My favorite dish at Thanksgiving, excluding dessert, is dressing. I adore bread stuffing. My Mom’s version is delicious. It’s a pretty traditional bread dressing with the one Asian tweak of dried oysters added to it. I asked my mom to write her recipe down…and she did! Thank goodness, since she rarely cooked from recipes and relied on the look, taste, adjust method.
As much as I love her bread stuffing, I never get to make it! I am immediately “voted off the island” if I suggest anything but the Chinese contribution to Turkey Day-Sweet Rice Stuffing or Gnaw Mai Fan. My fam LOVES Sweet Rice Stuffing and it just wouldn’t feel right if it were missing from the Thanksgiving table.
My oldest lives in the city and has started his own tradition of having Friendsgiving with his co-workers. I made a batch of Sticky Rice (recipe here!), walked him through roasting the turkey and the rest was up to him.
TWEAKS
I’m not a big fan of super sticky rice so I use a combination of 50% long grain rice and 50% glutinous sweet (sticky) rice. But if you like sticky rice change the proportions to 3 cups glutinous rice and 1 cup long grain.
If you are feeling ambitious, here is a quick and easy recipe for the char siu (bbq pork) It adds a touch of sweetness to the rice.
This would be a perfect gluten-free choice for bread stuffing. The “Rice” Stuff. There are gluten-free soy sauces and substitutes for oyster sauce, gluten-free mushroom soy or fish sauce would work well.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Egga-licious Down Home Cooking (Steamed Egg with Shiitake Mushrooms)
There are dishes that with the first bite I am instantly transported back to the dinner table of my childhood. My dad clanging pots and pans, putting the finishing touches on our meal. Me or my brother setting the table and my mom cleaning up in my dad’s “kitchen wake” (big job, trust me). A typical meal would be corn soup, stir-fried greens with oyster sauce and ginger, soy sauce chicken from our favorite Chinese deli, and a steamed dish. The steamed dish might be minced pork patty with salted duck eggs or steamed eggs with clams. These are the dishes of my childhood, my soul food.
Asian Soul Food
So, this past month, Food 52 featured Fuscia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice in their cookbook club. Listed is a recipe for steamed eggs. Bam, I’m 10 years old again watching my dad cook, hoping he will give me a morsel to “taste-test”. I flipped to the page with the recipe and hmmm, honestly, her egg dish didn’t look that great. (In her defense I tried a couple of the other recipes in the book and they are delicious). It looked a bit overcooked and bubbly on the top. My dad’s steamed eggs were silky smooth and soft, kind of like silken tofu or Japanese Chawan Mushi. Both are savory custards with tidbits of shrimp, bbq pork, or clams, indescribably delicious.
Guess what, I have never made this simple, homey, delightful dish and I’m not sure why. I love it. My kids love it. My niece Marisa REALLY loves it. Hello, what was I waiting for? I reached out to my bro for tips on how to make dad’s steamed eggs, he’s smart, he makes it all the time.
There is some wiggle room to the ratio of egg to liquid in this dish. Four eggs to one and a quarter to one-half cups of water. I replaced the water with low sodium chicken stock to amp up the flavor. The TRICK to mind-boggling silky, smooth custard is to steam the eggs over very low heat. Low and slow so you don’t get bubbles or overcooked eggs.
Add-Ins
Following Fuscia’s recipe, I added shiitake mushrooms and opted for diced Chinese sausage (lop cheung) instead of ground pork. The mushrooms add a nice earthiness and the sweet & salty sausage provides both flavor and texture. My dad liked dried shrimp or bbq pork. Ham or ground chicken or pork would work well. I mixed the ‘shrooms and sausage into the egg mixture before pouring it into the bowl. Next time I will scatter them on the bottom of the steaming bowl and pour the eggs over so they don’t float to the top as much. But really, NBD it will still be delicious.
Remember LOW AND SLOW, the key to a silky, smooth, damn that’s delish, egg custard. WORD.
The dish is done when the center is just set and does not jiggle too much. Garnish with green onions (mandatory) and cilantro (optional). Heat the peanut or vegetable oil until you see wisps of smoke, then immediately pour it over the green onions. This brings out the flavor of the aromatics and gives the eggs a nice sheen. Drizzle with soy sauce and/or oyster sauce on top. Ready, set, EAT.
