Steamed sticky rice with Shiitake: Shiitake Okowa

If you love to eat ZongziI think you will love this recipe too.

But this one is a lot easier version, both in the method and the ingredient. As the main flavor for this dish is a dried shiitake, besides mixing it into the rice, we also use the water that we get from soaking it to cook the rice too. 

This time I used a hot plate for making my Okowa, but you can use a rice cooker or cooking it over a stovetop. But for me, the benefit of using the hot plate is after the rice was cooked I can raise the temperature and make the bottom of the rice become crispy (almost become burnt, haha), it's delicious. 

When cooking rice, the amount of water depends on how dry the rice is, so you might need more or less water, but I suggest you start with the less amount of it, then add more if you think that the rice is too dry.

You can change the meat in the recipe to chicken, it's delicious too. I like to add salt to my rice dish (I love the taste of it) so it may be too bland before adding the salt, but you can adjust it to suit your taste ^^.

Steamed sticky rice with Shiitake

しいたけおこわ:Shiitake Okowa

Serve 2-3 

4-5  ............................... Dried Shiitake (25-30g)

270 ml .......................... Thai Sticky rice (1 1/2 cup)

150 g ............................. Minced pork

1 tbsp ............................ Sake

2 tsp .............................. Sesame oil

1 tsp ............................... Ginger, finely chopped

40 g ................................ Welsh onion, finely sliced

240-260 ml ................... Water

75 ml ............................. Shiitake soaking water 

1 1/2 tbsp ...................... Soy sauce (Shoyu)

1 tbsp ............................ Oyster sauce

....................................... Salt and pepper

I use Thai Sticky rice.

Soak the shiitake for 1-2 hours.

Pour the water into the bowl and stir quickly, to wash the rice.

Drain the rice.

Soak the rice (the water is about 2 cm above the rice), for 30 minutes.

Pour the sake into the minced pork, and mix them together.

Turn on the hot plate set the heat to low. Pour the sesame oil into the hot plate with minced pork, ginger, and onion.

Stir to combine.

Cover and cook at low heat for 5 minutes.

Drain the rice.

Remove the shiitake from the water (reserve the water), cut the stem, and slice them.

Pour the shiitake, and sticky rice into the hot plate.

Mix the water with Shiitake soaking water, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Pour the mixture into the hot plate.

Set the temperature to the highest, after the rice becomes boil reduce the temperature to the lowest.

Cover and cook at low heat for 15 minutes.

Open the cover, and mix the rice.

Cover and cook at low heat for 5 minutes more.

Then reduce the temperature to keep warm setting and let the rice steam for 10 minutes.

Season the rice with salt and pepper.

Ready to enjoy!!!

Steamed sticky rice with Shiitake: Shiitake Okowa