Lor Mai Gai

This is my first time making this dish. Prior to this, I didn't realize that it was so easy to do. This came about during a conversation at the bff's house. Her cousin was in town last week and they were planning to make some. So this missy wrote down all the ingredients and method on how to make this delicious dim sum dish. The good thing about making it at home is that you can control the amount of oil that goes into your cooking. As I was busy making tarts yesterday, I thought today would be a perfect day to do this, thus I soaked some rice in the late afternoon yesterday, and by 10pm, I was able to season the rice. I left it till this morning before I steamed them and took some along on my breakfast date with the swimming mums. Unfortunately, it being my first time, I wasn't sure on how much water to use, if any at all, thus I didn't put in enough water. It resulted in a pretty dry dish as can be seen by photo, the sides are not moist enough. The mums thought the meat was well-seasoned so that was the saving grace. Upon my return home, I added water to the remainder rice and fried them again. This time the dish turned out much better. It was missing something. I suspect it's a lovely fragrant five spice powder as the one I bought from NTUC wasn't fragrant at all. I am definitely going to make this dish again sometime soon.

Ingredients - (I will try to give exact measurements wherever I can)

3 cups glutinous rice
5 deboned chicken thighs, cut into small bite-sized pieces
garlic minced
shallots (I didn't add it this time)
dried mushrooms (soaked till soft and sliced thin)

Seasoning for chicken - (this was all done by estimation)

light soya sauce
oyster sauce
sesame oil
white pepper
5 spice powder approx 1tsp
a drop of dark soya sauce
I seasoned the above overnight

Seasoning for rice - (basically the same seasoning ingredients as the chicken)

light soya sauce
white pepper
Chinese wine (I used hua tiao but found it a bit too strong)
5 spice powder approx 1tbsp
a drop of dark soya sauce
Also seasoned overnight

Method -

1. Wash then soak the glutinous rice in water for minumum 4hrs. (I started this at 5.30pm)

2. Meanwhile, season chicken and leave in fridge overnight.

3. 4hrs later (9.30pm), rinse out and drain rice. Season with the ingredients mentioned above and leave it overnight. I did mine at 10pm and steamed it at 8am.

4. In the morning, fry shallots, garlic & mushroom strips till fragrant. Add rice and then water. I don't have the exact measurement of water I used as it was my first time making this dish, thus it was a trial and error thing. I suggest that if you are not sure, just add water gradually, starting with a half cup full first. Do not steam the entire portion but rather leave the rest of the rice and test waters with one portion of lor mai gai before going ahead and steaming everything.

5. Into individual portions, place some chicken pieces on the bottom of each bowl. (You may like to make one big portion but smaller portions are better for storing but be warned, they might all disappear within the day :P). Top up with rice right to the top of bowl if you like as the rice will not expand.

6. Steam for approx 20-30 and test the rice to see if it cooked before removing from steamer.

I can't wait to try it out again soon as it was pretty successful the first time. Do let me know if you try making this and how yours turned out. Happy cooking!