Tonight's meal was very well received; I adapted a recipe for one of my favorite dishes: chinese claypot rice with mushrooms and bok choy.
Recipes vary: some call for the rice to be cooked and ingredients added later. I decided to go with combining all the ingredients allowing the flavors to meld and infuse the rice. I also deviated a bit with the inclusion of miso; I saw it included in a recipe from the now defunct luckypeach website.
The ingredients are as follows: (NOTE: i eyeball everything, proportions are relative.)
8 cup rice
4 lbs boneless dark chicken meat (but you can use regular chicken thighs)
(optional) 4-6 chinese sausages, sliced diagonally into bite sized pieces
4 oz dried slivered shiitake mushrooms (available at most asian supermarkets - you can whole dried mushrooms, but this saves prep time, and pre-cut mushrooms are much more affordable. You can substitute any other type of mushroom, but shiitakes have a unique taste and texture. Some places sell fresh shiitakes, but shiitakes are unique in how well they retain their flavor when dried.)
oyster sauce - sorry but this is essential it comes in bottles that are the same shape as glass ketchup bottles, available at any chinese supermarket.
miso (i typically have brown miso in the fridge, along with another container with half miso, half butter that i sometimes use in place of butter. it's really good.)
rice wine- you can substitute cooking sherry, i suppose.
garlic -about 4 cloves minced, to taste
a large white onion, diced
bok choy, about 2 lbs. that seems like a lot, but it's not.
corn starch - about 1/4 cup
sesame oil
Some of what I do is optional, but I believe each of these steps contributes to the flavor.
- If you have dried mushrooms, soak them in warm water for about a half hour. Drain the mushrooms, but retain all the soaking liquid - there's flavor there that should not be wasted.
- Put about half the dry rice in the rice pot, enough to cover the bottom. This allows a crust to form on the bottom as the rice cooks. Purists will object to my not washing the rice. I can live with that.
- Sear the chicken. Usually the fat on the chicken is sufficient, but add oil as needed. The browning adds flavor, but more importantly, it works like the technique of japanese tataki in that searing the outside firms it up and makes it easier to cut into bite size pieces compared to cutting raw boneless chicken. If you elect to use whole chicken thighs, you can leave them whole (one thigh per serving) or use kitchen shears to cut off bite size pieces, and place the chicken and bones to the rice pot. If you just put raw sliced chicken in the pot, it will still be good, just not completely fantastic.
Add oyster sauce & miso (about 1/4 cup each) a splash of rice wine and 4 minced garlic cloves, salt & sugar to taste. Some folks like to add sesame oil here, I find that the fragrance cooks off and prefer to add it later.
- (optional) - if there's a fair amount of fat left in the pan, add the remaining (dry) rice to it and stir over medium heat. The rice should change color slightly reflecting the absorbing of the fat as well as a little bit of browning of the rice. A small detail, but I think you can taste the difference. Either way, add the remaining rice to the pot. This should effectively bury the other ingredients
- (optional) - sauteing the diced onion in the pan used to sear the chicken - especially if you haven't browned the rice, this effectively deglazes the pan, loosening the browned bits which you then add to the pot. Otherwise, simply add the onion to the pot.
-Wash/clean the bok choy and cut into 2" lengths, stalks and leaves. Place on top of the other ingredients.
- I normally use a ratio of 3:2 liquid to rice. For this recipe I account for the amount of moisture in the bok choy and add 8 cups of water to the pot. If you have the soaking liquid from the shiitakes, include this. You may need to adjust this depending on your ingredients and your cooking pot.
- Use the "white rice setting" (if there is one), and start the rice cooker.
- If you haven't done anything with the pot since you seared the chicken, here's your last chance to take advantage of this flavor source (and also if you forgot to use the soaking liquid from the mushrooms) - place about 4 cups cool water/soaking liquid into the pan, along with 1/4 cup of cornstarch and a tablespoon of soy sauce (mainly for color). Dissolve the corn starch thoroughly (no lumps), then bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring and loosening anything left stuck to the pan. Add the gravy (& sesame oil to taste) to the rice pot after the rice has finished cooking, stir thoroughly, Let sit for a few minutes, then enjoy.
