Chinese Style Sweet Rice with Meat

This dish is not very strange to anyone who is familiar with Chinese Tim Sum. I t is not really hard to cook and it has the flavorful ingredients too. This dish is served in Cantonese style Chinese restaurant in some other countries and in most south east Asian countries. In America, we could easily find it in most Chinese restaurant which serve Tim Sum.

I made the dish during this Chinese New Year and it was a big thumb up and Crowd pleaser. It is also easy to make and can be stored in the fridge for more than a week. For the home_made version, to skip the hassle, the rice need not  to be wrapped in the Lotus leaves for steaming.
It could be cooked in the rice cooker and also one pot dish.

I did not realize previously, how really good this dish is, as it contains dried shrimp. My cousin who is now retired from her teaching job as she is in her retired age. She told us that food story when we were in middle school. As she was a single who spend time with us every summer. And those days are quite memorable summer in our younger days. She joined our family wherever we travelled during those memorable summers of our younger days.

Some of her funny stories and her love story were like the movies. I believe that she  longed for her first and last love that stayed forever in her heart. She is really kind to me and my sisters. She always in tear when we meet again in our trip. As a human being how could I control my tears when I experience memories related with our dearest friends or family.

Chinese Style Sweet Rice with meat ( Pork or Chicken)( 4-5 serving)

Ingredients

4 cups    Glutinous Rice
1 lb        Pork (or) Chicken ( boneless any type but prefer chicken thigh or pork belly)
2 pieces  Chinese Pork sausage
2 Tbsp    Dried Shrimp
4 Tbsp     Light Soy sauce
2 Tbsp     Dark Soy sauce
5 pieces   Dried Shiitake Mushroom
3 tbsp      Peanuts
2 tbsp      Thin sliced Ginger
1 tbsp     Sliced garlic
1 tbsp     Sesame oil
2 tsp        5 spice powder
1/2 tsp    White pepper
1/2 cup    Canola Oil (or) Groundnut Oil

Meat Prep

1. Cut the pork or chicken into one inch cubes.
2. Mix the pork with one tbsp ginger, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp light soy sauce , and white pepper.
3. In the small pan, add all the meat that is mixed, add enough water to cover,then  boil. Simmer till water has evaporated and the meat should be well-cooked.

Instructions 

1. Thinly slice the Chinese sausages.
2. Soak the dried Shiitake mushroom in water for 2 hours then squeeze out all water and slice thin.
3. Soak the rice in water over night.
4. Soak the dried shrimp for 1 hour
5. In the cooking wok or skillet, add the oil and heat medium high.
6. Then fry the sliced sausage pieces slightly red at the edges, then strain from the pan and drain the excess oil with paper towel.
7. In the pan, add ginger, garlic to stir till fragrant. Then add the meat, dried shrimp,mushroom and peanut and stir for 3 minutes.
8. When all the ingredients are mixed, Add the soaked rice and the rest of the ingredients such as sausages (fried), sesame oil, soy sauce, 5 spice powder and whit pepper.
9. We may also add 1 tbsp of sugar if we like sweetness in the food.
10. Stir it  thoroughly and transfer that rice mix to the rice cooker. Add chicken broth or water about 3-4 cups just above the rice to cook evenly well .
11.we may follow the instruction of the automatic rice cooker, we may skip the rice cooker procedure by cooking on the stove top.

( Note: If we want the rice color to be whiter, we may skip using the thick dark soy sauce.)