Loh Mai Kai aka Glutinous Chicken Rice

The Uncle from Balik Pulau said ...."After the Bak Chang Festival, is when the Penang durians will drop from the trees".

When I went home earlier this year, I had wanted to visit a durian farm in Balik Pulau, but he said that there was nothing to see at the moment, only a baby durian if any and this was way back in January when I was home.

Sigh, the only thing I took away from his nutmeg tour was, that piece of advice. I still don't get the boy nutmeg and the girl nutmeg and the whole reproduction thing. Hehehehehe. So me, being the dumb chinese person, asked "Uncle, so when ah, is the durian season?" He goes "Aiyo, bak chang before Durians.... around July...so after bak chang, durian already come."

So that means, the Bak Chang festival is around the corner, mind you, I have seen so many photos of people eating and making bak chang. This is a good thing, it can only mean Durian time is straight after!

Of course since I am back here in Aussie, there are no chance of sampling any Penang durians or for that matter Malaysian durians. All we ever get here are the frozen varieties, imported from Thailand. We will not get any Malaysian durians here in Australia. Sad ;( 


So, no Malaysian durians but we can still Wang Chung right? Sigh, I don't have any bamboo leaves for Bak Chang. I wanted to make Loh Mai Kai instead. And I didn't have any lotus leaves either. Sometimes living in the woop woop is hard and depressing! For those wondering what a Bak Chang is, it is rice dumplings with meat inside. Here is an example http://mykitch3n.blogspot.com.au/2007/01/homemade-bak-chang-dumpling.html

So, no bamboo leaves, no lotus leaves...meh, small matter! It's not going to stop me. We'll go naked! Well, not quite! We have a claypot! Life saver! What I ended up making this morning was Loh Mai Kai which is the simpler version, without the wrapping. 

Firstly, you need to know how to prepare the sticky rice, check out this link. http://www.foodcanon.com/2011/10/making-perfect-glutinous-sticky-rice.html

So my version is adapted from http://www.pigpigscorner.com/2009/07/steamed-sticky-glutinous-rice-with.html because there lots that I do not have in the pantry. So I had to make do with what I've got.

You might also be interested in this link on roasting chestnuts 

1. glutinous rice
2. dried shrimp
3. shitake mushrooms
4. chinese sausage (even though I don't eat pork, I added this for flavour, it smells fantastic) 
5. marinated chicken in dark soy, sesame oil and black pepper.
6. chestnuts
7. Claypot