Get out the bowls of rice and then follow my kids’ lead. Stir the eggs into your rice so it’s all smooshed together and goopy, grab a spoon and start shoveling.
Microwave Magic
Now you can make steamed eggs in the microwave! I recently bought Cook Anyday microwave cookware and whaddya know, the microwave works well for dishes that are steamed!!!
Put your ingredients all in one bowl, zap it, bring it to the table, off chance you don’t eat it all….toss the bowl in the fridge. Truly one-bowl cooking! I cooked at 300 watts or 50% power (I have a teeny 600w microwave) for 8 minutes, or until the custard is barely set in the middle, and jiggles gently if shaken. If it’s too runny, add time at 50% power in 30-second increments. Let rest with the lid on for 1-2 minutes to let the egg gently finish steaming.
1.5cupswarm watersubstitute all or part with chicken stock. Liquid should be lukewarm
2dried shiitake mushroomssoften in warm water and diced
1lop cheung (Chinese sausage)diced, substitutions include ham, little clams, fresh or dried shrimp
2tsprice wine
1/4tspsalt
1pinch of each white pepper and sugar
Optional (for garnish)
2tbsppeanut or vegetable oil
1green onionfinely chopped
cilantrofor garnish
2teaspoonslight soy sauce
2drops toasted sesame oiloptional
2 tspoyster sauceoptional
Instructions
Heat water in a wok or large saute pan with a steamer insert. Combine eggs, water or stock, salt, rice wine, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Add mushrooms and Chinese sausage to egg mixture. Pour mixture into a shallow heatproof bowl or pyrex pie plate. Place in steamer and cover. Steam over low heat for 20-25 minutes. The eggs should look set and not jiggle in the middle but not look dry. Heat peanut oil in a small saucepan until wisps of smoke form. Garnish eggs with green onions and pour hot oil over the green onions and egg.Drizzle with soy sauce and/or oyster sauce over top.Serve immediately with rice.
MIcrowave Cook It!
Put your ingredients all in one bowl, zap it, bring it to the table, off chance you don't eat it all....toss the covered bowl in the fridge. Truly one-bowl cooking! I cooked at 300 watts or 50% power (I have a teeny 600w microwave) for 8 minutes, or until the custard is barely set in the middle, and jiggles gently if shaken. If it’s too runny, add time at 50% power in 30-second increments. Let rest with the lid on for 1-2 minutes to let the egg gently finish steaming.
Gung hay fat choy! Happy Lunar New Year! This is the Year of the Pig and in celebration of this, I spent the last week in Hong Kong with my boys-PIGGIN’ out. It has been years since I have been in Hong Kong and with Jordan living in nearby Korea, we decided a rendezvous was in order.
I walked off the plane and took a deep breath and instantly knew I was back in Asia. The scent that wafted through the air and surrounded me immediately transported me back to my first visit to Hong Kong so many years ago. An amalgam of daily life, food, incense, years of humanity all rolled into one.
Before I regale you with our travels in Hong Kong…let me tell you about our flight. It’s been a while since I have been on a flight that lasts 14 hours. AUUUGH! I don’t care if you are in First Class, Business, or Economy…it’s a LONG time to be cooped up in a plane. I did manage to catch 40 winks, watch a couple of movies, and pick through multiple cafeteria-like meals. The highlight was a bowl of instant ramen on the last leg of our journey. By then even the K-Movie I was watching knew how I felt.
One of the meal selections was Three Cup Chicken. I knew of this classic Taiwanese dish but have never had it. This peaked my curiosity so I made a mental note to try this dish when I got home.
A day of vegging out to get over my jet lag and I was ready to hunt down the recipe for Three Cup Chicken. The first thing I noticed was, though called 3 cup chicken, most recipes did not use those proportions. Thank goodness since that is a lot of sesame oil.
I decided on a mash-up from two of my go-to blogs, The Woks of Life and No Recipes. You can use bone-in pieces like chicken wings but the next time I think I will try boneless thighs. This dish is easy to prepare and lands on the dinner table in minutes…my kind of dish.
The soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine form the braising liquid but the addition of garlic, ginger and Thai basil really sets this dish apart. No wonder it’s a classic that has stood the test of time. One recipe called for a touch of sugar, sounded good, so I included it. If you like spice, throw in 1-2 Thai chili peppers for good measure.
