I've been meaning to post about the glutinous rice with chicken meal I made a while ago. Today I saw a community called Food & Culture run by @akipponn, and figured this would be the perfect home for my post.
Culture background
Glutinous rice chicken or lo mai gai can normally be found on the dim sum menu at Chinese restaurants. Dim sum is a big part of Cantonese culture, particularly in Hong Kong. You can think of dim sum as Spanish tapas, little plates of food. That's why you normally have dim sum at a restaurant. It's normally eaten as breakfast particularly the elders who like to meet up with friends, or lunch gathering, but very rarely for dinner. Having dim sum is a great way to gather with friends and family and enjoy great food. I wrote this post about a dim sum meal I had with my family last Christmas.
Food background
Lo mai is glutinous rice, gai is chicken, and this is wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed. If you're a vegetarian, don't run away yet, because I will tell you how you can make a plant based version.
These are the ingredients I used to make my lo mai gai. Glutinous rice and chicken on the left. You can use any part of the chicken meat you like. Then we have dried scallops in the jar, dried mushrooms below it, both are Chinese delicacy and have an intense flavour. The packet below is Chinese preserved sausage. And finally I have some dried lotus leaves on the right to wrap the filling. For a vegetarian version, you can replace the chicken with chestnuts, bamboo shoots, porcini, hard tofu or anything that doesn't mush easily.
First I deboned and deskinned the chicken, and cut it into bite size cubes. Then I marinated them. I rehydrated the scallops and dried mushrooms, kept the water from rehydration, and cut them in bite size as well.
I soaked 400g of rice for a couple of hours then lined them on a piece of cloth and steamed it for an hour to par cook it.
The lotus leaves were a little difficult to rehydrate as they are very big and brittle. I had to slowly submerge it in a bowl of warm water taking care they don't break. Once they were soft enough I gently folded them and let them soak a little longer.
I steamed the Chinese sausage and sliced them into six pieces. Then I cooked the chicken and dried scallops and mushroom, using the water I saved to make a heavy gravy. This is essential so the gravy doesn't leak later on.
You can see the texture is quite gooey here.
And finally I added two tablespoons each of oil, oyster sauce and light soy sauce to 100ml of water. I mix this into the glutinous rice to make it less sticky, and add some flavour and colouring to it.
And that's all the food preparation done. It takes a while, but I enjoy making my own food.
Now comes the fun part, wrapping the filling in the lotus leaf. Each lotus leaf is very large. I cut it into two halves and also cut off the centre hard bit.
First, I put a layer of rice on the leaf. It's a little messy as the rice keeps on sticking on my hand. Next I scope some chicken filling in top. Since it's quite gooey, it sits on top nicely.
Then I added another layer of rice in top. After a few attempts I found it was much easier to mould the rice in a plastic bag and I could just slap it neatly on top.
And finally I wrap it up in a little parcel. I double wrapped it using the othe half of the lotus leaf. This is to make sure the leaf doesn't break and it intensifies the aroma.
I ended with 4 lo mai gai with my 400g of rice. Each one was quite heavy and is a full meal in itself. You can make mini ones as well, just put less filling inside. That's what restaurants normally serve as people order a lot of different dim sum, and you don't want each dim sum to be too filling.
All the filling is already cooked, I only need to steam them for 30 minutes again. This is enough time for the lotus leaf aroma to gently infuse into the rice from the outside, and for the thick gravy from the filling inside to flavor the rice.
As I unwrap the piping hot lo mai gai, it lay there like a little baby cushioned by the lotus leaf. The aroma gently wafted out, it was so inviting. And it tasted so good.
What an excellent write-up!!! I had something similar with a friend in Iraq, his mom made it. Well, similar I suppose in this case is relative…it was a dish of meat and rice wrapped in a leaf and steamed, but the meat was lamb and the exterior was a grape leaf. It as phenomenal! This looks equally delicious!
Isn't it interesting how different cultures have similar food? Was the Iranian version smaller, coz grape leaves are quite small. And I can imagine the lamb flavour would be quite intense, maybe I should try make that
It was! They were about the size of a thumb, if memory serves me.
Yes, 100%, it is so interesting to see how cultures around the world, seemingly independent of one another, have managed to develop solutions that are so structurally and conceptually similar!
Looks delicious! I once knew a guy who said if I ever marry a Chinese or Mexican woman I am going to gain 200 pounds. I guess he was assuming she would know how to cook! This turned out amazing and I learned some new words today, so pretty awesome as far as I am concerned!
Haha! Chinese cooking can be very unhealthy, but most dishes are very easy to make, you just chuck everything in the wok and stir fry it!!
Yes, that is a good point!
That recipe looks delicious. Its ingredients are exotic for traditional Cuban cuisine and finding some of them would be very difficult if not impossible, but it would be a good experience to make it and eat it.
The ingredients are very local Chinese and may not be readily available even in many western countries, but they're what gives the filling the intense flavour. Maybe you can adapt it with local ingredients to make the filling and do a Cuban version. That would be very interesting
Interesting suggestion 🤔 I will try to do it. Nice day 🤗
It sounds delicious I'll have to look for this on the menu at some legitimate spots. I like how you have to unwrap it. A gift 🎁 for the grumbling tummy, hehe.
Haha! I love that, a gift for the grumbling tummy! Many big Chinese restaurants that does dim sum would have them on the menu. It's not as popular as other dim sum dishes because even the mini ones are quite filling, and after you had one you might be a little full and can't eat much other food
It looks really good. Definitely specific to culture! A bit of prep but as you say it's really satisfying to do food from scratch. Thanks for sharing.
