zondag 7 december 2014

Lo Mai Gai (Vegetarian)

Lo Mai Gai is a mixture of Chinese ingredients wrapped in glutinous rice and steamed in a large lotus leaf. I'll tell you how to make the vegetarian version of this. Normally they use chicken.

First, the preparation of the ingredients:

First make sure you soak the glutinous rice in cold water for about 1-2 hours.


Then also soak the lotus leaves in hot water.


You also need Shitake mushrooms, the full grown ones. You just cook them in water for about 15-30 minutes depending on the size of the mushrooms. Do not throw away the broth. You will need it later on.


What is also essential is to have the vegetarian chicken, we use Quorn for that. These were frozen, we let them warm up to room temperature first. Then just fry them in oil before use. They already have taste to it, so no need to add any flavour.


We are also adding some vegetarian stewed mutton to it. These can be used on the go. Just chop them into small pieces.


Fried chestnuts (and peanuts) are optional.


But black fungus "hei muer", is a must. Just soak them in water before using them. Then wok them with some oil and add some soy sauce and oister sauce to it.


Now we are ready to make the Lo Mai Gai.

1) Preparing the filling

Throw everything together (the mushrooms + broth, the chestnuts, the vegetarian meat, hei muer) and add black soy sauce, oister sauce, sesame oil, pepper, salt, sugar at will to it. Experiment!

When you know it tastes ok then add maizena + water to thicken it.

Here's the result.



2) Steam the glutinous rice 
Add a pinch of salt to the glutinous rice and add some vegetable oil too. Then put the rice (with some water) in an oiled pan and steam it for 20 minutes.

Here's a video on how to steam the rice.


3) Wrap and steam

Here's how you wrap it and then just steam it for 10-20 minutes.