Majestic Japanese Rice

I was invited to lunch at a Chinese restaurant at Marina Bay during the Lunar New Year and was served this dish much like an ‘atas’ chu bi png/glutinous rice but made with Japanese short-grain rice.  It should be an auspicious dish too, since it has oysters / ho si as one of the ingredients.

Ingredients
* 1 cup Japanese short-grain rice, washed and soaked in 1 cup water for 30min. Drain off water before cooking
* 8 slices lup cheong (half a lup cheong)
* 5 pieces dried oysters, soaked. If oysters are smaller then a few more
* 2 dried Shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced or 5 small Shitake mushrooms, leave whole if mushrooms are not too large
* 1.5 tabsp dried shrimps, rinsed and dry

Seasoning for rice 
* 1 tabsp abalone sauce
* 1 tabsp soy sauce
* 2 tabsp sesame oil
* 1/4 tsp dark soy

Seasoning for mushrooms
* 1 tsp light soy sauce
* 1 tabsp sesame oil
* white pepper

* Oil ELB cooking pot
* half cup water for ELB

Method
1. Combine mushroom with seasoning and marinate for 15 minutes.
2. In a pan, heat sesame oil, put in Japanese rice and dried shrimps, add seasonings and fry till rice is dry and semi-cooked about 5 min.
3. Pack rice into pot. Arrange oysters, lup cheong and mushrooms on top of rice.
4. Put half cup of water into ELB and put prepared ELB pot into ELB to steam for about 25 mins. Turn off power switch and let rice sit for about 10 min to continue steaming.
5. When rice is ready, serve garnished with a sprig of coriander and chopped spring onions.

Steamed Minced Pork and Rice

My son was home from NS and was down with a slight flu. I didn’t know what to cook as he is not a ‘porridge’ type. (He’d rather go hungry than eat congee).

I dug into the freezer and found a small 300g packet of minced pork. So I went ahead to defrost that and planned a simple ELB meal for one.

Ingredients
* 1 cup rice, washed
* 3/4 cup water
* 300g minced pork
* 1 stalk Spring Onions, chopped
* 2-3 Cloud ear fungus, soak in water and chop in smaller pieces

Seasoning
* 1 tabsp Oyster Sauce
* 1 tsp Soy Sauce
* 1 tsp Corn Flour
* 1 tsp Sesame Oil
* Dash of White Pepper

* 1/2 cup water for ELB

Method
1. Pour 1/2 cup water into the ELB.
2. In the shallower dish, put minced pork then pour seasoning into minced pork and mix thoroughly.
3. Add spring onions and cloud ear fungus and mix
4. Put rice with 3/4 cup of water in the larger pot and place into ELB.
5. Stack the seasoned mince pork dish onto the rice pot.
6. Close lid over and switch on ELB. It will take about 25 min to cook.