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| Main ingredients for my cabbage rice |
As with many dishes that I had made in the past for my family, this is one of my childhood food. And it is also something my Mum would put together whenever she ran out of ideas of what to feed us with. Old tricks are useful indeed!
I have tasted a few types of cabbage rice. Some are paler in color, while others are more tanned with dark soy sauce. The ingredients vary too: there is the addition of lap cheong (Chinese sausages), some came with long beans while others pile up on chicken pieces. But the basic ingredients are always there: dried shrimps, snips of fatty pork belly, dried shiitake mushrooms and tons of cabbage. Well, I guess I should specify that this is what I will find in my Mum's recipe.
Dad is a great fan of cabbage, and loves this dish fanatically. Even though Mum would be using the whole cabbage (sometimes weighing about 1 kg), he would still complain that there is too little cabbage in the rice! He still complain, but Mum has learned to ignore him. I suppose she had learned to reason that we are having cabbage rice, not cabbage-in-a-pot with rice as an accompaniment!
Anyway, I love the smell and taste of this one pot dish, especially if left overnight and reheated. I know it's probably bad for health, but you know, some things just taste better the next day. Whenever I make this, I will have it ready a couple of hours before dinner. Just so that the rice can be cooled to a comfortable temperature, saving the tongue from being burnt, letting the fragrance of the ingredients permeate every grain of rice. I'd like to call this process "aging".
Here's the recipe, my Mum's way, just the right amount for a family of four.
Cabbage Rice
Ingredients
1 ½ cups of rice
500ml water
handful of dried shrimps, soak in water for 5 minutes 4 dried shiitake mushrooms softened
500g of cabbage, add more if someone complains there's too little
3 shallots, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
150g roast pork belly, cut into bite size
1/2 tsp salt (I used coarse sea salt, so that will be 1 tsp)
dash of pepper
Method
1. Wash the rice and measure out the amount of water required to cook it. For this recipe, the amount of water required for the 1 1/2 cups of rice is 500ml. Drain out all the liquid and set both rice and liquid aside.
2. Soak the dried shrimps and shiitake mushrooms, do not discard away both soaking water. Combine both soaking water and top up with plain water to make 500ml to cook the rice later. Chop softened dried shrimp roughly and slice softened mushrooms to about 1cm thickness.
3. In a pre-heated wok, wok-fry the roast pork belly without oil. This will "force" oil out from the roast pork and thus crisp up the skin. The extracted oil can be used to fry the other ingredients later. This will add a glossy shine especially to the cabbage.
4. Once the roast pork belly has "offered" all its oil and the skin crisped up adequately, dish them out and set aside. In the same wok, add a little more oil if necessary. Saute the shallots and garlic until golden brown.
5. Add the dried shrimps and saute for about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms, continue to saute for a further minute and add the cabbage.
6. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes then add in the rice (drained of all liquid). Continue to stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add in salt and a dash of pepper, mix to combine.
7. Place the above mixture into rice cooker, pour in the liquid preparation from step 2, place some crispy roast pork belly on top and let the cooker do the rest of the cooking. Save some crispy roast pork belly as garnish when serving.
8. Once the rice is cooked, fluff it out a little with a fork and let it stand in the cooker to cool.
Of course there is nothing to stop one from serving it while it is piping hot. But seriously, what is the point of getting the tongue burnt and missing out on a more developed flavor if left uninterrupted for 2-3 hours?
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