Yummy Glutinous Rice 糯米饭

Glutinous rice is my forever fave. In Malaysia, you can get glutinous rice in the form of dumplings (bakchang, 粽子), or with sliced chicken ( 糯米鸡）available in dimsum restaurant, or plain glutinous rice with toasted peanut and spring onions as garnish from pasar (Malay, meaning market) or pasar malam (Malay, meaning night market). I like the latter the most.

When I'm away from home, this is a dish I often like to make. And whenever I cook this dish, I will normally make many servings in order to share it with other Malaysians. Everyone would savour this dish as much as I do. Nothing beats a little flavour from home, when you are away from home.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of glutinous rice
• 1 cup Chinese dried black mushrooms
  
• 3 Chinese sausages
  
• 1/4 cup of dried shrimps
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp Chinese Sesame Oil
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• Cooking oil
• Water, or broth
• A dash of white pepper
  
• Salt
  

Garnish:

• 1/4 cup toasted peanut

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced spring onion (or scallions)

Method:

1. Wash and rinse the glutinous rice. Cover rice with cold water by 1 inch in a large bowl and soak at least 5 hours (I normally soak my rice overnight). Drain in a sieve and rinse well under cold running water.
   
2. Soak mushrooms in warm water, then drain, squeezing out excess liquid. Rinse mushrooms to remove any grit, then discard stems and coarsely chop caps.
   
3. Coarsely chop Chinese sausages into tiny pieces.
   
4. Peel and slice thinly all the garlic.
5. Heat a wok over high heat. Add cooking oil and heat, swirling in wok. Add chopped garlic and stir-fry 30 seconds.
6. Add dried shrimps and stir-fry till you get the aroma of dried shrimps. Then add in Chinese sausages and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Next, add in mushrooms and stir-fry 1 minute.
7. Add in drained rice and stir-fry for 30 sec.
   
8. Stir in dark soy sauce, soy sauce, Sesame oil, white pepper, salt to taste. (Note: At this stage, do not be afraid to make the mixture saltier as the salty taste will get reduced during the steaming process while water/broth is added to the mixture)
9. Transfer mixture to a deep metal bowl and add water/broth until the liquid completely cover rice.
10. In the wok, add in some boiling water. Place the deep metal bowl above a support stand over the water. Bring to a simmer, stir once, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 25-35 minutes more, then remove from heat.
    
11. During the process you must check the water level (underneath the bowl). If you prefer your glutinous rice to be moister, you may add in more liquid into the rice mixture in the midst of steaming.
    
12. Stir from bottom to distribute ingredients and let stand in room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving. Garnish with toasted peanut and spring onions. To kick it up a notch, add in shallot crisps.
    

Voilà!