I find making my own meals very satisfying , am trying to make more stuff from scratch nowadays since I have a lot of time on hand
Yes me too. Following elaborate recipes a bit beyond me currently. . It's hard to think. Burning pizza, making curry too hot...sigh.
Cut yourself some slack, it would be weird if you can continue life as normal so soon as if nothing had happened. Grieving is good just move on when be you're ready
Without a doubt I'll try it! Although does this work with normal rice? It should right?
It should, but the texture will be a bit different because normal rice isn't so sticky. When you unwrap it, the whole thing may fall apart, giving a slightly different experience, but the flavour will still be there.
Mehhhhh that'll be okay, I'm sure the Betty will get a nice alternative for the rice though... I know you get some pasta rice stuff aswell... might go good with that?
That looks delicious!
It was, and very feeling as well, I was so full after dinner that evening
This looks intriguing. Is the lotus leaf also eaten, as a leafy vegetable? Or does it mostly suffice as a wrapper, like a corn husk does for tamales?
The lotus leaf is quite tough and bitter it's just used as a wrapper. And the parcel itself is quite filling, you wouldn't be able to eat much afterwards 😋
Yum @livinguktaiwan, I want to make this, it sounds delicious! You are quite the cook, hiding your talents from us😉
I'm so glad you discovered this new community, I often want to talk about cultural food that's not quite a fit for Foodies Bee Hive, this community will be the perfect place.
I'm very keen to try making this, clever to mold the rice in the bag! One could use that trick in other dishes as well.
Thank you for sharing, I hope I can find these ingredients. Can one use fresh lotus leaves?
Good question about fresh lotus leaves 🤔 I don't know if they're not used because they're not readily available or if they don't give the same aroma, or if they don't steam so well and will break down
I think the concept of this community is very good. We are a diverse community here, and many are connected through our love of food, it would be lovely to learn about the culture and story behind the food and well.
I'm looking forward to sharing some of our traditional food.
It must be down to availability and flavour. I'd have to rob the Botanic Gardens to get fresh leaves, and likely get arrested, so I'll put that idea to rest😅
Wow thank you for your post @livingtaiwanuk! I thought about making similar dish recently as I consider it more for cold season. I didn’t know it’s wrapped with lotus leaf. We use bamboo leaves in Japan and was wondering what to use in Germany.
I would like to be a granny making them for friends and family for gathering in the morning. I like the idea of morning gathering. It’s really nice to read how it’s eaten 😊
We use bamboo leaves as well to make another type of meal also with rice, but a different filling inside and wrapped in a different shape. I wonder how different that is from the Japanese one.
Thanks for a great community concept, but could you give it some identity please 😁
So much effort. I appreciate that i can find this at many places around me.
When I was living in Hong Kong I never made any of the stuff I make now, everything was so easily available. Next I need to learn make Hainese Chicken rice, I had one of the best one in Singapore 😋
Haha, chicken rice too readily available here.
That's another one with quite a lot of work, especially if you do the chili sauce and ginger sauce.
Look at you Gordon Ramsey, very cheffy!
Please don't tell me you ate all four!
Haha! They're safely stocked up in my freezer. I did make more smaller ones the next day as I still had lots of chicken filling and two pieces of lotus leaf leftover
Oh well always handy in the freezer,
Something we Asians and Venezuelans have in common is that we love rice, or at least I love it, although I don't eat so much anymore because in Poland they eat more potatoes, but every once in a while I make myself a nice rice. This recipe looks delicious! And I would enjoy it very much ❤️
You must miss Venezuelan food a lot. Hopefully you can find enough ingredients in Poland to make some local dishes so Olivia can learn about the other half of her culture
Yes I miss it a lot, especially the soft and delicious bread, in Poland they sell such hard ones hahaha and yes, sometimes I get some ingredients and prepare them at home, but for some reason it doesn't taste the same as in Venezuela so I can't wait to go back to eat everything there hahaha.
It looks delicious and is truly a full meal.
They turned out bigger than than expected bad I forgot the rice expands when they're steamed 😅
Hahaha it happens 🤣
As long as they are yummy 😋
Enjoy your Friday!
Wow, that's a lot of rice. Looks great!
And chicken 😅😆
The chicken was very tasty , couldn't resist 😄
I went a little heavy handed on the rice, 😅. The next batch I made were smaller, more like lunch size rather than dinner size
Congratulations @livinguktaiwan! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 52000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
We have our own version of this in the Philippines too, Pauline. It's called Pastil. Instead of lotus leaf we use banana leaves and the meat could either be beef, chicken or pork. Others have eggs. :)
This looks so goood!!
I think I've seen some of you eat it in your posts, seems like a popular dish!!
Wow.. you know how to make it . It's quite expensive in HK . But I like it...
!PIZZA
Everything seems to be quite expensive nowadays, that's why it's cheaper to make it myself
Yeah true... I want to try this here too to let my family taste it..
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@jane1289(1/5) tipped @livinguktaiwan
Seems so appetizing and you also did great work with the wrap, I would definitely try that dish!😁
Thank you for sharing the recipe with us!
I hear you have something similar in Greece wrapped in grape leaves as well?
Yeah we have a similar dish called "dolmadakia", but it stuffed with rice and herbs only!
Hmmm... This variation of the rice dish is indeed a delicacy.