Lotus Leaf Rice Wraps - 荷葉飯

Ever went to have dim sum at a Chinese restaurant and see something that appears to looks like it's wrapped in leaves and placed in a steamer in those food carts being pushed around? If you've always been wondering what that might be but never dared to actually order it, I'll be uncovering the answer to this mystery for you today! Yes, you did not mistake what was in that little steamer, those are indeed leaves - "lotus leaves" to be exact. Lotus is a very important and common theme that is incorporated into Chinese poetry, paintings, and verses, it is the symbol of purity and refinement. The lotus leaf also happens to have a very pleasing aroma so it is used to wrap seasoned rice and steamed together to allow the aroma to blend with the wrapped contents. After reading this post, there's no need to find a good chinese restaurant to have some of this - you'll be able to make it all by yourself at home! Let's get started!

Materials:

A. ~2 cups sweet rice (glutinous rice)
B. Lotus leaves
C. commerically available dried shrimp (add depending on personal preference)
D. soysauce
E. sugar
F. 4-5 cloves chopped shallots
G. dried mushrooms
H. fried onions or shallots (commercially available)
I. chicken (i use tenderloins, but chicken breast works too)

Preparation:

Mushrooms / Dried Shrimp / Glutinous Rice:

You should consider using dried mushrooms for this. Of course since they are dried, u must soak them in water until they are soft. I bought the pre-slice dried mushrooms so they softened quite quickly and also saved me the slicing work. Once they are softened, wash/rinse them several times with water in a bowl then chop them into small pieces.



The dried shrimps are dried on the ground before they are packed and sold so they often times contain some traces of sand and small pebbles in addition to being dry, so you would also want to treat them in a similar fashion - soak and wash them thru a few times with clean water then strain it for use later

The glutinous rice must be washed as usual and soaked in water for ~1 hour before you can use it. so prepare it before hand.

Lotus Leaf:

lotus leaves can usually be found at asian (particularly Chinese) grocery marts. They are usually sold as entire leaves. if you've seen them in person, they are very large. So for our purposes, we need to cut them into 1/4 their oringal size. They look like fans in the bag, first, you must trim off the center following the red lines in the picture below:



Next, you must cut along the center line, and then along the sides (refer to picture below) so u will end up with 4 smaller fan sized pieces:

Next, set up a boiling pot of water. you dont need too much as long as u can boil the leaves slightly to soften them and also to boil away the initial dirt smell of the leaves leaving them only with their natural aroma that u want in your rice

take the leaves out once they are soft and put them on a separate plate for use later.

Directions:

1. fry the chopped shallots in a heated oil pan until it smells aromatic

2. add in the previously washed/strained dried shrimps. briefly stir fry until aromatic.

3. Add in the previously soaked/washed/strained/chopped mushrooms and briefly stir fry.

4. Add in the sliced chicken meat. Note: you would like the chicken meat to be to be around the size of half a bite size for this dish. stir fry until chicken appears to be almost cooked.

 5. Add in some fried onions/shallots. mix and stir fry briefly.

6. add in the soysauce and sugar. I usually add in ~1/4-1/2 cup of soysauce, but you should add it in as u go so you do not make it too salty in one go. stir fry together until everything is well mixed and chicken appears to be cooked.

7. add in the previously soaked glutinous rice. Note: strain the water before adding the rice. DO NOT add in the water used to soak the rice along with the rice into the pan. add in ~1/2 cup of water and stir fry together until rice appears to be browned by the soysauce. add more water when the pan is too dry and the contents might begin to burn. keep the contents moist but without traces of any "soup" in the pan. taste test along the way and adjust to the level of sweet/saltiness of your preference.

8. turn off the fire and remove the pan from the stove. take a piece of previously prepared lotus leaf and lay it flat underside up (underside is the side that appears to be whiter. one side of the leaf will appear significantly greener than the other. the greener side is the outside. for this step, u want to place the rice on the whiter side of the leaf). Place the rice near the pointed end of the leaf and use your spatula to shape it more or less into a rectangular shape.

wrap the leaf up as if you were wrapping a burrito being gentle not to make any cracks or holes causing the rice to spill out. the end result should be a rectangular leaf wrap. do so for all the rice/leaves you have prepared.

9. place the wraps into a steamer. you may use a steamer, rice cooker, pot with steam in it - basically anything that does a steaming job and steam for ~30 minutes.

During this time you should be smelling all the goodness of this dish - seasoned rice infused with the aroma of the lotus leaf. take the wraps out of the steamer once they are done and you may eat them right on the spot!

You've just made your own dim sum lotus rice wrap dish! You may choose to tie these wraps gently after wrappign them before you steam them for the ease of removing them from the steamer when they are still hot. If you are careful, they should not fall apart, but tying them with a string may secure the wraps so they do not fall apart when you take them out and move them around.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? leave me a comment and I'll be sure to take a look into it!



I hope you all will enjoy this as much as i do!

bon appetit!

- Ney