Chinese breakfast habits vary widely across the vastness of the country, but one of the most exciting regional traditions is the Cantonese tea breakfast. In Hong Kong and southern China, some of the older tea houses, like the Lin Heung on Hong Kong Island, still open at 6am and quickly fill up with customers who come to "drink tea" (yum cha), read the papers and breakfast on dumplings, buns and other snacks. It would be impractical, bordering on insane, to try to recreate at home the grand array of different snacks served in a typical dim sum restaurant, but these pearly chicken parcels are fairly easy to make and most delicious. The fragrant lotus-leaf parcels enclose a scrumptious mixture of chicken, mushrooms, dried shrimp and other titbits sandwiched between two layers of sticky rice. Some cooks add pieces of char siu (barbecued pork), others fresh prawns or slices of wind-dried sausage, all to enhance the umami deliciousness of the chicken.
You will need a steamer for this recipe – either the kind of bamboo steamer and lid that will fit into your wok, or a broad steel or aluminium steamer. The lotus leaves, dried shrimps, wind-dried sausages and salted duck eggs can all be found in good Oriental supermarkets. Please note that the glutinous rice should be soaked overnight before cooking.
These parcels serve 4, but like most Chinese snacks they're meant to be served alongside other dim sum.
Makes 8 parcels
For the rice:
white glutinous rice 350g, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water
groundnut oil 1 tbsp
salt ¼ tsp
For the chicken and marinade:
boned chicken thighs 2, about 175g
ginger a small piece
salt ¼ tsp
Shaoxing wine (rice cooking wine, available from Oriental stores and Waitrose) ½ tbsp
potato starch ½ tsp
For the rice filling:
dried shiitake mushrooms 2
dried shrimps (wingyipstore.co.uk) 1 tbsp
dried lotus leaves (wingyipstore.co.uk) 2
salted duck eggs (Chinese stores, optional) 2
Chinese wind-dried sausage (Chinese stores) 1 or 50g char siu pork)
fresh bamboo shoots (optional, tinned is fine) 25g
groundnut oil
light soy sauce 1 tsp
dark soy sauce a small dash
sugar a large pinch
Shaoxing wine ½ tbsp
potato starch ½ tsp mixed with 1 tsp water
sesame oil 1 tsp
Soak the white glutinous rice overnight in plenty of cold water.
For the filling, cover the dried mushrooms and shrimps with boiling water from the kettle and leave to soak for at least half an hour. Soak the dried lotus leaves in hot water from the kettle until supple (if you don't have a big enough pan to soak the whole leaves, bring some water to the boil in your largest saucepan or wok and use it to dip in the leaves, turning them until they soften enough to be immersed completely). Use scissors to cut the leaves into quarters, and then trim away the veined part near the centre of the leaves, so you are left with squarish segments roughly 17-20cm.
Add hot water to the base of your steamer and bring to the boil. Break open the salted duck eggs, if using, and separate the whites from the hard, waxy yolks. Put the yolks in a small bowl. Add the softened mushrooms to the bowl, place the bowl in your steamer and steam over a high heat for 15 minutes. Set aside.
For the rice, replenish the base of your steamer with hot water and return to the boil; separately, bring akettleful of water to the boil. Strain the rice in a sieve and pour over the boiling water from the kettle to rinse the grains. Spread the rice across the base of a shallow bowl that will fit into your steamer, place in the steamer and steam over a high heat for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat. When the rice has cooled slightly, use a fork to break apart the grains and stir in the groundnut oil and salt.
While the rice is cooking, cut the chicken thighs into 2cm chunks and place in a bowl. Smack the ginger with the side of a cleaver or a rolling pin and place in a small cup with enough water to cover. Add ½ tbsp of the ginger-fragrant water to the chicken with the other marinade ingredients. Mix well.
To continue making the filling, slice off and discard the mushroom stalks, and thinly slice the caps. Drain the shrimps, retaining the soaking water. Cut the sausage at an angle into thin slices. Cut the bamboo shoot, if using, into slices the size of thumbnails. Quarter the salty egg yolks.
Heat a wok over a high heat. Add 1 tbsp groundnut oil, followed by the dried shrimps. Stir-fry until they smell delicious, then add the mushrooms, sausage and bamboo shoots, and stir-fry until they smell wonderful, too. Tip intoa bowl and set aside.
Return the wok to the stove with another 1 tbsp groundnut oil, and when hot add the chicken and stir-fry until the pieces are very nearly cooked through. Then return the other ingredients to the wok and mix well. Add 50ml of the shrimp- and mushroom-soaking water, with the soy sauce, sugar and remaining Shaoxing wine, and bring to the boil. Give the potato starch mixture a stir and add itto the centre of the wok, stirring asthe sauce thickens. Finally, switch off the heat, add the sesame oil and mixthoroughly.
To wrap the parcels, this is easiest to do while the rice is still warm. Lay a piece of leaf, shiny side up, on a clean board. Brush lightly with oil. Take a small handful of rice (about 40g), and then press into a thin, round layer at the centre of the leaf. Add a layer ofthe chicken mixture, and a piece of egg yolk. Then take another small handful of rice, press it flat on your board andthen lay it on to the chicken, making a kind of sandwich. Fold the sides of the leaf across the rice, and then fold over the two ends, tucking in or trimming any overlap so you end up with a neat parcel with the folds underneath. Repeat with the rest of the rice, filling and egg yolks. Lay the finished parcels in your steamer in a single layer.
When you wish to eat the parcels, steam them over a high heat for 15 minutes. Let your guests unwrap them at the table.
Fuchsia Dunlop's next book, Every Grain of Rice, is published in June by Bloomsbury
