Recipe: Rice Cooker Chinese Sticky Rice

Your rice cooker can be used for more than just plain white rice. This comforting dish makes for ideal eating these days, when Hong Kong seems to be unseasonably colder and greyer than usual.

Serves: 10

Prep time: 2+ hours (2 hours for soaking)

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Thai glutinous rice
• 2–3 medium-sized dried shiitake mushrooms
• 2 Chinese sausages
• 225g pork mince
• 115g shrimp (about 12 medium-sized shrimp)
• 1¼ cups hot water
• chopped spring onion, to garnish (optional)

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari)
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced or grated
• ½ tsp tapioca starch (or cornflour)
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp white pepper

Method:

Soaking:

1. Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl with the hot water and let soak for at least 2 hours, until softened.
2. Run cold water through the rice in a strainer. Stir the rice with your hands to wash and rinse it well, until the water is mostly clear.
3. Soak the rice in a bowl of water for at least 2 hours.

When ready to cook:

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and mix well. Set aside.
2. Drain the rice through a colander, discarding the water.
3. Remove the mushrooms from the soaking liquid and gently squeeze out some of the water. Cut into slices or chunks.
4. Slice the Chinese sausages into discs.
5. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add the Chinese sausages and pork mince and cook until the pork is mostly cooked through.
6. Add the mushrooms and sauce to the pan and stir. Heat through.
7. Add the shrimp and cook until just starting to turn pink.
8. Transfer the Chinese sausage mixture to your rice cooker pot and level off.
9. Add the drained rice on top and level off.
10. Add hot water to the rice cooker.
11. Cook until the rice cooker button pops, about 25 minutes. The rice should be completely cooked and slightly translucent.
12. Fluff the rice with chopsticks, stirring well to mix the rice and ingredients.
13. Garnish with chopped spring onion, if desired.

Recipe notes:

• The longer you soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, the better so that you can very easily slice into them and not see any dry areas inside. Soaking overnight is the easiest thing to do. I find larger shiitake mushrooms tend to hydrate faster than small ones, but they do cost more. The mushrooms can be omitted, if desired.
• When buying rice for this recipe, the bag will either say “Thai glutinous rice” or “Thai sweet rice” (or the word “Thai” might be excluded).
• Use a regular 1 cup measure to measure the rice; do not use the plastic measuring cup that normally comes with rice cookers.
• Some Chinese sausages have a dry casing that should be removed before slicing, depending on the brand and how they were made.
• You can use chicken thighs cut into small pieces or BBQ pork in place of the Chinese sausage and/or shrimp.
• For detailed instructions – with images – on how to make this recipe, check out the recipe on my website.

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