Love Life, Hate Kittens

Claypot rice (煲仔飯) is my number one most favorite thing to eat in the winter. Warm savory rice, chinese sausage, mushrooms… lasts for days and you can just put the lid back on and toss the entire thing in your fridge. If I was a college kid, I’d make this all the time. 

So I know you’re wondering, how does one go about making clay pot rice? magnets, how do they work? It’s actually ridiculously easy. But if you are breaking in your claypot* for the first time, please soak the entire thing in cold water for at least a day or in my case, I always feel that 3 hours more than qualifies as a day. Who has the patience? But the point of this is that if you place the unsoaked clay pot on heat, it might crack and break :( 

Do not use soap. Claypots are porous. When you wash, use water and scrub and because of this don’t make anything like curry or strong flavoring foods your first go round. The smell/flavor will permeate all of your later claypot adventures. 

*Note: If you’re white, I know what you’re thinking, “Hey! I saw claypots at Sur la Table!” No, just buy one from your local 99 Ranch Market or an asian market. It’s in the last aisles next to all the other cookery and incense. It’s 12 bucks. 

So on to the actual cooking! I adapted this from Hung on Top Chef and you can use a regular saucepan if you don’t have a claypot but claypot is definitely more impressive. I use both because I don’t have full faith in my claypotting skills and I think a regular saucer works just fine and faster.

Ingredients:

1 cup of rice (short grain or medium grain works)

1/2 pound of shiitake mushrooms (you can use less or more depending on how much you like shrooms and if you’re adding chicken, then use less)

2 green onions, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon of Lee Kum Kee Sweet Soy Sauce (it’s specifically made for claypot rice and will say so on the bottle)

1 tsp of regular soy sauce (i bought this ‘mushroom soy sauce’ that was pretty good as well)

4 chinese sausages sliced in bit sized pieces

1 huge tablespoon of garlic

1 table spoon of ginger, sliced in thin strips

1 1/4 cup of water

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

Directions

1. Presoak your rice/Rinse until water runs clear.

2. Mix mushrooms and sausage with a little bit of the sweet soy sauce and regular soy sauce. Just eyeball it and don’t go overboard. You just want the shrooms to absorb some flavor prior to cooking. Use pepper if you’d like.

3. Heat sesame oil in a pan (like something you’d heat up soup in or at least something with raised sides), add ginger and garlic after oil is heated. Fry until fragrant but don’t let the garlic burn or it turns bitter. 

4. Add mushrooms and chinese sausage. Mix well for a couple minutes.

5. Add the rice to your mushroom/sausage mixture and mix until the rice is coated with all the delicious flavor.

6. Add the sweet soy sauce and regular soy sauce and cook for another couple minutes. 

7. Add in your water and turn the heat to low and cover for 10 minutes.

7a. At this point if you’re using a claypot, put it on low in another burner.

8. After 10 minutes most of the water should be absorbed, you can keep this on low and do a taste test and see if the rice is cooked. If you’re in a hurry, you can eat now. 

9. If you’re not in a hurry and would like the flavors to intensify, then transfer the entire rice mixture into the hot pot, cover and keep it on low. Stir every 15 minutes until you are ready to eat. 

Note: I know the picture looks like its drenched in soy because its so dark but the sweet soy sauce actually doesn’t really provide any saltiness. Hence why you need the regular soy as a back up.