Dim Sum. Oh yes, the sacred Cantonese brunch everyone who tries gets hooked immediately. Forget drugs and stuff you snort through a dollar bill, this is where it’s at–this is my addiction. When people ask, “Keenan, what do you consider comfort food?” They sit back expecting me to say my grandma’s meatballs (which I actually documented but forgot to take finalized pictures of because I forgot and ate it) or pasta or even lasagna. Nope. Cantonese. Dim sum, snow pea leaves fried with garlic, salt and pepper squid, steamed whole fish with scallions, ginger, and black bean, shumai, chili oil, fish maw soup, all served on a cold rainy day with hot oolong tea alongside family and friends. That is comfort food. It is what I grew up eating. My fondest memories are of eating Chinese at Buford Highway down here in Atlanta. It wasn’t until five years ago when we bought a wok burner that I really got interested in cooking Chinese. I could never do it because I couldn’t get the wok hot enough and would turn out tasting blah. No hot peanut oil smokiness and char. It wasn’t until two years ago I started trying to make lo mai gai, so this recipe has been two years in the making. Just wait for my Phở recipes. I’ve been practicing it for six years now and have it as good as the restaurants. Anyways, this is a good meal prep post. I made a literal shit ton of these and froze them so I could bring them to work for lunch and dinner. Here we go. I’m really proud of this one.
To make 12 packets. For normal people servings (4 packets) quarter everything.
1 pound chicken thighs, cut in bite size pieces
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
¼ teaspoon five-spice powder
6 tablespoons dried little shrimp
2 dried shiitake mushrooms per packet (so 24 mushrooms)
5-6 Lap Cheong (Chinese sausage)
12 lotus leaf cut in half to make 24 pieces
2 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
Enough water to cover leaves
12 cups sticky, sweet, or glutinous rice is what it’s called
Calories per serving = 335
1: Soak rice in water over night or 24 hours. That’s what worked best with me. Do not skip this step.
Note: The hardest part for me was nailing the rice texture. Soaking it and then steaming it was the hardest to gauge, but I figured it out finally.
2: Time to marinate the chicken. Cut thighs into 1 inch pieces and mix together all of the chicken ingredients.
Note: You can marinate this for 30 minutes or overnight. I did overnight since I wanted as much prep work done as possible.
3: Okay, time for the lotus leaves. Split it right down the middle along the fold. Make 24 pieces. Fill the sink or a large pot with hot water and soak for at least an hour. Once they are done, take out and cover with a sopping wet towel.
Note: This was another issue I kept having. I couldn’t get the rice to take on a lot of the flavor from the lotus leaf. In the restaurants, they have that soft, earthy, almost tea leaf taste. In one of my test batches, I wrapped some in one piece and others in two pieces. Huzzah! Two pieces was the trick!
4: For the mushroom sauce, add everything listed in a sauce pan and boil for 20 minutes.
Note: That brown puck is my homemade chicken broth I posted about, just to not confuse you.
Note: Here are what the little shrimp look like. You can find them at pretty much any Asian store. For the sausage, this brand is the best I’ve tasted. Try to find it. Other brands have a very strong rice wine and anise flavor that I’m not a fan of since it can overwhelm a dish.
5: Strain the ingredients and save the liquid. You should have some left. This is essentially liquid umami. You want this.
6: Make three piles. One with the sausage, mushrooms and the shrimp. Mince the shrimp and set aside. Slice the mushrooms. Combine the sausage and mushrooms in a bowl.
7: Take chicken out and heat a pan with a teaspoon of peanut oil until smoking. Quickly sear the chicken, only about three minutes in a super hot pan. Combine with the mushrooms and sausage.
Note: By putting a quick sear on them, I’m developing a more complex and layered dish by building flavor. If you have a wok burner, even better. I really miss mine.
8: Now onto the rice. If you have a steamer, good. I didn’t have one big enough, so I layered a colander with cheesecloth and stuck it in my gravy pot with some water. Pour rice in steamer and poke holes in it with a chopstick. Steam the rice for 1 hour.
9: After the hour, take the rice out and stir in the mushroom and shrimp broth as well as the minced shrimp. Stir to combine. Lay everything you need out on the counter and get a nice big prep space going on.
10: Step-by-step: Lay leaf out, underside facing out so the rice lays against it. Brush with oil. ½ cup rice and push down to flatted. Layer ½ cup of meat filling. Layer another ½ cup of rice on top and make a dome out of it. Wrap the rice with one leaf and then another. Tie with twine. Pile ‘em suckers up.
11: Get the steamer steaming again with a liberal amount of water. Steam the packets for 2 hours, flipping halfway through.
Note: I had to get my rice cooker out to steam the rest out of frame. I couldn’t quite fit them all in my steamer.
12: They are done! I’ve labored over this dish for a long time to make it near perfect. Freeze the leftovers and you can either microwave them or preferably steam them again. These portions are nearly double the size you get at a restaurant, but that’s what I was aming for. I wanted to bring these to work for dinner/lunch and they are quite filling. I hope you enjoy your homemade lo mai gai!
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