Taro and Purple sticky rice

Ingredients

1 cup sticky rice, and 0.75 cup water

1 cup black or purple rice, and 1.5 cup water

1 tablespoon cooking oil

5 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons cooking oil or black sesame oil

A small chunk of ginger, sliced

12 small shiitake mushrooms, sliced

2 cups cooked taro, chopped 1cm square

½ cup soup stock

Coriander, chopped for garnishing

Preparation

1. 1. Rinse the the rice in water a few times, and drain away that water thoroughly. Then add 0.75 +1.5 cup water, and leave the rice to soak for 2 hours. Then add one tablespoon of cooking oil and steam the rice.

 

2. 2. Prepare the sauce, in a bowl, add the soy sauce and sugar together, and mix well.

 

3. 3. When cooking this dish, we usually use aged ginger, to give the sticky rice a strong flavor.

 

4. 4. Rinse the shiitake mushrooms with warm water for about 30 minutes, then slice.

 

5. 5. Cook the taro, you can cut the taro into 4cm chunks, then deep fry it.

6. Or, you can bake the taro: season the taro with some oil then bake until it’s cooked. When the taro is cooked, cut the taro into 1cm squares.

Instructions

1. 1. Prepare a frying pan. Place it on the stove top and add a few tablespoons of cooking oil to the pan. Adjust the stove to medium heat.

2. 2. Gently place the sliced ginger and shiitake mushrooms in the oil. Sauté for about 10 minutes, or until you can smell a good aroma from the pan.

3. 3. Add the chopped taro to the ginger and shiitake mushroom, keep stirring for a few more minutes so you can also smell the nice taro flavor.

4. 4. Adjust the stove to low heat. Add the steamed sticky rice to the pan, add the sauce and stock to the pan, and keep stirring until everything is evenly mixed.

5. 5. The taro sticky rice is now ready to serve. But you can quickly steam it for about 10 minutes before serving, the flavour will be very good.

6. 6. Garnish with some chopped coriander.

Some tips

1. 1. Very often I found that sticky rice I cooked was too soft or too hard - the secret is use the right amount of sticky rice and water. When cooking with white sticky rice, after the rice is rinsed and drained, the rice to water ratio is 1:0.75

2. 2. When cooking with black or purple rice, after the rice is rinsed and drained the rice to water ratio is 1:1.5

3. 3. When cooking sticky rice, it’s better to first soak the rice in water for at least 2 hours. This fermentation process prevents stomach bloating.

4. 4. Adding some oil when cooking sticky rice prevents the rice from sticking together.

5. 5. Adjust the balance between soy sauce and sugar according to your preference. Feel free to add more or less sugar.

6. 6. You can choose to use any cooking oil, such as sunflower oil. But if you want to make a very authentic Taiwanese sticky rice dish, then only use black sesame oil, which has a very strong aroma. Sometimes, I mix both oils.

7. 7. Some of our students asked: It’s not easy to find taro sometimes, what can I do? It’s possible to use Chinese sausage, or boiled/steamed soft peanuts.