The aromatics are heated in oil before adding the chicken. Brown the chicken and add the braising sauce. Simmer, turning the pieces occasionally. The sauce will reduce and coat the chicken creating a deep caramel color. Can you say yum? Finish with the basil and green onions. Be generous with your basil it adds a ton of flavor to the dish.
The chicken is browned in the ginger, garlic infused oil.Isn’t that a lovely color? Serve with steamed rice and veggies. The perfect meal.So delicious. Don’t tell Cathay Pacific, but this version of 3 Cup Chicken is so much better than theirs!
Last weekend Jamie played her version of NYT’s 36 Hours. We picked her up at the airport (SFO NOT SJC, grrrr) at 1:00 am Friday night (ok Saturday morning, delays) and dropped her off Sunday at 11:00 AM. Her first words upon seeing her bleary-eyed parents? DID YOU BRING MY SUSHI WITH YOU? I AM STARVING! Lucky we like her.
Happy Hour Any Hour
With Jamie coming home, the call went out for a happy hour, which, due to schedules, morphed into a Saturday morning breakfast happy hour. Any time of day is Happy Hour when it involves friends, food, and fun. It just means tweaking the menu that’s all. We decided on a bowl of fresh strawberries and summer peaches, Belgium Waffles, candied bacon,Jule’s Granola and yogurt. Jamie chimed in with “I want Jook (rice soup) too” Rice Soup is soul food, comfort food, each bite reminds one of being home. With its addition and the various toppings like shredded chicken, assorted sweet and salty pickles, and slivers of green onions to go along, our breakfast menu was complete.
A small stumbling block to this plan, who was going to make Jook (Rice Soup) in the morning? Ugh, the last thing I wanted to do was get up early after a late-night airport pickup. Then it hit me, hello…you have anINSTANT POT, Deb. A quick Google search yielded plenty of recipes so I decided on a mash-up of myDad’s Jook and a couple of Instant Pot recipes I found online. Yay, I’ll get forty winks and have rice soup ready for breakfast.
Jook in an Instant Pot is so stupid easy it’s a crime. Saute a couple of slices of ginger in the Instant Pot add the washed rice, give it a few good stirs, add skinned chicken drumsticks, fill the pot with water and seasonings, seal it and set the timer for 20 minutes. That’s it. Jook Time. If you have chicken stock, use it for an extra rich and flavorful soup.
I have a confession, if I don’t have homemade stock or even low-sodium commercial chicken broth, I’ll add a tablespoon of a chicken stock base such as Better Than Boullion, or Chicken Powder by LKK or Knorr (a Chinese kitchen staple) just to kick it up a notch. It’s not necessary but it will add some depth of flavor. The soup will look thin when you first take off the lid. Stir it a couple of times to combine the rice and stock, hit the saute’ function, and bring it to a boil. Cook for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the Jook is the consistency you want.
*Notes from a Thanksgiving Table
My favorite post-Thanksgiving meals aka “What to do with your leftovers”.
Turkey Rice Soup (Congee or Jook)
DON’T THROW AWAY THE BONES AND CARCASS.
Get out your stockpot (or any really, really big pot). Throw the carcass, wings, drumsticks (sans stuffing) in and fill with water. Add a smashed chunk of ginger (2-inch piece) 1/2 cup of rice wine, a bunch of scallions, a large pinch of salt and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat to a nice energetic simmer. Cover and fuggetaboutit for a couple of hours. You will end up with liquid gold to make any delicious soup you want. For a non-Asian bent, omit ginger and scallions and throw in carrots, celery, yellow onions instead. But honestly, it doesn’t matter, you could make jook with either stock.
I do make the stock separately so that I can strain the stock and remove all those little nasty bone fragments and seasoning vegetables. They have all done their job and can now exit stage left.
The stock will keep in the fridge for about a week or longer in the freezer.
Now go back to the top or to the bottom for the recipe on how to make jook….you’ll thank me, so so good.
Hello….Turkey Sammies a la Dagwood style which means all your Thanksgiving leftovers in between two slices of bread. Yep, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, and a couple of slices of cheese from the appetizer plate. Don’t forget the leftover greens from the salad no one ate because WHO eats salad on Thanksgiving-puulease. Oh man-so good.
