Spread the love

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe

This Lotus Leaf Glutinous Rice post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer.

Lotus leaf glutinous rice or 荷叶飯 (literally translated as lotus leaf rice) or Hor Yip Fan (in Cantonese) is an iconic Chinese Cantonese rice dish eaten commonly in dim sum restaurants and Chinese restaurants, and even during wedding dinners or festivities. It’s a savoury dish made of the sticky rice with glue-like texture and topped with different types of proteins, mushrooms and other vegetables. You can be creative in what kind of toppings you want to add, although typically chicken, pork, prawns, Chinese cured sausages are used in restaurants. It’s versatile in the way you can make it a simple dim sum dish, or add in some treasured ingredients and you will have an exquisite version.

For our family’s reunion dinner for Lunar New Year every year, I’ll always make this dish as I can prepare the ingredients in advance and just leave it to steam while I prepare other freshly cooked dishes. And to make it unique and celebratory, of course I’ll be using the prized abalones.

What is Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice, is commonly known as sticky rice or sweet rice. Like all other types of rice, glutinous rice is gluten-free, I know, the name kind of implies it’s with gluten. But the name glutinous actually means sticky. This type of rice needs to be soaked before cooking so it will turn out soft and nice.

There are many health benefits associated with glutinous rice, such as anti-cancer properties, anti-inflammatory properties. However that does not mean you should overload on it. Glutinous rice is hard to digest so eat it in moderation.

This rice can be used to make savoury dishes such as Hokkien rice dumpling, lo mai gai, and sweet dishes such as mango stick rice, kue tai tai, and kueh salat.

Glutinous rice, when milled, becomes flour and is used to make into snacks or desserts commonly found in Southeast Asia. This includes sweet dumplings (tang yuan), onde onde, muah chee (mochi), ang ku kueh, just to name a few.

What are the ingredients for Lotus Leaf Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice is one of the key feature in this dish. It cannot be substituted with any other rice as no other rice has the sticky texture like glutinous rice after cooked. Rinse it a couple of times until the water turns clearer, then soak it for at least 4 hours. I’ll usually fry it with some aromatics and seasoning sauce to give it flavour, then add a bit of water and steam until it turns fluffy and soft.
Dried lotus leaves – This is one ingredient that can be challenging to find. I didn’t manage to find it in supermarkets nor Chinese medical halls in Singapore. But I managed to get it online on Shopee and Amazon. Dried lotus leaves need to be hydrated before using it for cooking, if not, the leaves will just crack. Just boil it in water for about 8 minutes and you can use it immediately. Alternatively I’ve seen some recipes that soak it in water for 2 hours and I find that takes too much time.
Seasonings – The usual suspects in Chinese cooking such as fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper and sesame oil are used in this recipe.
Aromatics – Nothing too fancy, only dried shrimps, shallots and garlic cloves are used. They are first sauteéd in sesame oil before adding the rice.
Toppings – Since this is a Lunar New Year dish, I will be using mini abalones braised in Chinese sauces, pre-cooked chestnuts which gives a beautiful nutty aroma, fresh shiitake mushrooms and Chinese cured sausage.

What is the difference between Lotus leaf rice and Lo Mai Gai

Lo Mai Gai uses marinated chicken as the main protein. It’s steamed in a smaller bowl, usually aluminium foil or stainless steel bowl with salted egg, Chinese cured sausage and mushrooms and stir fried glutinous rice. Lotus leaf rice, on the other hand, can be using different proteins such as chicken, pork, seafood and is stir fried (similar to Lo Mai Gai), and wrapped with a lotus leaf before steaming to infuse the fragrance of the lotus leaf into the rice.

Other ways to use abalone

There are many different ways to cook abalone or make it as a cold dish. Whichever ways you choose, it’s guaranteed to make an impression at the dinner table.