Lo Mai Gai is a savoury dish sold in Chinese dim sum restaurants. It is steamed glutinous or sticky rice topped with chicken, Shiitake mushroom and Chinese sausage slices. It usually comes in small metal bowls which is overturned onto a plate when brought to the customers in these restaurants. Nowadays, we do not have to patronise these dim sum restaurants to savour them. We are able to buy them from stalls selling Chinese buns which are usually located outside coffee shops. While these are delicious, we find them to be too oily. By cooking them ourselves (and it is easy to make them) we are able to reduce the amount of oil and salt and add more ingredients like the chicken, Shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage or lap cheong to make them even more delicious.
Ingredients:
- For the rice: (5 pax)
- 2 cups glutinous rice, soaked for at least 4 hours
- 5 shallots (or more), chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tbsp dried prawns (small size), soaked
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
- 1/2 cup water
- For the ingredients:
- 10 slices of chicken, either thigh or breast meat
- 2 pcs Shiitake mushroom, soaked and cut into 5 big or 10 smaller pieces
- 2-inch ginger, chopped and squeezed for the juice)
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
- 1 pc Chinese sausage, soak, remove casing and cut into 10 slices
- 1/2 cup water
- Garnishing
- 1 stalk green onion, cut into small pcs
Method:
- Wash and soak the glutinous rice for a minimum of 4 hours. (However, I prefer to soak them overnight so that it takes a shorter period to cook.)
- Marinate the chicken and mushroom with ginger juice, salt, 5-spice powder, sesame oil, light and dark soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine for at least 2 hours.
- Add cooking oil to a kuali. (I use only 3 tbsp but add more if you want a more oil Lo Mai Gai.)
- Fry the dried prawns till they are fragrant. Remove them and set aside.
- Saute the shallots and garlic till they are fragrant.
- Add the dried prawns back to the kuali.
- Add the glutinous rice and fry them.
- Add light and dark soy sauce, salt, 5-spice powder and pepper and continue to fry them till all are well-mixed. (You may add more dark soy sauce if you wish for the rice to be darker.)
- Stir-fry the rice for a few minutes till the rice is fragrant.
- Add 1/2 cup of water to the rice and continue to fry the rice till the water is absorbed.
- Meanwhile, fill a steamer with water and boil the water.
- Transfer the rice to a metal plate. Put the plate into the steamer to steam the rice till partially cooked, approximately 15 minutes.
- Taste the rice when done. Add more light soy sauce if you like it to be more salty.
- While the rice is being steamed, use the same kuali to fry the Chinese sausage slices till oil comes out. Remove the sausage slices without the oil and set them aside.
- Use the sausage oil to fry the chicken and mushroom slices. Add 1/2 cup of water to the kuali and fry them till they are cooked.
- To assemble, place 2 pieces of marinated chicken, 1-2 mushroom pieces (depending how you cut them (black part facing downward) and 2 pieces Chinese sausages on the base of the bowl. (My bowl measures 10.5 cm in diameter.)
- Scoop the glutinous rice into the bowl covering the ingredients.
- Spoon the remainder sauce from the chicken to the rice.
- Cover the bowl with aluminium foil to prevent water from getting into the rice during steaming. Take care not to let the foil touch the rice.
- Steam the rice for 30 minutes till it is fully cooked. Add more time if the rice is not fully cooked or you prefer a softer rice texture.
- It can be served hot or cold.
- Garnish with green onions before serving.
- Note: It can be frozen if you cannot finish them. Just take them out from the freezer and place on the table to return them to room temperature. Steam for a short period before serving them.