Sticky Rice Recipe Chinese style

My early memories of celebrating Thanksgiving at our house include my uncle Sem bringing roast duck*, char siu** and shrimp, prepared at his Fortune Cooky Chinese restaurant. The grown-ups' opinion of American style roast turkey was not so high. Why would you want to eat such a big bird with that dry, tasteless white meat? My mom made sticky rice as a side dish, sort of like a rice stuffing, to go with the duck. Sticky rice is a main ingredient in "Eight Treasure Sticky Rice", a sweet dish traditionally eaten at Chinese New Year banquets. Eventually my collective family learned how to make a proper traditional turkey, Stove Top stuffing, etc., for Thanksgiving, but this sticky rice dish remains a most delicious accompaniment to the turkey.






*Chinese style roast duck, the kind you see hanging in the shop windows by their necks in Chinatowns



**Chinese style barbequed roast pork



Ingredients for Sticky Rice


ingredients are available at Asian markets





•3 cups sticky rice (also called sweet rice or glutinous rice)

•6 medium dried shitake mushrooms



•4 Chinese sausages, diced (also called lop chung)

•1/4 cup dried shrimp

•1/2 cup cooked diced chicken, pork or char-siu (Chinese barbeque pork), optional

•3 whole scallions, chopped

•3-6 sprigs cilantro (also called Chinese parsley), to taste

•2 tablespoons light soy sauce

•2 teaspoons oyster sauce

•1 teaspoon sesame oil



Cooking Instructions

•Soak the dried mushrooms in 1 cup warm water until soft, about 30 mins.



•Soak the dried shrimp in 1/2 cup warm water until soft, about 30 mins.



•Soak the rice in plenty of warm water for 2 hours in a rice cooker bowl.



•Dice the sausages and chicken (or pork)

•Chop up the scallions and cilantro

•Squeeze the excess water from the mushrooms and save it in the soaking bowl. Cut off any tough stems. Dice the mushrooms.

•Remove the shrimp from the soaking bowl and reserve the soaking water. Chop the shrimp finely.

•In a skillet, stir fry the sausages until the fatty parts turn from white to clear. Add the diced chicken or pork, then the mushrooms, then the dried shrimp until all ingredients are mixed well and heated through.

•In the rice cooker, drain the soaking water from the rice. Combine the soaking liquid from the mushrooms and the shrimp with water to make 2 cups total. Add this water to the rice, then steam the rice until soft.

•Combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Add this mixture to the steamed rice and stir until combined.



•Add the stir fried ingredients to the rice and mix well. Stir in the scallions and cilantro.

•Serve in a big serving bowl. Keep covered to prevent rice from drying out. Leftovers freeze well; just reheat in microwave.



This rice is also delicious when rolled up like sushi with a sheet of sushi nori (dried seaweed). Yum!