Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Xôi Lạp Xưởng (Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage)


My daughter woke up from her afternoon nap and wanted to eat something besides the noodle soup that I made for lunch and dinner. She's probably tired of eating che dau trang (sweet white bean dessert) since she just had it this morning and a few bowls for the last several days.  So, Grandma suggested sticky rice. Bingo! My kids love the aroma, texture, and sweetness of sticky rice as Grandma often makes it for them for breakfast.  It was almost dinner time and I wanted my kids to have some protein beside the carbs from the sticky rice.  So I sauteed lap xuong (chinese sausage) with fresh chopped garlic, shallots,  our homegrown green onions and cilantro and soy sauce. A wonderful aroma indeed! Then I worked these ingredients into the sticky rice.  

The whole process from cooking the rice to preparing the filling took about 20 minutes but it seemed like 2 hours for my daughter who  kept saying,  "Why are you taking so long Mommy?".  Someone must be very hungry.


If you make just a small pot of sticky rice and you want to enjoy it in 20 minutes, skip the soaking and steaming process. You just need to rinse it and it's ready to cook.  As for lap xuong, I prefer to boil it first to keep it moist.  If you chop it off first and then fry it, you will find that it's dry once you bite into it.  One caveat: since I tried to make it quick, I didn't measure the water  and sweet rice.  The amount of rice and water in this recipe is only an estimate and may need adjustment :-)

RECIPE: Xôi Lạp Xưởng
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Ingredients
2 cups of sweet rice
3 chinese sausages (also available at Costco) - boiled for 5 minutes and cut it into any size you prefer. 
2 green onion, chopped ( about 1/4 cup)
1 shallot, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2-3 teaspoons of soy sauce
1/4 cup of cilantro
1 teaspoon of oil
Fried Shallots (optional)

Making Sticky Rice
Rinse the rice and pour it into a pot.  Add about 1/2 inch of water above the rice and boil it.  Reduce the heat to low.  Stir it up and cook it for about 15 minutes.  Add a little bit more water if it looks dry to you. 

Making sausages

Heat the oil in a pan.  Add garlic and shallot.  When they turn golden brown, add sausages, cilantro and green onion.  Stir it evenly for about 30 seconds.  Turn off the heat then add soy sauce.  Mix it up.  Pour the sausage mixture into sticky rice and mix it well. 

Sprinkle some fried shallots on top of sticky rice and enjoy. 

10 comments:

  1. hmm..looks good. can u bring some to the pharmacy so we can test it out.thx

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  2. that really looks good~ i wanna try it!

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  3. I'm really surprised that the sweet rice took only 15-20 minutes to cook on the stove top. Is it because the heat is higher on the range than in a rice cooker, or because of the type of rice being used?

    Thanks for the quick and easy recipe! I'll have to try it some time.

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  4. I just use the regular sweet rice in long or round shapes. I haven't tried it in a rice cooker as my rice cooker is too big when I just need to make a small portion of sweet rice. In addition, I can't adjust the heat with the rice cooker.
    When i cook just a small portion of sweet rice, I always cook on the stove top and it doesn't take long at all. If i need to cook a big pot, then I always soak it first then steam it. That way it will cook evenly and wont' get mushy.

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  5. i've never cooked sweet rice in a rice cooker. can you walk me through it?

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  6. I cook my sweet rice in rice cooker 1 cup of sweet rice I add 1 cup of water it come out perfect every time.

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    Replies
    1. Tried it and it worked like a charm. Thanks for the tip!

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  7. I added shitake mushrooms and dried shrimp too and it was delicious!! Thanks for the recipe

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    Replies
    1. Love shiitake mushroom. Wow...this sticky rice post is so old. I need to update it. LOL.

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  8. Old but still delicious lol it's a big hit :D and ur directions are so easy to follow. Thanks for posting!!

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