'm also going to use some "cloud ear" mushroom that I've been saving for this dish. The shitake mushroom is for the flavor whereas the "cloud ear" mushroom is for that interesting crunchy texture that I enjoy. The "cloud ear" mushroom may also be substituted with it's thicker cousin, the "wood ear" mushroom, like the ones you might find in hot and sour soups.

A final word on the clay pot before I move on to the recipe. Dish-washing detergent should not be used to clean them because it will absorb into the clay. I've read that scrubbing them with salt is the preferred cleaning method.

Clay Pot Chicken and Mushroom Recipe

Ingredients :
1 whole chicken ( about 2 lbs, cut into serving pieces )
green onion strips
ginger strips
3 tbsp shaoxing hua tiao wine ( OR any other chinese cooking wine )
cloud ear mushroom ( soaked and cut )
shitake mushroom ( soaked and sliced )
4 tbsp oyster sauce
white pepper
sesame oil
cornstarch solution
sugar and salt to taste

Method :

1) Saute the ginger, green onion, cloud ear and shitake mushroom in the clay pot until fragrant.
2) Add the chicken in, pan fry the chicken pieces on both sides until lightly browned.
3) Mix in the oyster sauce, chinese cooking wine, white pepper, sesame oil and water. ( up to your preference on how saucy you like it to be )
4) Cover the clay pot, and cook on medium-low heat for an additional 20 minutes.
5) Add sugar and salt to taste, cornstarch solution to thicken the gravy and mix well.

Asian Mushrooms Stir Fry Beef

Unlike the cremini or porcini mushroom, this particular Asian mushroom is exotic. I found is only available between winter and spring. I was ecstatic upon rediscovering this navel-like mushroom over the weekend. I spoke to this elderly man who was just as enthusiastic picking out the good ones and learn a thing or two. He suggested choosing the rounder looking ones and to prepare them for cooking by cutting off the root and the tip. After that, to peel and smash them with the palm of your hand. What suits the Asian mushroom recipe, I asked. He told me that in most Cantonese cuisine, the best recipe for these exotic mushrooms is cooking them in a soup, a simple mushroom stir fry with spicy pork, OR a "teppanyaki" (iron grilled) mushroom beef.

I must admit it does not have the shitake mushroom aroma that I prefer. It tastes more like waterchesnut but not as crunchy, but is definitely a far cry from the spongy-textured King Oyster Mushrooms. And yes, it does add a mild mushroom flavor to your cooking if that's what you are looking for.

In the Cantonese dialect, these exotic Asian mushrooms are known as "Chi Goo", which literally translates to "belly-button mushroom" or "navel mushroom". I may be mistaken but I have searched high and low for it's english name to no avail. If you have any information on it, please let me know.

Anyway, I have decided to experiment these exotic Asian mushrooms in a Mongolian style stir fry with my favorite part of beef and a strong hint of black pepper.

Ingredients :
6 exotic mushrooms peeled and sliced
1 lb. of sliced beef flap meat ( I prefer using beef flap meat because it cooks faster and is tender and flavorful )
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp mushroom soy sauce ( OR soy sauce )
green onion strips
white pepper
black pepper
sesame oil
sherry cooking wine ( OR other cooking wine )
cornstarch solution

Method :
1) Season the meat with white pepper, black pepper, oyster sauce and sesame oil, then set aside.
2) Heat wok, saute the green onions and mushroom till fragrant, add the seasoned beef, stir fry briskly until beef is slightly browned.
3) Splash in some mushroom soy sauce and cooking wine and continue stir frying until the sauce starts to bubble.
4) Stir in the cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce. Cover wok and let simmer for 2 minutes.