Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaves

It's another weekend...yeah!! My daughter and me are so looking forward to every weekend because we'll be having lots of fun outdoors. This week we have promised my girl to go to the park with her newly bought "Tinkerbell" kite. Hope there is wind and no rain..;p

Well, back to my post. I've cooked a special dinner for my family yesterday for which this was usually serve during breakfast especially when you go for "dim sum" at the chinese restaurant. Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaves or Lotus leaves Sticky Rice (at the dim sum table, call it "hor yip fan" in cantonese or "her yeh fan" in mandarin ) It has a lot versions of how this may cook but I just like my simple way with less meat but more rice..:)

That's how it looks when the leaves are dry and its kind of difficult for me to get this leaves in KL. I got the help from my dad, and he bought a whole packet (about 20 pieces) for me from our hometown. The lotus leaf imparts a wonderful aroma to the rice. Oh I love it!!
The Ingredients ( from my own version):
3 cups glutinous rice (soak for at least 1 hour)
150g barbeque pork or chicken (diced)
6 chinese mushrooms (soften and diced)
3 tbsps dried shrimps (soften)
5-6 shalltos (chopped)
4 salted duck egg yolks (quartered) ~ optional
4-5 lotus leaves (fresh or dried)
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp Hoisin sauce (or oyster sauce)
a dash of pepper
a dash of sugar
**water

Method:
~ Rinse lotus leaves and scald in boiling water till soft. Trim away the stems and cut into 2. ( if the leaf is too big, may cut into 3)
~ Rinse glutinous rice and soak for at least 1 hour. Drain.
~ Pan fry shallots till fragnant and add in barbeque meat, dried shrimps and mushrooms and mix well. Add in glutinous rice and continue to pan fry awhile.
~ Add in all seasonings and add in water just to cover the rice and simmer for 8-10 minutes until the rice is 80% cooked. (Check and stir constantly to prevent the rice from sticking on the pan. May add more water if the rice is still hard).
~ Pat dry the leaves with a clean cloth and wrap in the rice shown above.
~ Place in a steamer to steam at high heat for 20 minutes.

Have a nice weekend!!

Cheers!!