Lotus Leaf Rice - 荷叶饭

I had never seen dried lotus leaf for sale before. Therefore when i first saw it at the grocery store, i told myself that i have to buy it. Lotus leaf rice is one of my favourite, so naturally my first cooking with the lotus leaf will have to be the Lotus Leaf Rice. And why i titled this blog as "Part 1"? Because i still have lots of lotus leaves left after preparing two packs lotus leaf rice. So the Part 2 will be my Lotus Leaf Chicken.

Actually it's quite simple too. I just need to wash and soak the lotus leaf with hot water overnight than i can use it for wrapping the next day. Just prepare the glutinous rice as usual and add in whatever ingredients you like. For my version of lotus leaf rice:

Lotus Leaf Rice

Ingredients:

- 1.5 cup of chicken stock + 3/4 tsp salt
- 150g glutinous rice (soak overnight)
- 75g normal rice
- 5 chinese dried mushrooms (soak in water till soft)
- one chinese sausage (sliced)
- half a cup of dried shrimps
- half a chicken breast (use de-bone chicken thigh or drumstick will taste even better)
- 2 shallots (sliced)

Marinate for the chicken meat (overnight)

- half tsp chinese 5 spice
- 2 tsp light soya sauce
- 2 tsp dark soya sauce
- 1 tbs shao xing wine
- 2 tsp of sesame oil
- 2 tsp of oyster sauce
- dash of pepper
- 1/2 tsp of cornflour

Method

1) Fried the chicken till half cooked, set aside.

2) Fried shallot, dried shrimp, chinese mushrooms and chinese sauage till fragrant, add in both rice and chicken stock, just enough to cover the rice and cook till stock being absorbed. Dish up and wrap them in lotus leaves. To seal in the fragrant, i clingwrap the lotus leaf parcel and finish with aluminium foil (but this is not neccessary, as i have not prepare lotus leaf rice before, so i just wrap additional for security purposes).

3) Steam for about 2 hours.