White Gourd Braised Rice (白莆焖饭）

INTRODUCTION

This is an old recipe relocated from the Guaishushu’s Facebook pages with new photo taking.

When you looked at the picture, you may think that it is fried rice, in fact it is not. It is a braised rice or vegetable rice. In Mandarin, there are a number of name to it, it can be called 油饭，菜饭，焖菜饭 or 焖饭。

My late parents used to cook this type of rice. Unlike other dialect groups, Chawan (Zhaoan or 诏安）braised rice usually limited to two types of vegetable, white gourd （白莆） and bok Choy (大白菜）or napa cabbage。Green vegetables will not be used as these leafy vegetables cannot withstand long hours of cooking. In addition, the green colour will turn yellowish when cooked for long hours. Therefore, only white vegetables were used traditionally. Having said that, other dialects do braised rice using long bean, cabbages or mustard green.

Traditional cooking are using lard to sauté the shallots. However, for health purpose, I have used normal vegetable cooking oil. Of course, that will sacrifice the taste of the dish. But is it not health is more important? This dish shall be categorized as a one pot noodle and rice dish.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings :5-6 adult servings

500 grams of white gourd (or napa cabbage)
250 grams of pork belly meat (or minced meat)
2 medium sized mushrooms – soak and cut into thin stripes
5 small shallots – slice into thin pieces
1 small carrots – julienned into thin stripes
1 tablespoons of dried shrimps (not in picture)
3-4 cups of white rice (washed)
2 tablespoon of cooking oil (not in picture)
Dashes of white pepper
Pinches of salt
Seasoning (chicken stock, light soya sauce or vegetable stock) to taste

STEPS OF PREPARATION

De-skin the white gourd, julienne into thin stripes and set aside. When slicing the white gourd, if you knife can easily cut through the seeds, these seeds are edible. If it is hard to cut, it considered as too mature and you have to throw away all the parts that have seeds.

Blanch the pork belly in hot water for 15-20 minutes. Drain and cut into think stripes. Keep the meat broth. Alternatively, you can also use minced meat for this dish.

In a big frying pan, put some oil and fried the shallots until almost golden brown. Add small shrimps, pepper, salt, mushrooms and sliced pork belly (or minced meat). Fried for a while until well mixed (about 2 minutes). Add in julienned white gourd and carrots and fried for another 2 minutes and until well mixed.

Wash your rice, sieved and put the white rice. Stir fried 2-3 minutes until well mixed. Add seasonings of your choice (e.g.. Light soya sauce, sugar, more pepper, fish sauce, mushroom concentrates ). Transfer to a rice cooker or you can continue using this frying pan (Wok). Add the meat broth earlier to the rice cooker The quantity of liquid should be just enough to cover the rice. If you want your rice to be damp, more meat broth can be added. (see notes below)

Use the rice cooker function for oiled rice (if any) or white rice. Occasional stirring is required to ensure all rice are evenly cooked. Add additional meat broth or re-cook for another cycle if your rice is uncooked. Keep the rice in the rice cooker for at least 15 minutes before serving. Best served hot with additional garnishes such as : Seaweed meat floss, spring onions, Chinese gallery, fried eggs .

Note :

Generally, 1 cup of rice will require 1 cup of meat broth. As this is a vegetable rice, your water should be slightly reduced since cooked vegetable will emit some more vegetable juices. For example, if 4 cups of water is required to cook 4 cups of rice,than for vegetable rice, 3 cups of water should be adequate. In the event you find that the rice is too dry or not cooked, just add some more meat broth.

Another point to note is the vegetables and meat will add to the capacity of the rice. For example, if the capacity of your rice cooker is 5 cups, the more you can cook will be 3-3.5 cups of vegetable rice.

CONCLUSION

Remember that is a rather basic recipe for vegetable braised rice.. Alternative vegetables that you can consider are: long bean, cabbage, napa cabbage, mustard green. This is a flexible recipe, a bit more or less is acceptable and feel free to adjust the seasoning to suit your family’s taste buds.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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