Lotus-leaf sticky rice with chicken

Your ingredients

Get ready: Steamer, bowls, wok, food-safe lotus leaves or parchment and optional kitchen string.

• 🍚400 g glutinous rice
• 🍄6 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 🦐2 tbsp dried shrimp
• 🥣2 large dried lotus leaves
• 🍗2 boneless skinless chicken thighs, about 300 g
• 🥣1 Chinese sausage
• 🥣1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 🥣1½ tbsp dark soy sauce
• 🥣1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 💧½ tbsp unsalted stock instead of cooking wine
• 🍯1 tsp sugar
• 🥣⅛ tsp salt and ⅛ tsp five-spice
• 🥜1 tsp sesame oil
• 💧110 ml reserved soaking liquid, or water
• 🥣1 tbsp neutral oil, plus a little for brushing
• 🥬½ onion, finely chopped
• 🥣1 tbsp minced ginger
• 🥣1 tbsp minced garlic

Let’s make it

1. Soak the components

   Rinse rice and soak in cold water in the fridge for at least 6 hours. Soak mushrooms separately in the fridge until soft. Soak shrimp in hot water for 10 minutes and lotus leaves in warm water for an hour until flexible. Drain, retaining clean mushroom and shrimp liquid. Cut each leaf into four and remove hard stems.

2. Prepare the filling

   Dice chicken and slice sausage and mushrooms. Mix soy sauces, oyster sauce, stock, sugar, salt, five-spice and sesame oil with 110 ml strained soaking liquid.

3. Start cooking

   Fry onion, ginger and garlic in oil. Add shrimp, sausage and mushrooms and cook through. Lift out. Sear chicken in the pan, add drained rice and seasoning liquid, then stir until coated and slightly sticky. Mix the other filling back in and work promptly.

4. Wrap eight parcels

   When safe to handle, put an eighth of the mixture on the smooth, lightly oiled side of each leaf piece. Fold sides over and ends in to enclose; tie loosely with kitchen string if helpful.

5. Steam until tender

   Steam over a steady boil for 75 minutes, checking water regularly and topping up with boiling water. The rice must be tender and chicken reach 75°C for 30 seconds; steam longer if needed. Open leaves carefully and eat the filling, not the wrapper. You have made your own dim sum parcels.