Pictorial: Steamed Chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaves

[hzrt8w]

Pictorial Recipe

Steamed Chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaves (荷香蒸滑雞)

Lotus leaves are a common ingredient in Cantonese dim sum dishes and steamed dishes. After steaming, the fragrance of the lotus leaves has transferred to the food and leaves a characteristic taste.

Serving Suggestion: 4 - 5

Preparations:

This is a picture of the main ingredient: Dried lotus leaves. They are sold in the Asian markets in bundles of 20 to 30 in a plastic bag. Use 5 leaves for this dish (actually it only needs 4, but use 1 more as a spare in case one of the leaves has big holes).

Main ingredients (upper-right, clockwise):

- 1 1/2 lb (to 2 lb) of bone-in chicken

- 3 Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage)

- Dried mushrooms - about 20 pieces

- Fish maw - use about 2 to 3 pieces

(Not shown in picture):

- Lily buds - use a handful, about 40 - 50

- Wood-ear fungi - use a handful, about 10 to 15 pieces

- Ginger, use 1 to 2 inches in length

- 3 stalks of green onions

This is another featured ingredient: fish maw. They are sold in dried form. Use about 3 medium-size pieces.

Fish maw needs to be soaked in water ahead of time: at least 3 hours or overnight. Place the fish maw pieces in a big mixing bowl and fill it with water. Fish maw is very light and it will float on top. Use a bowl or plate to weigh it down.

Soak the dried lily buds and wood-ear fungi in another mixing bowl filled with water for about 1 hour.

Soak the dried black mushrooms in another mixing bowl filled with water for about 1 to 2 hours.

Chop the bone-in chicken into bite-size pieces, about 1 to 2 inches each piece.

To marinate the chicken, use a mixing bowl, add the chicken pieces and:

- 1 to 2 tsp of salt (to taste)

- 3 to 4 tsp of sesame oil

- 2 to 3 tsp of ground white pepper

- 3 to 4 tsp of ShaoHsing wine

- 2 to 3 tsp of light soy sauce

- 2 to 3 tsp of dark soy sauce

- 4 to 5 tsp of corn starch (or potato starch)

Mix well. Set aside for at least 30 minutes before cooking.

Take the soaked fish maw, drain off the water. Cut into 1 inch strips.

Drain the water from the soaked black mushrooms. Remove stems and cut into halves.

Drain the water from the soaked lily buds and wood-ear fungi. If you like, cut them into halves.

Cut the Chinese sausages into thin slices.

Cut the ginger into thin slivers and green onions into 1 to 2 inch pieces.

Combine all the additional ingredients into the mixing bowl with the marinated chicken.

Mix all the ingredients well.

The dried lotus leaves need to be pre-boiled to make them soft. Boil a big pot of water. Add 1 tsp of baking soda (this will soften up the leaves). Add the lotus leaves and boil for about 3 minutes.

You may leave the lotus leaves in the hot water until cooking time to keep them moist.

Cooking Instructions:

I steamed the chicken in 2 dishes (all the ingredients are too much to fit in one dish).

Use a deep dish, line one lotus leaf at the bottom.

Scoop half of the marinated chicken, fish maw and other ingredients and place them on top of the lotus leaf.

Place the dish in a steamer. Lay another piece of lotus leaf on top to cover the ingredients.

Repeat the same procedure for the second dish. Steam with lid on for 30 minutes.

This is what it looks like after 30 minutes of steaming. Remove and discard the top leaf and place the steaming dish on top of a serving plate.

Picture of the finished dish. (Sorry, I should have trimmed off the edges of the lotus leaf or tuck them under to make a better presentation.)

[Chris Amirault]

Fantastic as always, Ah Leung! Can you post up a photo of the fish maw packaging?

[Dejah]

Great looking liu, Ah Leung Silow.

But, you don't need to boil the lotus leaf, just soak it for acouple of hours in hot water with a weighted plate on top. But then, I suppose you were in a hurry?

To maximize the flavour of the lotus leaf, try cutting the leaf in half, then wrapping some of the liu into a packet as with lotus leaf nor mai fan. It's easier to take to work that way too!

