Tag: #chinesebbqpork
Stuck on Sticky Rice (Gnaw Mai Fan)

Stuck on Sticky Rice (Gnaw Mai Fan)

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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!

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Gnaw Mai Fan-Chinese Sweet Rice Stuffing

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 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes

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.

Notes

Leftovers can be pressed and shaped into rice balls for a tasty portable snack-thumbs up from my kids!
Cha Cha Char Siu, Chinese BBQ Pork!

Cha Cha Char Siu, Chinese BBQ Pork!

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The ultimate comfort food is the food you ate as a kid. In our family, my Dad was the cook.  The last 30 minutes of his workday found him running around Chinatown for dinner groceries.  He haggled with the fishmonger for the freshest catch of the day or gossiped with the store clerks as he picked through piles of fresh snap peas.  Some of my favorites included steamed fish with soy, ginger and onions, stir-fried beef with pickled vegetables, and scrambled eggs with bbq pork.

My Cooking Roots, from Gung Gung and BaBa

Dad (BaBa) cooked for fun, but for my grandfather (Gung Gung) it was his livelihood.  He worked as a chef at the Original Joe’s on Broadway and also at the legendary Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel.  To this day I have no idea what he cooked at these iconic San Francisco restaurants.  Every meal he made for me and my brother was rooted in Chinese comfort food.  We ate dinner with him a couple of times a week right before he went off to work.

In his tiny room above Jackson Cafe in Chinatown, he would spread the China Daily on the table, pull out chopsticks, rice bowls, and a tiny shot glass.  The shot glass held a “digestive” he would swig right before eating.  He cooked in a communal kitchen down the hall.  A well-worn oval metal tray, a remnant from his restaurant days, sat wedged between the burners and wall at the ready to ferry our meal to his room.

We usually sat waiting, impatiently, stomachs growling and legs swinging in anticipation, as he made the long trek back to his room.  As we ate he regaled us with stories from his childhood.  We feasted on steamed pompano with black bean sauce, stir-fried greens with garlic and onions,  steamed pork with fermented shrimp paste, or slices of bbq pork (char siu).  My comfort food.

These days I make my own Char Siu.  The marinade is adapted from a cookbook I found years ago in Chinatown, Authentic Chinese Cooking by Sharon Hoy Wong.  Long out of print, it is my go-to cookbook for the down-home food of my childhood.  Serve Char Siu as an appetizer, stir-fried with greens or eggs, noodle topping, or as a filling in buns.  Our entire family loves the play on the sweet and salty flavor combination.

The marinade is also delicious for grilled baby back ribs.

DSC03336

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Char Siu, Chinese BBQ Pork!

Chinese bbq pork, a staple in every Chinese deli and restaurant, a favorite on its own or as filling in buns, pastries, and dim sum.
Course Appetizer, Meat
Cuisine Asian
Keyword barbecue pork, bbq pork, Grilled Pork Belly
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Marinate time 4 hours

Ingredients

  • 2-3 pound piece of pork shoulder cut into strips approximately 1.5 - 2" thick 3" wide, 6-7" long
  • or 2 slabs of baby ribs with membrane removed
  • 1- tsp. Salt 2 T sugar mixed together rub this on ribs or boneless pork shoulder and let sit for 15 minutes while making marinade.

Marinade:

  • 3 T hoisin
  • 2 T catsup
  • 1 T honey
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1 T sherry
  • 1 T oyster sauce or black bean with garlic paste
  • 1/8 t 5 spice powder
  • 1-2 T orange or apple juice
  • 2 cloves of garlic crushed
  • 2 slices ginger 1/4 inch thick each slice

Instructions

  • Combine marinade ingredients and coat meat. Let marinade for 2-4 hours minimum or overnight in the fridge.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a wire rack over a baking pan. Place strips of pork on the rack and place in oven. Add 1/2 cup hot water to pan, filling to approximately 1 inch depth.
  • Roast for 45-50 minutes. Turn pork over midway through.
  • With about 10 minutes to go, increase temperature to 400 degrees, drizzle pork with honey and roast an additional 10 minutes to glaze the pork or pork can be transferred to a grill for the last 10 minutes.

Pork Ribs

  • Place ribs on grill (underside of ribs faced down) and cook over indirect heat, (medium heat 350-400 degrees) in a covered grill for 15-20 minutes. Flip ribs over, brush with additional marinade and grill additional 15 minutes.
  • To finish ribs, move ribs over direct heat and continue cooking ribs uncovered. Baste ribs with honey and flip every couple of minutes to avoid burning ribs but you do want a little bit of char for flavor and texture. Grill over medium heat additional 10 minutes. This is for baby back ribs, times will be longer for larger ribs.