Jook or congee, the ultimate comfort food, when its cold outside, when you have a cold, anytime.
Course Soup
Cuisine Asian, Asian-American
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 45 minutesminutes
Calories 140kcal
Ingredients
For the Soup:
1cuplong grain Jasmine ricehonestly you can use any kind of rice, long, medium or short grain
1.5Tspvegetable oil
3Slices thinly sliced fresh ginger size of quarters
1tspsalt
3-4skinless chicken drumsticks or thighsor 2 whole chicken legs, can also add pork such as pork butt 2-3 2 inch pieces
8 to 10cupswater, fill to the 10-cup mark on your IPor use stock and water 1:1
1/8cuprice wine
1 tbspBetter Than Bouillon (optional)Skip if you are starting with stock
At the Finish Line
2tspsesame oiltoasted, Asian sesame oil
1/3-1/2cupscallions-sliced on the biasgarnish
1/8Cupfinely shredded fresh gingergarnish
Salt and pepper to tastepreferably white pepper
Instructions
Wash rice. Add the rice to a bowl, and add enough water to cover the rice. Swirl the rice around. Drain and repeat a few times until the water is clear. Let drain and dry.
Turn on Instant Pot with Saute function. When hot, add 1 -1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil and ginger. Saute for 30 seconds, add rice and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir to coat rice with oil approximately 1 minute.
Add chicken pieces, bouillon, and rice wine to the pot . **If you are in a rush or feeling lazy, skip sauteing the rice and ginger. Just throw them into the pot, fill with enough water until it reaches the 10 cup mark in the Instant Pot.
Turn off saute, close the lid and make sure the knob is on "Sealing". Choose the "Porridge" button and set the time to 20 minutes.
While congee is cooking, shred ginger and slice scallions and place in small bowls for serving.
When the time is up on the timer, turn the Instant Pot off. Wait 15 minutes natural release before turning the knob from 'Sealing' to 'Venting'. Rice soup tends to splatter a lot, do not do a quick release.
Remove the chicken from the pot, when it is cool enough to handle, shred the meat and discard the bones. If the jook seems thin, turn saute' function on (without the lid on) and cook until desired consistency. If it is too thick, add water or broth.
Add the chicken back into the congee or put it in a bowl and let folks add at the table. Taste, add salt if necessary.
Ladle into bowls and top with desired amount of ginger, white pepper, sesame oil and scallions. Let folks add their own.
Toppings and Fixins'
My Dad's Jook calls for potatoes, I love them in my soup. Any kind of potato will work, peeled and quartered for large potatoes. Add at the same time as the chicken when making the soup.
For meatballs, follow instructions under Dad's Jook. This can be added at the end after pressure cooking. Remove lid and press saute function. When the rice soup comes to a boil, add meatballs and cook until done 2-3 minutes.
Additional toppings include cilantro leaves, fried garlic slivers, shredded fresh ginger, salted peanuts, shredded lettuce (iceberg works well)...the list goes on. Anything you eat with rice can be added. NO Rules!
When I lived in Los Angeles my favorite place to eat was a tiny dumpling shop in Chinatown. Before entering I would stop and watch the woman in the window folding dumplings, it was mesmerizing. She would roll the dough into a long rope, deftly cut it into pieces and then with a small rolling pin, flatten each piece into a thin round disc. A spoonful of filling plopped in the center of the wrapper, a couple of turns, and a perfectly pleated potsticker was born.
Hoisin-sweet sauce, Sweet Bean flour is a bit more pronounced in flavor, Bean Sauce is salty with a fermented flavor-umami central. If you don’t have an Asian market near you, I have posted product links in the 3Jamigos Shop for HoisinSauce and Bean Sauce-but it would be WAY cheaper at an Asian market!
As delicious as the dumplings were, I actually went for the noodles. Their Zha Jiang Mian was “drop the mic” delicious. The literal translation is fried bean sauce noodles. Stir fry ground pork or chicken with shiitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger, sweet bean paste, and ground bean sauce-throw in some water and simmer. Toss with the warm noodles and top with slivers of green onions, crisp carrots, and refreshing cucumbers, it is really yummy.
If a celestial chef decided to create the perfect bowl of noodles-this would be in the running.
