Claypot Rice with Chinese Sausage and Shiitake Mushrooms

Tucked away in the back of my kitchen cupboard, is a claypot, left by the landlord/previous owner of this flat. But it's the first time I'm looking at it with devious eyes, because it's Chinese New Year and I've got lap cheong from my roommate's mum.

Cooking rice in a claypot means that the rice gets slowly simmered in low heat, absorbing the delicious porky flavours of the sausage and the savouriness of the dried shrimps and mushrooms. The best part about claypot rice is the caramelised crust at the bottom, much like the Spanish paella. The crust gives the rice a hint of smokiness (of course, in the past, when this was done over a charcoal stove, I'm guessing that smoky flavour would be much more divine), and texture.

the prized crust

This is a Chinese cured sausage, called lap cheong, and is kind of like a sweet version of Italian salami or Spanish Chorizo. Its combination of sweet and saltiness adds a lot of dimension to the rest of the dish.

fyi, in that jar of unknown squidgy things, are marinated shiitake mushrooms.

Claypot Rice with Chinese Sausage and Shiitake Mushrooms

serves 4

Ingredients

2 cups of long grain brown rice, soaked overnight or longer (I ran out, so I had to use short grain, hence the stickier rice in the photos ): )

1 link of Chinese sausage, chopped diagonally into long coins.

6 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 handful of dried shrimps

2 stalks of spring onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm piece of ginger, chopped finely

1 tsp olive oil + 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Marinade

2 tbsp good (naturally fermented/aged) light soy sauce

1 tbsp good oyster sauce (i.e. made of real oysters, not oyster flavouring, and without MSG)

1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine (shaoxing/huadiao)

1 tsp sesame oil

To serve

dark thick soy sauce and sesame oil (to taste and very optional)

Method

1. The night before, soak your brown rice and shiitake mushrooms. 30 min later, slice the mushrooms and add the marinade ingredients to the mushroom-soaking water and let the mushrooms continue soaking up the flavourful liquid (that's a trick from my mum. usually recipes call for the chicken or whatever meat is being used to be marinated, but forget about these equally meaty and juicy mushrooms).

2. The next day, put the dried shrimps and some warm water into the claypot, for about 30 min.

3. Drain the rice and add the rice into the claypot. Drain the mushrooms too, but do not pour off the mushroom liquid! Add the liquid into the claypot.

4. Add enough water to just cover the rice by 1 cm. Now your rice is ready to cook in the shiitake and shrimp-infused stock! Place the claypot over medium heat on the stove, lid on, and allow it to slowly heat up. Watch it! Once it comes to the boil, reduce it to a simmer for 15 min.

5. Meanwhile, add the olive oil and sesame oil to a hot pan, and add in the chopped garlic, ginger and white parts of the spring onions. Saute till fragrant, then add the Chinese sausage, and saute till you see it ooze out some of its own fragrant oils. Add the drained mushrooms and cook for 3 min more.

6. 15 minutes should have passed. Open the lid, you should see the rice having holes on the surface. Spread the sausage and mushroom mixture over the top of the rice, close the lid, and let everything infuse and cook for 15 min more.

7. That's it, serve straight from the claypot, with the chopped green parts of the spring onions scattered over! (note be careful don't set the pot over a cold surface immediately, or it will crack)

To eat, dig your spoon in, mix it all up, and drizzle over as much of the dark soy-and-sesame-oil mixture as you want (that's how they do it in the claypot rice shops in Singapore. It's totally to taste, and I found I didn't have to add any because the rice was already so flavourful, but it's up to you!)

This is such a wonderful one-pot meal (though I will still have it with some vegetables at the side because I cannot do without eating something green, spring onions not enough). And of course, it's so convenient plus the claypot keeps the whole dish warm for a long time after serving. The flavour-infused fat from the Chinese sausage plus the shrimps and shiitake adds so much umami, and there's a wonderful contrast of savoury and sweet flavours, and fluffy and crunchy and springy (from the shiitake mushrooms!) textures.

Thank you landlord.

Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast

I don't usually have chicken breasts, because they just cost so much! The legs and drums cost 1/3 the price of breasts, and honestly, they do pack more flavour. But since I recently cut up a whole chicken, I have chicken breasts to work with. The tricky bit about roasting chicken breast is it can end up very dry and bland because it's so lean. So you should try to keep the meat moist and the skin on, or another trick would be to wrap it in something fatty, like this Moroccan Couscous Stuffed Chicken Breast wrapped in Bacon.

Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, with skin

pinch of salt, black pepper

a bit of parmesan

olive oil, butter

For the stuffing,

2 tbsp homemade cream cheese

2 tbsp grated parmesan

handful of spinach leaves, chopped roughly

2 button or chestnut mushrooms, chopped small

1 tsp garlic powder

pinch of nutmeg

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius.

1. Saute spinach and mushrooms with a small knob of butter and a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg, for abut 1 min (they will get more cooking in the oven later). Drain, because you don't want all the liquid to make the stuffing too runny, but reserve the liquid (don't waste the flavourful butter/juices!).

2. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together.

3. Carefully lift up the skin of the chicken and push the stuffing in between the skin and the breast. The skin will stretch, so you can stuff more than you expect, but don't be too greedy!

4. Place stuffed chicken breast into a greased baking dish, skin side up. Pour the reserved cooking liquid over the breast

5. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle the top with a bit of parmesan, and dot with some butter/olive oil.

5. Put into oven for 45 min, or until the skin is golden and crispy.

6. After removing from oven, let it rest slightly before cutting into it and adding some parsley if you want!

Crispy skin and melty inside always works(: I like it when there's something special hidden in your food, like in stuffed pastas or dumplings.

This is part of Full Plate Thursday and Tuesday Night Supper Club.

Beef & Stout Pie

The transformation of ‘stew’ to ‘pie’ by the simple addition of a pastry case or lid is a great one.



Although little more than starchy filler, hiding slow cooked meat within the confines of a flour and fat housing does wondrous things to the contents. Wondrous, magical things.

A cheap staple food with a lengthy and sometimes less than illustrious history, the pie has undergone a renaissance of late. Artisanal and gourmet offerings now jostle for space alongside mass produced efforts with less than stellar provenance. The pie is becoming a shining beacon of all that is great about British food. Hearty, wholesome and delicious. Food we should rightly be proud of.

The most satisfying of pies, though, are the ones that you nurture yourself. A tender, slow cooked meaty filling and a suet exterior that manages to be both crunchy and yielding at once. A barely audible crack as the pastry gives to the pressure of cutlery and a waft of richly scented steam as the contents spill out onto the plate.

‘Double carbing’ is a point of contention. In most cases desire trumps sensibility and a mound of buttery mash will be on hand to capture the gravy. If not then a couple of slices of bread, generously spread with butter, will be needed to mop up the overflow. Once you’ve gone for pie, you may as well ignore the guilt.

The best meat for cramming into pastry is a cut that needs slow cooking. Chuck steak, brisket, oxtail or short ribs are all ideal but shin probably tops the list.

Beef shin, onion and mushroom pie



Half a kilo of boneless shin should be enough for four people and definitely won’t break the bank. Expect to pay no more than 3 or 4 quid.

500g boneless beef shin, cut into chunks
6-8 small onions, each about the size of a ping pong ball
Half a handful of dried mixed mushrooms – porcini and shiitake are ideal
A tablespoon of tomato puree
A couple of bay leaves and two sprigs of thyme
A can of stout – Guiness or Murphy’s are both good
500ml of stock, either dark chicken or beef
As many button mushrooms as you want, cut into quarters
Salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce for seasoning

You will also need a favoured pastry recipe.

Peel and quarter the onions trying to leave the root end vaguely in tact.

Toss the beef in seasoned flour and brown in oil over a high heat, in batches if necessary so you don’t overcrowd the pan. Drain the meat on a couple of sheets of kitchen roll and brown the onions in the pan for a couple of minutes. Return the meat to the pot, add the tomato puree and cook for a couple of minutes before pouring in the stout and stock.

Poke the herbs and dried mushrooms into the liquid, cover with a cartouche and cook in a very low oven for 4-5 hours. Add the button mushrooms and cook for a further hour then remove from the oven and leave to cool whilst you make the pastry.

Line a large pie dish or a series of individual ones with the pastry, spoon as much of the beef and mushroom filling in as you can then top with more pastry. Brush with egg, poke a little hole in the top and cook for 35-40 minutes at 160-180 degrees centigrade.



Serve with peas and either mashed potato, bread and butter or both and a sticky onion gravy if you’re craving extra richness.

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