Let’s cut to the chase. Yoú Fàn translated is Oil Rice, while not the most appetizing sounding name for a dish, it does capture the soul of sticky rice drowsed and mixed in sesame oil. The word 黏 (nián, sticky) is synonym to 年 (also nián, year), so this is a great dish to bust out during the lunar new year. I served this dish this year (2024) as part of my annual spread of food, and this is the most requested recipe!
This recipe is based off my nanny’s recipe growing up in Taipei pre K thru twelve. She’s an amazing cook who cooks amazing meat dishes without ever tasting a single bite because she’s vegetarian.
Before we dive in the recipe, I would implore you to think of a few things:
- How cooked do you want your rice to be? - I’m in the al dente camp. When you eat them, the individual grains separate immediately in your mouth. If you’re like my father, he likes the mushy kind that you cook until the grains start to disintegrate a little bit. This will come out with a more homogenous texture.
- What gets mixed in with the rice? - Plain sticky rice is a bit underwhelming. This is a good chance to put some stuff in for texture contrast. Common ingredients are dried shiitake mushroom (re-hydrated), bean curds, and gluten. Yes, straight gluten.
- What would you place on top of the rice? - This will be part presentation, and part flavour boost. I tend to use seafood and/or cured meat that will render fat and juice for the rice to soak up during the last steam session
- Please read through the recipe first - lots of time sensitive actions are present and you don’t want to not realize there are precursors steps in the middle of the chaos
Special Equipment
- Steamer, preferably bamboo or steel, where the bottom of the steamer basket is perforated
- Cheesecloth, used in conjunction with the steamer
- A big wok or pan, where it‘s easy to mix large amounts of ingredients quickly on the stove
Ingredients
Group A, prepped hours before cooking:
- 4 rice cups(720ml) Short Grain Sticky/Glutenous Rice
- 6-8 Dried Shiitake Mushroom
- 1 handful of Dried/Fried Gluten
Group B
- (Optional) 1 handful of chestnuts
- (Optional) 1 tbs of dried shrimp aka 蝦皮/蝦米
- 1 thumb sized ginger, peeled then sliced 2-3mm(1/8") thick
- For substitutes to mix with the rice: I would recommend umami-driven, harder but not chewy textured ingredients to contrast with the rice
- Cilantro for garnish
Toppings
I would advice putting one or two:
- 1 Dungeness Crab
- 1 Unagi fillet/Japanese eel with sauce
- 2-3 Chinese Sausage of your choice
- 2 full legs of chicken if you have them red-braised a day or two beforehand
- Anything that signifies prosperity in your culture, really. I would avoid greens and vegetables that can’t stand steaming a long time
Sauce
- 1/2 cup of 香油 (xuang yoú, white sesame oil diluted with equal parts of neutral oil, in case your Chinese grocery doesn’t have it already on the shelf)
Mix together:
- 3 tbs Light or Japanese Soy Sauce
- 3 tbs Thick Oyster Sauce
- 0.5-1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tbs Hot Water to help dissolve sugar
Steps
- Presoak Group A ingredients. The trick is to soak the shiitake mushrooms with hot water first. After the mushrooms are soaked through, use the water from the shiitake mushroom to soak the sticky rice. Add enough water so it covers the rice over half an inch, 30 minutes up to 6 hours. Soak the gluten in salted hot water separately
- Prepping ingredients: Cut the shiitake mushroom into slivers, squeeze the water out from the glutens, wash and prep all the seafood, cut up the sausages, and mix the sauce, etc
- Preheat the steamer, and line the steamer with wet cheesecloth. The rice will stick to the cheesecloth and make it very hard to work with. One or two layers so the rice grains doesn’t go through the fabric
- This step involves parsteaming the rice. Drain the rice from its soaking water, then pour the drained rice into the cheesecloth lined steamer evenly. Use your finger to poke some holes 15cm(1/2') apart in the rice to promote even steaming. Steam for 10 minutes if you’re in the al dente camp, or up to 15 minutes for Papa Wang’s preference. Don’t oversteam the rice, it will make it hard to mix in the following steps
- While the rice is parsteaming, heat up the wok in medium heat for about two minutes, then add the xiang yoú. Sesame oil burns relatively easy so we’re not trying to heat it up too much. Chuck in the ginger slices and adjust the fire so the ginger is lightly bubbling in the oil, ASMR style
- Once the ginger has turned golden or stopped bubbling, discard the ginger pieces, and turn the heat to the lowest. If you choose to use dried shrimp, throw it in just before you disgard. This should happen just before the rice is done parsteaming
- This is where you have to be quick. Once the rice is done parsteaming, dump the rice right into the sesame oil and mix, like your life depends on it.
- After a round of mixing, about a minute in, throw in the shiitake mushroom and gluten, or anything you want to mix into the rice. Here’s another trick - use the sauce you mixed earlier and drizzle in batches over the rice as you mix. The extra moisture will help you mix evenly. Your forearm will thank you
- Once it’s fully mixed, take a small bite and adjust the saltiness. I would use soy sauce to adjust because it's almost impossible to mix salt in at this point. I low key adjust with more xiang yoú too so the rice blings ✨
- Dump the rice back into the lined steam basket evenly, and poke holes like the first time
- Lay the seafood, meat, all the presentation goodness on top. Make it looks sexy, mine looked like a crab lord hoarding all the red medallions (sausage) as you saw above
- Stick the steam basket back to the steam for another 20 minutes, covered. I like to steam on medium high heat, so there’s enough steam to ensure the top presentation stuff is cooked through. After 20 minutes, check if the rice consistency is to your liking. Add steaming time in 5 minute increments until it’s as chewy or mushy to your liking
- That it! Garnish with some cilantro and chili oil if you like a kick, but we normally eat it as is - we’ll be too busy cracking open the crab
- If you need to reheat it, turn the steamer to low and let it sit for around 10 minutes
🛵
