On occasions when it is necessary for me to go on for a few days without eating rice, like going on a retreat, the first thing I’d do when I get home is to hit my rice cooker.
The rice cooker is really my good friend. I have gone through a number of different rice cookers in my life time and this latest one I own is a special kind made in China. The inner pot is made of clay/stone, whereas if you buy a more regular kind in places like Bed Bath or Costco, the inner pot is usually made of aluminum or alloy of the likes.
Do you know you can use the rice cooker to cook different things? You can use it like an electric cooker. Say if you just add some hot water, after it is boiled, you can use it to cook ramen noodles. That’s what a lot of college students do. You can use it like a steamer and steam food right on top of the rice, or steam other food with the attachment that is provided by the rice cooker. My current rice cooker also comes with an attachment for you to steam a sponge cake – which I have never tried yet.
Today, let’s talk about how you can cook sticky rice. Now, if you don’t have a rice cooker, you can use stove top, or you can use a steamer.
Before cooking, you have to soak some Chinese dried mushroom, at least for a few hours, if not overnight. Cut off the stem before you soak them. An hour or so before the cooking time, also soak some dried shrimp with hot water to make them soft. The other two ingredients are lean Chinese sausage and scallions. (See picture) You can get all these from any Chinese grocery store. Finely diced all these ingredients, as shown in the other picture.
Prepare the rice: I usually do half and half – half regular rice and half sticky rice (glutinous rice). Say if you use two cups of rice, then add two cups of sticky rice. Following the direction of your rice cooker as to how much water to use to cook the rice.
You can use all sticky rice, but that makes the texture really sticky and rather difficult to handle. It is all up to you. I find the mix of half and half just right for me.
My rice cooker has a feature to beep when the water of the rice starts boiling, that is the time for you to add the mushroom, dried shrimp and sausage. If yours does not have the beep, or you are using stove top, watch when the water of the rice brings to a boil and add these ingredients.
After the rice cooker has done its job, let’s wait for at least 10 to 15 more minutes before you open the lid. That way, you can be assured that all ingredients are nicely cooked and steamed through.
Add the scallions, then add some sesame oil, soya sauce and white pepper to taste. Mix all these real nice with the rice ladle or wooden spoon, or both. The mixing is quite a work out, so be patient.
Junior and Senior both love a lot of soya sauce and they usually do that after they scoop the rice to their own bowls. I personally prefer milder taste.
Sticky rice is a pretty popular dish if you go to Chinese Dim Sum (see my earlier post titled “Drinking Tea, Touching Heart”). It may come wrapped in lotus leaves, or come in a stir-fried style. The wrapped kind would taste similar to mine, soft and easy to consume. The rice in the stir-fried style is much harder and more difficult to digest. I can never eat too much of that.
This is another one of my favorite home style dish. I tried a few times using this prepared sticky rice to substitute turkey stuffing. The rice tasted so good after absorbing all the fats and juices from the turkey, it was heavenly!
No comments:
Post a Comment