Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaves

Lotus leaf glutinous rice / glutinous rice or sticky rice in lotus leaves is one of my "must order" dim sum dish when I go Yum Cha or morning tea. I just happened to see the dried lotus leaves laying around in an Asian Groceries Shop when I go marketing at Box Hill Market. They are selling at AUD$4.50 for around 10 pieces. First time seeing this "real" lotus leaves, very excited! 

I swing into action of making a few big parcels of glutinous rice with lots of filling I love. I'm using my previous recipe (2 May 2012) for filling and glutinous rice with minor modifications. The rice for this glutinous rice is white in colour at Yum Cha in Singapore, so this round I will make my rice not dark in colour too. For those who love the rice to be in darker colour can just add 2 tbsp of dark soy sauce when you are frying the glutinous rice.

Because of some concerns on whether the wrapped glutinous rice is able to cook thoroughly just by steaming without any liquid contains in it, I have chosen to fry the glutinous rice to "half-cooked" condition. Sincerely, stir-fried the glutinous rice for that 20 mins was not an easy task. I think I'll built up arm muscle if I continuous stir-fried the rice until it is thoroughly cooked :D 

To me, I love my glutinous rice to be sticky therefore, the stir-fired process is a must, as I stir-fried the rice, I have to sprinkle some water. For that 20 mins, I think I have sprinkled around 400ml of water. 

 Dried lotus leaves

 Wrapping up ready for steaming

Ingredients: (make 5 big parcels)
1 stick of chinese sausage, sliced
25 stalks of small dried mushrooms, soaked
100g chicken breast fillet, sliced 
800ml glutinous rice, washed and soaked overnight.
5 pcs of lotus leaves, washed and soaked with hot water
100g dried shrimp, washed 


Seasoning for filling:
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil

Seasoning for glutinous rice
400ml water (for sprinkling the rice while frying)
3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp minced garlic
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

Method:
1. Preparing filling: Place sliced Chinese sausage, mushrooms, sliced chicken fillet together with seasoning for filling and marinade them overnight. 

2. Preparing the rice: In a hot wok, add cooking oil, and add minced garlic. stir-fried for 1 mins, add the dried shrimp. When the dried shrimp turned fragrant, add the glutinous rice and continuous to stir-fried for 3 mins, sprinkle some water (~100ml) on to the rice, continuous to stir-fried until the water dried out. Repeat to sprinkle another ~100ml of water on to the glutinous rice. Continuous to stir-fried the glutinous rice and sprinkle water on the rice for about 20 mins. At this stage, you can see the rice is nearly cooked. Add in the remaining seasoning for the rice.

3. Assemble: Place a piece of wet lotus leaf on a flat surface, scoop up some glutinous rice to the middle of the lotus leaf, add some filling on the top and cover it with some rice. Pour 1~2 tbsp of gravy from the filling to the rice. Wrap up the lotus leaf into a square parcel, tied it with hemp string. 

4. Steam the lotus leaves parcels in a preheat steamer for 45 mins or until the rice is cooked.