My quest to make my own perfect bowl of noodles started with the recipe on the blog “The Woks of Life” (mom, dad & 2 sisters blogging from different parts of the world, check it out). The recipe calls for ground bean sauce and either sweet flour sauce or Hoisin. I like Zha Jiang Mian with a touch of sweetness so I used Sweet Bean Paste and Hoisin with the Bean Sauce. Stir fry the pork, seasonings, and mushrooms and add water to create the sauce. Reduce the sauce until it has thickened and has a nice sheen. Pour over noodles, add your veggies, dunzo. A little bowl of goodness ready to eat. Sadly, the little shop is gone and it’s a long drive to LA just for noodles anyways. It’s a good thing I can make my own Zha Jiang Mian.
Zha Jiang Mian Korean style and Chinese Style, both delicious!
Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian
Keyword Zha Jiang Mian
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 30 minutesminutes
Ingredients
6oz.ground pork
¼teaspoonsalt
1teaspooncornstarch
½teaspoonoilplus 1 tablespoon
⅛teaspoonwhite pepper
3slicesgingerminced finely
4clovesgarlicminced
2tablespoonssweet bean sauceI used 2 T Hoisin/1 T Sweet Ben Sauce
3tablespoonsground bean pasteReduce to 2 T
1tablespoondark soy sauce
1cupwater
8oz.fresh noodles flour-based noodle. Fresh or dry. I've used udon and a combination of spinach and plain
Additional Chinese Ingredients
4-6fresh shiitake mushrooms*finely chopped
1cupjulienned carrots
1cupjulienned cucumbers
½cupjulienned scallionsgarnish
Additional Korean Ingredients
3fresh shiitake mushroomsdiced
1mediumYukon Gold Potato*1/2 inch dice for Korean version
1smallzucchini1/2 inch dice for Korean version
1/2cupcarrots1/2 inch dice for Korean version
1/2small yellow oniondiced
1/4 headcabbageshredded, optional
1/2cupgreen onionschopped
1/2cupcucumbersdiced
Instructions
Marinade the pork with the following for 15 minutes: ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, ½ teaspoon oil, ⅛ teaspoon white pepper.
Heat a tablespoon oil in your wok over medium heat, add the marinated ground pork to the wok. Cook for a minute to brown it, and then add the ginger, garlic, and mushrooms* Stir fry everything together for another 2-3 minutes.
**Add the Hoisin, sweet bean sauce, bean paste, dark soy sauce, and water, stirring everything together well. Lower the heat and cover the wok. Simmer the sauce for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the package directions.
Top noodles with the sauce and garnish with the julienned carrots, cucumbers, and scallions.
Korean Style*
Stir fry pork, ginger, and garlic for 30 seconds add diced vegetables. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Continue with recipe**
If you like, add shredded cabbage in the last couple of minutes of cooking.
Place a mound of noodles in your bowl, top with sauce and garnish with cucumber and green onions. Plop yourself down in front of the telly and enjoy!
Though I was only gone for 4 days, I’m glad I am back. Even paradise doesn’t compare to home. As much as I like trying new restaurants and not having to do dishes, I love getting in the kitchen and cooking. My go-to “I’m home!!” meal? SOUP. The ultimate comfort food that tells me I’m back where I belong.
Our plane touched down in the evening so a long-simmered pot of soup was not in the cards. I needed something quick, easy and yummy. I looked in the pantry and fridge to see what I could rustle up and what do you know, perched front and center on the shelf, a can of Del Monte Creamed Corn. A sign, obviously.
Does It Sound Corny?
What? I thought you were making soup Deb? I am, trust me. Chinese Style Corn Soup starts with a can of creamed corn. It’s the secret weapon to a quick and delicious soup. My kids love it, hands down one of their favorite soups. It’s sweet and savory, made with corn, seasoned ground pork, (you could use chicken or turkey) and egg. Best way to enjoy it? Ladle the soup over rice, stir to combine, and eat it piping hot with a big ole’ spoon-this is soul food, bowl food.
I learned how to make corn soup from my mom and if you have read my blog, you know my Mom did not cook much. It was my Dad’s domain, but she makes a mean corn soup. If you peruse the menu of any legit (lol) Chinese restaurant, you will find Corn Soup. THAT’S HOW YUMMY IT IS.
