Family Recipe 47 - Oil Rice

Ingredients: Dried shiitake mushrooms, pork hind leg (tenderloin), glutinous rice, shallots, sugar, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, white pepper powder Instructions: 1. Rinse dried shiitake mushrooms and soak them in water. Slice the pork hind leg and marinate with white pepper, soy sauce, and rice wine. Slice the shallots. 2. Heat oil in a pan and sauté shallots over low heat until crispy, set aside (you can also use store-bought fried shallots). 3. Slice the shiitake mushrooms and reserve the soaking water. 4. Turn on the heat, stir-fry the shiitake mushrooms in the oil used for frying shallots. Add the shredded pork and stir-fry until separated, then add salt, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, and shiitake mushroom water. Simmer for a few minutes, then add the fried shallots and mix well. 5. Rinse the glutinous rice. Add water at a ratio of 1:0.7 (glutinous rice:water), using the stir-fried sauce first and supplementing with water if needed. Do not add the stir-fried ingredients yet. 6. Place in a rice cooker. Oil rice does not need to be soaked; cooking it directly after rinsing prevents it from breaking apart. Cook, and let it steam for 10 minutes after the cooker finishes. 7. While hot, add the stir-fried ingredients to the glutinous rice and mix well. I prefer to add the sauce to the glutinous rice and cook them together for more even flavor. Some methods involve cooking the rice first and then mixing it with the stir-fried ingredients and sauce, which can lead to uneven flavor and overly moist oil rice. If you prefer a fattier taste, you can substitute with pork belly, but make sure to remove the skin.