I am so pleasantly surprised that my first attempt at making this turned out so well. Usually, the only time I get to eat rice wrapped in lotus leaf is at Chinese weddings or dim sum restaurants.
It being an economical event (i.e. Chinese sit-down dinners), the ingredients are usually pretty standard. As for the dimsum servings, I do not fancy eating rice in the morning, preferring dainty dimsums instead.
RECIPE FOR RICE WRAPPED IN LOTUS LEAF
2 cups glutinuous or sticky rice – soak for at least 3 hours
1 cup normal rice
300 grams meat (preferably with some fats) seasoned with soya sauce, five spice powder, Chinese wine, dark soya sauce
5 Chinese dried mushroom – soaked and cut into quarters
1 handful of dried shrimps
Pound 5 garlics and 10 shallots
Optional ingredients :
15 dried chestnuts (soak overnight, remove reddish husk)
1 pair of Chinese sausage (or if available, waxed duck)
3 dried scallops, soaked and break into pieces
5 dried oysters – soaked and cut into smaller pieces
3 salted duck eggs yolk, cut into quarters
(remember that these are optional, so you can either ignore or use whatever is available).
Method :
Soak two lotus leaves till soft (takes a few hours). Boil some hot water and put the leaves in plus add some oil. Wash the leaves under running water.
Fry pounded garlic and shallots till fragrant. Add dried prawns. Then, add in meat, mushroom and all the ingredients. Pour in rice with some water and continue stirring. Add some dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, pepper and once mixed, turn off fire.
Let the rice cool a bit for easier handling.
Put the lotus leave in a huge bowl, pour in the rice mixture. wrapped it up and steam. It may takes about 3 hours! But I did it within 30 minutes. The chestnuts were fluffy too. (Omit chestnuts if you are using normal steamer because it is hard to cook.)
The rice, when ready, looks very stylish. It will be very impressive to serve at potlucks. The lotus leaves can be easily cut open to reveal the rice. It is really delicious because the lotus leaves lend the special aroma to the rice.
I am going to try making lotus leaf wrapped chicken next. It is rather fun to wrap the huge leaves. Surprisingly, the leaves are very tough and not easily torn. Give it a try and tell me your experience.
*thanks to one of the commentor in my earlier post , Sharon who gave me tips on preparing the leaves. I made sure the leaves were oily and hence, the rice did not stick to the leaves. I use only minimal oil in my rice, unlike those from the restaurants which is usually very, very oily.*
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on Oct 18th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
that looks sooo good
on Oct 18th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
wah! Nice stuff Lilian. I can smell the lotus from KL!
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 12:05 am
I am getting hungry.
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 12:22 am
wah very nice
looks very delicious. I should try that when I can get some lotus leaves. How much water did you put in Lilian???
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 9:32 am
lilian, u really make things sound and look sooo simple. okie maybe i’ll try it only if i can find the leaves in KL
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 9:40 am
Looks so good!
I don’t like rice very much so can’t wait for your lotus wrapped chicken! Can do it with the same leaves they use to wrap bak chang? But those a bit too small huh? But do you think it could work with small pieces of chicken?
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 9:53 am
Haha.. is me… first reply
I’m still not having my b’fast yet.. drooling !!!
May I know where did you get the lotus leaf? R u using pressure cooker to steam the rice?
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
*drown in own drool*
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
Inevitable – Hahaha.
Lay See – Bought from Kwong Tuck in Campbell St., next to Woo Hin. They sell all the expensive China products. I think in wet markets, those stalls selling dried seafood also got sell. I got a new pressure cooker, WMF brand bought from Parkson during the last sale. RM999.
Sue – Sure will show you a pic. when I do it.
babe – It really is simple. Just gulung up the whole thing.
romantic – When I fry the rice, I did not add water but it is rather moist from the soaking. As for the water in the pot, it is as high as the trivet allows. I put a trivet (like a base), put on a steamer (that comes with the WMF) tray and that’s it.
Celestine – I belanja you when you come to Penang.
boo – The leaves is really fragrant.
pik –
on Oct 19th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
Yum yum…that looks so heavenly
on Oct 20th, 2005 at 1:53 am
Thanks Lilian…Now I can make a few for potluck
Great idea!!.
on Oct 20th, 2005 at 8:44 am
Lilian,
The rice looks delicous. can you recylce the lotus leave? It was a big leave though.
on Oct 20th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
The sink behind the package could be conversation piece
on Oct 23rd, 2005 at 7:50 pm
Lilian,
just want to ask you the recipe here is for how many servings? Plan to try it out one of these days, but scared too much can’t finish
on Oct 24th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Hmmm… I am ever-ready for the pot-luck!!
on Apr 6th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
lilian!!! soooo delicioous!
you can’t do this to me!!!
i’m pregnant!!!
on Jun 30th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Hi nice site you have here and mouth watering recipe. Im also bloggin on my recipe collection maybe you might wanna peek. Thanks and goodluck
on Jul 25th, 2006 at 12:57 am
[...] Recipe : Rice wrapped in lotus leaf [...]
on Sep 4th, 2006 at 11:47 pm
can someone tell this amateur cook what is dried chestnut in cantonese or hokkien? i am dying to try this dish. Also. where do i get lotus leaves from?
on Sep 4th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
mom2one – Lat chee (as in those sold in roasted chestnuts?) But this one dry and needs to be soaked for a while. The lotus leaves only found from those old-old Cantonese grocers selling China foodstuffs, maybe from Petaling Street? You can get the chestnuts from the place where you buy the lotus leaves. good luck!
on Jan 18th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
[...] Lotus leaf rice Posted by lilian on January 18th, 2008 under General [...]