Max Flavor, Min Effort
My mom started with just a pot of water. I cheat and start with chicken stock, homemade or a commercially available low salt chicken stock, this adds another level of cheating, I mean flavor. Quick soups generally start with minced or thin strips of pork, chicken or beef. This extracts the maximum amount of flavor in a minimum amount of time. The meat is marinated for a couple of minutes in soy sauce, rice wine, salt, and sugar then sautéed briefly before adding the water or stock. Cook over medium heat to keep the soup at a nice rolling boil (not crazy boil) for 15-20 minutes. Add the creamed corn, cook for another few minutes and voila’ ALMOST DONE (gotcha).
The last step, whisk a barely beaten egg into the soup. This adds flavor and body to the soup. It’s very similar to egg drop soup. It’s important to remember never boil the soup after adding the egg. You want the eggs to have wispy strand look. I actually turn the heat off when whisking in the egg. Whisk the soup continuously so the egg doesn’t sit and clump or curdle. NO BUENO.
If you like a thicker soup consider adding cornstarch to both the soup and the eggs before adding it to the soup. A trick from Serious Eats-For tender shards of egg, blend 1 teaspoon of cornstarch into the eggs before adding them to the soup. I am old school, I just add the barely beaten egg to the soup, the yolk thickens it and the whites turn into wispy tendrils in the soup-just like my mom’s.
An easy delicious soup that starts with canned corn!
Course soul food, Soup
Cuisine Asian, Asian-American
Keyword Cantonese cooking, Corn, soup
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Ingredients
14.5ouncecan of creamed style cornDel Monte is my go-to
1/2cupground pork or thinly sliced pork
Marinade for Pork
1tspsoy sauce
1 tspoyster sauce
1-1/2 tsp rice wine
dash of white pepper
1/4 tsp salt and sugar
To finish the Soup
3-4cupswater or low sodium chicken brothor half and half water & broth
1-2eggs
1green onion sliced on the diagonal
salt and pepperto taste
Instructions
Combine marinade ingredients with pork in a small bowl, set aside, let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
Heat 1 T oil in a 3-4 quart saucepan. When oil is hot, add ginger and cook for 1 minute to flavor the oil.
Add pork to pot and sauté until it is no longer pink.
Add water and/or stock and bring to a boil, immediately lower heat to a simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Add creamed corn. Bring to a boil and turn down heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes.
As the soup simmers, break eggs into a small bowl. Lightly beat, no need for the eggs to be completely blended.
Turn heat off or set to very low and add eggs to soup in a steady stream, all the while stirring the soup with a fork or chopsticks in one direction. If the flame is too high the egg will curdle!
Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Garnish with green onions.
Options:
1 tsp sesame oil
¼ - ½ cup corn kernels ( I use frozen) add with canned creamed corn
Substitute ground chicken or turkey for pork
For a thicker soup:
Mix ½ tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water or stock. Add this slurry to the soup, heat until soup thickens. Turn heat down and add egg. I find if you use 2 eggs in this soup this will create enough body in the soup such that cornstarch is not necessary.
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 Friendsgivingcelebration 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.
A traditional Cantonese Rice dish to use in place of stuffing during Thanksgiving!
Course Main Course, One dish meals
Cuisine Asian
Keyword gnaw mai fan, Sweet Rice Stuffing
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 45 minutesminutes
Equipment
Rice Cooker
Ingredients
2cupslong grain riceusing the rice cooker mesuring cup
2cupssweet riceusing the rice cooker measuring cup
4lop cheungsteamed with rice, removed and diced
1/2 cupchar siu (bbq pork)Reduce lop cheung to 3 and substitute diced barbecue pork
4dried black mushrooms (shitake mushrooms)soaked in warm water until soft, diced, reserve soaking liquid (use 1-1.5 cups of water)
1/4cupsmall dried shrimpsoaked in warm water with black mushrooms
2slicesfresh gingersize of a quarter
3-4cupschicken stockyou can use commercial low sodium chicken broth
3green onionschopped
Ground pork and marinade
1/3cupground pork or chicken
1tspeach sherry, oyster sauce, soy sauce
1/4tspsugar
dash of salt
1pinchwhite pepper
1sliceginger
Seasonings
1-2TbspSoy SaucePremium LKK Chinese Soy Sauce or Korean Soy Sauce (Sempio)
1-2TbspOyster sauceLee 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.
