Last Thanksgiving Morgan was introduced to my aunt’s "sticky rice" and it was love at first bite! Since then we’ve been pestering her for the recipe but to no avail. So instead of waiting for Thanksgiving to roll around this year we decided to do a little online research and replicate the dish the best we could. After several tries this is how we’ve faired.

Ingredients

• 3 cups sweet rice (rice cups not measuring cups)
• 6-8 dried shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
• small handful dried baby shrimp
• 4 Chinese sausages
• 1/2 yellow or white onion
• 2 stalks green onions
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsps. soy sauce
• 1 tbls. oyster sauce

The very first thing you want to do is soak the rice in cold water overnight or for at least four hours. Rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms and shrimp in separate bowls filled with cold water for about 30 minutes. While they are soaking dice the onion, green onions and Chinese sausage. For the Chinese sausage I first quartered them lengthwise then chopped into smaller pieces. After the shiitake has rehydrated remove from water (but reserve the liquid) and chop finely. Also scoop out the baby shrimp and toss the soaking water.

Heat a small skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Combine the sausage, onions, shrimp and mushrooms and saute until the onions turn translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the soy sauce and oyster sauce, mix then remove from heat.

Drain the rice and transfer to the rice cooker pot if you didn’t already use it for soaking. Add the chicken broth to the rice then use the reserve liquid from the mushrooms to fill the pot up to line 3 (since we’re cooking 3 cups of rice). The picture above has some sliced shiitake on top but this is totally unnecessary. Next add the sauteed mixture on top of the rice. Do not mix.

Close the lid of the rice cooker and set to cook. We have a snazzy Zojirushi rice cooker that has a specific setting for "mixed rice" but if you don’t have that you can steam the rice for about 30 minutes or until all the broth has been absorbed. When done, open the lid and using the rice scoop gently fold/mix the ingredients together.

Makes 6-8 servings