Fried Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice is also known as sticky rice or sweet rice. It is commonly used in asian dishes such as fried glutinous rice as featured here, steam glutinous rice (also known as 'lor mai kai' commonly found in places where different kinds of buns or 'bao' are sold), chinese dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and Thai mango sticky rice. Unlike regular jasmine white rice, its grains are slightly shorter and rounder and of opaque color. It is sticky when cooked, hence the name sticky rice. You cannot eat too much of it at one go as it fills up your stomach pretty quickly. So go easy on it even though it is tasty. You do not want to end up with a bloated stomach.

Fried glutinous rice is commonly served in dim sum shops or restaurants. It's ingredients are simple - glutinous rice, dried shrimps, mushrooms and chinese sausages. You can add dried scallops too. It's a pretty easy dish to prepare and cook, just that you need a little more arm power and time to stir fry the rice continuously until all rice grains are cooked. A good exercise and it's worth the effort.

Fried Glutinous Rice (Serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 cups of glutinous rice soaked in water for 1 hour
2-3 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked in water until soft
10 dried mushrooms, soaked in water until soft
1 chinese sausage
2 scallops, soaked in water for about 10 minutes

** Rinse and soak the dried shrimps and mushrooms for the first 10 minutes then discard the water. Soak them again for the next 30 minutes or until soft and retain the water for use later.


** Most recipes call for soaking the glutinous rice for at least 3 hours. I used a friend's recommendation to soak for about 30 min - 1 hour so that the rice will not be too sticky and I love it. I added a pinch of salt to the soaking water.

Seasoning:
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
Water from steeping scallop, dried shrimps and mushrooms
Pinch of pepper
Chicken stock, optional

Garnishing:
Fried shallots
Spring onion, cut into small pieces
chilli, sliced into small pieces

Method:
1. Soak 2 cups of glutinous rice in water with a pinch of salt added for about 1 hour.
2. Remove the wax paper from the chinese sausage and cut into thin slices.
3. Drain the dried shrimps and keep the water.
4. Remove the stalks from the dried mushrooms. Dice or slice the mushrooms. You can have a combination of both. Keep the water. Season the mushrooms with a little light soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper. The mushrooms will taste better.
5. Shred the dried scallops and keep the water.
6. Heat up the wok and stir fry the chinese sausage on medium fire until cooked, about 5 minutes. Scoop up the chinese sausages.
7. Use the oil from the sausages to stir fry the dried shrimps, dried scallops and mushrooms until cooked and fragrant, about 8-10 minutes. Add a little cooking oil if there's not enough oil. Scoop up and leave aside.
8. Add about 1 tbsp cooking oil into the wok. Wait for the oil to heat up and add in the drained glutinous rice. Stir fry it until the grains are coated with oil and almost dry. Add in 2 tbsp of the water from the scallops. Keep on stir frying and gradually add in 2 tbsp of water from the scallops and dried shrimps each time. You have to keep on stir frying so that the rice will not stick to the wok.
9. Keep on stir frying and adding water gradually until rice is cooked and soft. If you have run out of water and rice is still not cooked, add in 1 tbsp of chicken stock each time until cooked.
10. Return the chinese sausages, dried shrimps, mushrooms and scallops into the wok and stir fry together with the rice. Add in the seasonings and mix well.
11. Remove from wok and serve with garnishings.

** I only need to use water from the dried scallops and dried shrimps and some from the dried mushrooms. No need for the chicken stock at all.