Stuck on Sticky Rice (Gnaw Mai Fan)
When the holidays roll around and the feasting begins, you can find me eyeing the array of side dishes on the table. Yep, scoop me some sweet potatoes, pour on the creamed spinach, and pile high the mashed potatoes. While everyone oohs and ahs over the turkey, I’ll be laser focused on the sides, like the STUFFING. I adore stuffing, especially my mom’s bread stuffing, but my second favorite is a Chinese rice dish. It’s called Gnaw Mai Fan. Sounds delicious right? No? Also known as Sticky Rice Dressing, it is the Asian contribution to the Thanksgiving table.
You start with sweet (glutinous) rice, add fragrant shiitake mushrooms, sweet & salty Chinese sausage aka Lop Cheung, dried shrimp, and finish with a generous amount of green onions. Sounds easy right? It is, but the hurdle is getting the ingredients, unless you have an Asian market nearby.
Primer for Sweet Rice Dressing
Moving from left to right; long-grain rice, green onions, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage, and dried shiitake or black mushrooms. Behind the mushrooms is the short grain sweet rice (or glutinous rice) and in the back are bottles of oyster sauce and soy sauce used to season the rice. Yep, two kinds of rice. I mix the glutinous rice with regular long-grain rice to lighten the rice mixture. All of these ingredients can be found in most Asian markets. The dried shrimp and sausage can be found in the refrigerator case. Sauces to use? the following two are key. I swear by Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce and Lee Kum Kee’s Premium Soy Sauce are my go-tos, but Pearl Ridge and the Korean brand Sempio 501 are good too.
Soak, Soak, Baby
Soak the dried mushrooms and shrimp in warm water for approximately 15 minutes or until soft. Drain and reserve the soaking water from the mushrooms and shrimp. Wash your long grain rice and drain. Add the glutinous rice and long grain to your rice cooker. Yes, your rice cooker. I have absolutely no idea how to cook rice in anything else but a rice cooker (use the measuring cups that come with your rice cooker). Strain and add reserved liquid from mushrooms and shrimp to the pot, add chicken broth to make up the difference. Place Chinese sausage on top of the rice and turn on the rice cooker.
Prep the other ingredients while the rice is cooking. Optional additions include ground seasoned pork, char siu (bbq pork), bacon, and roasted chestnuts. It’s your rice dish, go crazy. I usually add seasoned ground pork or chicken.
In a pickle, I have used Japanese short-grain or sushi rice in place of the glutinous and long grain rice combination. Shhh, don’t tell my Mom! My kid has made this for his Friendsgiving celebration to rave reviews.
This dressing works well as stuffing for turkey or chicken, use it just like any bread stuffing. If served on the side, add the pan drippings to the rice for a flavor boost.
Garnish with cilantro and scallions.
And It’s Gluten Free!
Gnaw Mai Fan-Chinese Sweet Rice Stuffing
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 cups long grain rice using the rice cooker mesuring cup
- 2 cups sweet rice using the rice cooker measuring cup
- 4 lop cheung steamed with rice, removed and diced
- 1/2 cup char siu (bbq pork) Reduce lop cheung to 3 and substitute diced barbecue pork
- 4 dried black mushrooms (shitake mushrooms) soaked in warm water until soft, diced, reserve soaking liquid (use 1-1.5 cups of water)
- 1/4 cup small dried shrimp soaked in warm water with black mushrooms
- 2 slices fresh ginger size of a quarter
- 3-4 cups chicken stock you can use commercial low sodium chicken broth
- 3 green onions chopped
Ground pork and marinade
- 1/3 cup ground pork or chicken
- 1 tsp each sherry, oyster sauce, soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 pinch white pepper
- 1 slice ginger
Seasonings
- 1-2 Tbsp Soy Sauce Premium LKK Chinese Soy Sauce or Korean Soy Sauce (Sempio)
- 1-2 Tbsp Oyster sauce Lee Kum Kee brand-Lady, boy in boat label
Garnish
- Cilantro
- Green onion
Instructions
- Cook rice in rice cooker with reserved soaking liquid from mushrooms and shrimp and chicken broth.
- Marinade ground pork for 10-15 minutes.
- Heat pan, add 1 T oil, when hot, add ginger and fry 30 seconds, add drained dried shrimp and 1 t water, sauté 30 seconds then add ground pork, saute just until pork is no longer pink.
- Add mushrooms and lop cheung. Sauté additional minute or two.
- Add green onions, saute' another 30 seconds and remove from heat.
- Pour rice into large mixing bowl. Fold in sautéed ingredients, mix soy sauce and oyster sauce together and add to rice. You will probably need more, just use a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce to oyster sauce.
- Mix thoroughly.
