Recipe - Lor Mai Kai

AS A self-taught home cook with a small family, I always try to think of recipes that require few ingredients and are easy to cook, hence my moniker, The Simple Housewife.
Sometimes, there’s a balance of ingredients leftover from a recipe that I was testing or creating. Then I will try to think of other recipes where I can use them, so that they do not go to waste.
Lor mai kai (steamed glutinous rice with chicken) is a popular and common dish here, especially in dim sum shops.
Today’s recipe is another example of my attempt to use up leftover ingredients. It turned out to be most convenient as I needed to prepare a one-dish meal quickly.
The timing was also right, as during Chinese New Year, I had received ­customary gifts of Chinese sausages and dried ­mushrooms from relatives, which are part of the ingredients for lor mai kai.
However, there is no hard and fast rule to adding other ingredients if you wish to, since to me, food and cooking are very much according to personal taste.
Other variants of lor mai kai include glutinous rice dumplings and glutinous rice steamed in lotus leaves, which ­include ingredients such as chestnuts, mung beans, dried scallops, mussels and salted egg yolk.
Preparing the ingredients and ­cooking this dish doesn’t take up much time, but a little planning ahead is required as the glutinous rice needs to be soaked ­beforehand to soften them.
Lor Mai Kai
Ingredients (to make four bowls)
2 cups glutinous rice, soaked for at least six hours
1 whole chicken thigh, skinned and deboned, and cut into pieces
4 large or 8 medium dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water, stalks removed
1 Chinese sausage, soaked in hot water, skinned and cut into slices
Marinade for chicken:
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
A few dashes of pepper
Marinade for rice:
1 tbsp thick soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
Method
1. Heat 2 tbsp cooking oil in wok, and stir-fry the marinated rice for a few minutes.
2. Divide all ingredients into four parts.
3. Place divided chicken, mushroom, and sausage into base of four rice bowls.
4. Top with glutinous rice (each part is about four heaped tablespoons), pat down gently to flatten and cover ingredients.
5. Add 8 tbsp water into each bowl, enough to slightly cover the rice. Steam for 30 minutes.
6. To serve, run a knife along the inside rim of the bowl. Overturn the bowl onto a plate. Serve immediately.