Notes
Leftovers can be pressed and shaped into rice balls for a tasty portable snack-thumbs up from my kids!
Do Not Laugh. Yes, this is a recipe for jello, not the boxed Jello you made with your mom when you were a kid (your job-pour the contents into a big bowl), oh no. The Asian version of Jello, Almond Jello. So good, it brings a whole new dimension to Jello. It’s delicious, light and refreshing.
If you have ever had a meal in a Chinese restaurant which served dessert other than fortune cookies, it might have been Almond Jello. Unfortunately, much of the Almond Jello served in restaurants isn’t very good. I have a theory, LOTS of Asians are lactose intolerant so milk is used sparingly. Well, that’s what makes Almond Jello YUMMY, the addition of milk-like the white layers of finger jello or the cream cheese in that funky but delicious Lime and Pineapple Jello Ring that everyone’s aunt (who couldn’t cook) brought to every potluck. Jello with Moo-magic.
When I was a kid the fanciest restaurant in Chinatown was The Empress of China. In its heyday celebrities and politicians clamored there. My folks would take us there for very special occasions-birthday dinners for grandparents, wedding banquets and Chinese New Year. High on the 6th floor, it had the most breathtaking views of the City and the East Bay. I loved the Green Jade Mist Almond Delight, their version of Almond Jello. Served in a goblet with a touch of Creme de Menthe it was the glitzy ending to a fancy meal.
Typically Almond Jello is topped with fruit, not creme de menthe. You can use mandarin oranges or fruit cocktail (when is the last time you had fruit cocktail out of a can, strictly nostalgic choice) or Lychees. Use fruit packed in light syrup or its own juice. I add the syrup or juice to the jello so it just slides down your throat, like having jello soup. Confession, I loved pouring milk on my jello, same effect. Canned fruit makes it a great winter dessert when fresh fruit can be hard to find. You could jazz it up seasonally by adding fresh strawberries or blueberries. This recipe makes soft jello which I happen to like. If you like jello that has the consistency of finger jello, reduce the amount of the water in the recipe to 3/4 cup of each and the milk to 2 cups.
When I was pregnant with my oldest, my craving was Almond Jello. I made vats of it, doubling, tripling, even quadrupling the recipe. Seriously, it was like gestational crack.
These days I make Almond Jello when my oldest kid comes home. He loves it. If I don’t steal a couple of scoops before I let him know there is a bowl in the fridge, I will have lost my window of opportunity to have some.
It’s stupid easy, so delicious. Try it, who doesn’t like jello?
When my kids come home I get busy in the kitchen making EVERY SINGLE DISH they love. Their favorites, from soup to dessert/ I usually have a pot of chili or spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove while they’re home and I pull out my Dad’s recipes for down-home Chinese dishes. Wes makes short rib stew and carrot cake. It’s 24-7 cooking and eating. What can I say? The Asian language of love is food.
Like Father Like Son
My dad and grandfather were the cooks in my family. My grandfather cooked for a living. Before going off to work we would often have early dinner with him. Always Chinese food, I was surprised when I found out later he was a line chef at Original Joe’s on Broadway and also at the famed Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel. For my Dad cooking was his passion.
Both of them made down-home dishes like Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg, Fuzzy Melon soup, Steamed Chicken with Lop Cheung (Chinese sausage) and Black Mushrooms, or whole fish (yes,that means the head too) with green onions and ginger. I loved watching them cook and savored eating these dishes even more. When I went off to school in Los Angeles, I would often call home to ask my Dad how to cook a favorite childhood dish. It was my connection with home and family and a way to keep them close.
A flurry of cooking this past week while the boys were home and the multiple “how do you make” calls from Jamie (who was stuck in Houston) prompted me to add a new section to 3Jamigos. I call it Soul Food. It’s down-home cooking, cherished recipes to share with family and friends. Take a peek, it might bring back some great memories. Or share a family favorite, I would love to post it on my blog.
My inaugural post for Soul Food is a down-home favorite, savory Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg (咸蛋蒸肉饼). You can find it in hole-in-the-wall Cantonese (southern China) restaurants or if you get invited over for family dinner at any of your Cantonese friends’ homes. In Chinatown, the best place for this dish was Sun Tai Sam Yuen on Jackson Street in my humble opinion, lol.
