steamed glutinous rice with roast pork, mushroom and lup cheong

My mom loves glutinous rice. During the Dumpling Festival (a.k.a. Dragon Boat Festival), I would buy dumplings for her almost every day. She told me that even when she was about 3 she could eat quite a few dumplings at one shot, causing my grandmother to panic at the amount of food she had consumed.

I have never cooked glutinous rice before. I thought about doing so but you know, having to soak the rice in advance, yadda, yadda, it all seemed to be so much work.

But I thought about how my mom loves glutinous rice, and I really wanted to cook it for her, so here is my post of how I finally made glutinous rice. :)

The process was actually a lot simpler than I had thought.

As with most one-pot Chinese rice dishes, you can use any ingredients you like. I used dried shrimps, dried shitake mushrooms, roast pork and lup cheong.

I bought my roast pork from this lady at the wet market, and freeze them until I want to cook them. So I gave the pork a quick stir-fry in the wok because I wanted the pieces to brown a little.

In a heated wok, I added sesame oil and once the oil was hot, I added minced garlic and fried the garlic for about a minute so it became fragrant.

Into the wok went the dried shrimps, shitake mushroom, lup cheong, and finally the roast pork.

I soaked the rice overnight, and drained it before adding it to the wok.

I also added light and dark soy sauces, and the pepper before frying the rice for about 10 minutes.

As you fry, the rice will become drier, and may start to clump. Be patient, and keep stirring.

Then I placed the rice in a heat-proof container, added about half a cup of water and steamed it for about 1.5 hours over high heat.

When done, the rice should be soft, yet retains a bit of a bite.

I served my rice with chopped spring onion.

My mom said, "好香, 很好吃!" :D

RECIPE
Steamed Glutinous Rice With Roast Pork, Mushroom and Lup Cheong (Serves 2)
Adapted from "Truly Hakka Delights" by Chong Moi Eng

Ingredients:
500g glutinous rice, rinsed and soaked minimum 4 hours
200g roast pork, cut into small pieces
30g dried shrimp, rehydrated
1 piece lup cheong, sliced thinly
2 pieces dried Shitake mushroom, rehydrated, stems removed and sliced 
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs dark soy sauce
1/4 tsp grounded white pepper
1 sprig spring onion, chopped

Method:
1. Heat sesame oil in wok. Add garlic. Fry until fragrant.
2. Add dried shrimp, mushroom, lup cheong and roast pork. Stir to mix (about 5 minutes).
3. Add rice, dark and light soy sauces and pepper. Stir-fry for 10 minutes.
4. Put the rice in a heat-proof dish, sprinkle 1/2 cup water over rice. Steam for 1.5hours.
5. Garnish with chopped spring onion and serve hot.