Loh Mai Kai (Chicken in Glutinous Rice)

Cooked Loh Mai Kai

Loh Mai Kai, as the name goes, it is the favourite food of Cantonese or rather they are the one that found this chicken in glutinous rice.

Glutinous rice is a starch food when cooked, it becomes sticky and it can be very filling when you eat half the normal rice intake. You may even feel bloated eating glutinous rice. What I usually do to stop bloating is to drink some chinese tea. It is not an immediate effect of stopping bloating but it does helps to make you feel more comfortable.

Loh Mai Kai is similar to dumplings that is wrapped in banana leaves. In fact, you may be more creative too by adding in chesnuts. You can mix your vegetarian char siew with honey so that it tastes sweet and appetizing. Otherwise, you can have your creation by having dumplings wrapped in disposable bowls instead of banana leaves. However, your “dumplings” will lack of the smell of the banana leaves that lends the dumplings a unique fragrance and flavor.

The color of the rice depends on individual, it can be black or white. Usually with a mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and soy sauce paste, the rice will be black. The recipe that I had provided below is cooking black-colored rice.

Recipe of Loh Mai Kai (Chicken in Glutinous Rice)

Ingredients: Glutinous Rice Mushroom Vegetarian Chicken Vegetarian Char Siew Seasoning: Pepper Water Salt Mushroom Seasoning Dark Soy Sauce Soy Sauce Paste Oyster Sauce (Wan Jia Xiang Brand) Preparations: Dip the glutinous rice in water first while you prepare other ingredients. Fry the mushroom, vegetarian chicken and vegetarian char siew. Put the mushroom and vegetarian chicken in a pot. Add in all the seasoning shown above. In addition, add in starch to the pot of mushroom and vegetarian chicken. Let it boil and cooked. (Similar to cooking dark gravy with beancurd – look at the picture below and you will know what I am referring to, a dark gravy mixture) Filter out the glutinous rice and put inside a tin. In the tin, add in all the seasonings above again. Add in hot water into the tin of glutinous rice. Bring the tin of glutinous rice to steam. When the glutinous rice is cooked, put the mushroom, vegetarian chicken and vegetarian char siew at the bottom of the mould. Following on, fill up the mould with cooked glutinous rice. Bring it to steam for another 5 mins. Finishing: Scoop out the ready loh mai kai onto a plate and serve. You may serve it together with belachan chilli.

Thinking of what type of vegetarian char siew and vegetarian chicken you can use? Take a look at the pictures I had taken, use it as a reference for you.

Vegetarian B.B.Q Meat (Char Siew)	Vegetarian Fragrant Chicken (OKK)
Sliced Veg Char Siew	Dark Gravy Mixture