The ground pork is seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce and topped with the salted duck egg. Think of this as a version of a sausage patty topped with a fried egg. See, not so strange after all. My kids scoop up chunks of the patty and egg and mix it into their rice. Yum.
Things They Don’t Tell You in Cookbooks
Although simple to make, there are pearls of kitchen wisdom on how to prepare this dish. First, the pork. My mom would tell me to buy pork butt or shoulder and hand-chop the pork at home, better texture. The pork itself should not be too lean as the fat adds flavor and keeps it from drying out. This primer on pork pretty much holds for any dish that requires ground pork-don’t buy pre-ground (ok, sometimes I cheat-there is a coarse ground version in Chinese markets), and ask for “bun fei sau-half fat, half lean” (半肥半瘦). This is not a health-conscious choice, lol.
Duck, Duck, Go…get Chicken, it’s Ok
Raw salted duck eggs are hard to find. I was really excited when I found local salted duck eggs at Marina Foods from Metzer Farms. Great quality. The eggs are brined in a salt solution for approximately a month. At the end of the month, the yolk has hardened, the white has a gelatin-like consistency, and the egg has a wonderful briny flavor that goes well with pork. You are more likely to find salted chicken eggs which are perfectly acceptable.
When mixing the seasonings and egg into the pork, stir in ONE DIRECTION only. So pick, clockwise or counter-clockwise and stick with it. DON’T ASK ME WHY (ok, I googled it, supposedly it keeps the meat tender). My Dad told me to do it this way.
This is How We Do It
Place seasoned pork in a glass pie plate, smooshing it around the plate. Fill a Chinese rice bowl 1/3-1/2 full with HOT water. Slowly pour the hot water into the pork, stirring and breaking up the pork further. The final mixture will be loose and wet looking. Slice the yolk of the duck egg into quarters or 4 slices. A word of warning, it will be a little slimy feeling. Flatten the pieces of yolk with the side of the knife. Place the flattened pieces of yolk on top of the pork distributed evenly around the patty. Top with green onions. Place in steamer and steam over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes or until the juice runs clear when pierced with a knife or chopstick.
Just before serving, garnish with more green onions or cilantro and a drizzle of oyster sauce. Serve with a big ass bowl of rice!
Microwave Magic
You can also cook this dish in the microwave instead of steaming it! I have Cook Anyday microwave cookware now, but if you have a vented microwave dish use that. I have a teeny 600-watt microwave. Cook at full power for 8 minutes, done! Adjust for your microwave, for example, a 1000-watt microwave, I might just use 70% power and nuke it for the 7-8 minutes. For foods that are traditionally steamed, you don’t want to zap it quickly as much as gently cook it All in one bowl, no messing with a steamer contraption. Mind-blown microwave cookin’.
1/4-1/3Chinese rice bowl of hot waterapproximately 1/3 cup of water
1Egglarge
1Salted Duck EggFound in Chinese Groceries in refridgerator section or with egg, should be uncooked.
Seasonings
2tsp.Soy Sauce
1tspoyster sauce
2tsprice wine or sherry or sake
1/2Tsp.Sugar
1/4tspSalt
Dash of white pepper
Garnish
Green Onions And Cilantrochopped or sliced to look pretty
Instructions
Separate duck egg yolk from the egg white. Reserve the yolk.
Place pork in a shallow bowl or glass pie plate that you will end up using to steam/microwaving it in. Scramble the salted duck egg white with the whole egg, add to the pork.
Stir pork with egg mixture and seasonings, stir in one direction!
Slowly add hot water to the pork mixture, and scrambling the mixture as you add the water. This will make it will look soupy.
Garnish with reserved egg yolk that has been cut Into slices. This is a process. The egg yolk is sticky and ok, kind of slimy (like an egg-duh). Since it has been brined it will be solid. I cut it into quarters and then gently smash it with the side of a knife to flatten each piece. Sprinkle half of the sliced green onions on top.
Steam for approximately 15-20 minutes, when pierced with a chopstick or knife the juices should run clear not pink.
Drizzle with oyster sauce and top with cilantro and the rest of the green onions. If you want a nice sheen, hit it with a little hot oil. (This will also bring out the flavor of the cilantro and green onions when you pour the oil over it.
Serve with rice, lots of rice, copious amounts of rice. Really.