My son's collegues at work are always amazed at the lunches he takes in. Finally, he told them his mom is Chinese.

[Pan]

For what it's worth, I love these kinds of dishes, and I'd love to eat that dish!

[mizducky]

Cool! I have yet to play with lotus leaves; now that I see how simple it is, I'm encouraged to give it a go.

What other meat/vegetable/etc. combinations are typical liu in lotus leaves?

Are there any Chinese dishes in which foods are wrapped in leaves meant to be eaten? I'm thinking of something equivalent to the stuffed cabbage leaves out of my Jewish culinary tradition.

[JasonZ]

as always, wonderful recipes, gorgeous pictures ... when is the cookbook being published?

Regards,

Jason

[Dejah]

Cool! I have yet to play with lotus leaves; now that I see how simple it is, I'm encouraged to give it a go.

What other meat/vegetable/etc. combinations are typical liu in lotus leaves?

Are there any Chinese dishes in which foods are wrapped in leaves meant to be eaten? I'm thinking of something equivalent to the stuffed cabbage leaves out of my Jewish culinary tradition.

←

I suppose you can put BBQ duck and rice in lotus leaves, but I think it would be a waste of the wonderful flavour of the duck itself. Salted pork belly or char siu may be used as liu.

As for a dish where the leaves are eaten, the only one I can think of is Chinese New Year jai - the vegetarian dish with fermented black beans, fermented soy-soaked olives, fun see, ha mai, fat choi, etc. My family likes to make a huge wokful, then wrap a spoonful in a leaf of iceberg lettuce before eating. That's something I look forward to each year.

[hzrt8w]

[...]

What other meat/vegetable/etc. combinations are typical liu in lotus leaves?

Are there any Chinese dishes in which foods are wrapped in leaves meant to be eaten?

←

Not too many in Chinese custom. We use lotus leaves and bamboo leaves to help cook the ingredients (and transfer the fragrance to the food), but don't eat the leaves. In traditional Chinese cooking (unless it's in Hainan or the south provinces perhaps?) we don't use banana leaves like South East Asian countries.

The only item that I can think of is "Sung Choi Bao" [Cantonese], which is a stir-fried dish with minced pigeon (or some use squab or chicken) with minced black mushrooms, waterchestnuts, and deep-fried mung bean threads and you wrap up the minced ingredients with a lettuce leaf to eat.

[hzrt8w]

as always, wonderful recipes, gorgeous pictures ... when is the cookbook being published?

←

It's already out! My electronic version! I am my own publisher! You may print them out on your color printer. You have my permission.

Have you downloaded a copy? (Sorry, only Windows users... it's a Windows Help file.) I have just changed the file storage site. Now it takes only 2 minutes to download (previously takes 60 minutes) via a cable modem connection. The URL is on my signature. Let me post it here too:

AhLeungPictorials.bravehost.com

(Note: this URL may change. But the correct one can always be found in my signature.)

Edited November 21, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Hmm, I wonder if I can get dried lotus leaves and fish maw here in Korea?

[hzrt8w]

Fantastic as always, Ah Leung! Can you post up a photo of the fish maw packaging?

←

I bought my fish maw from a specialty shop. The packaging only carries the store's logo and nothing else.

You may not be able to find fish maw in a general Asian store. I have only seen it once in a local store and the quality of what they carried is not that great. You may need to buy this from the specialty stores in some China Towns - the kind of stores that carries shark fins, dried scallops, gin seng and such. The prices can vary a bit. And also some prices may be "floating"... if you know what I mean. You need to know your stuff.

To give you some point of reference: The ones that I bought, the quality is... I would say medium. Probably not the top rank. But tastes pretty good. 8 oz package, US $14.00. Bought in San Francisco China Town. Couldn't find it in Sacramento (for that price or quality). There are about 15 pieces of fish maw (like the ones I showed in the picture) in the package.

Fish maw is not exactly the fish's mouth. It is the fish's organ (what's the name for it?) that inflates and deflates that helps a fish float. It is (I believe) blown up like a balloon, dried and then deep-fried (???). Looks kind of like deep-fried pork rind, except it is white in color.

Edited November 21, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[CFT]

The only item that I can think of is "Sung Choi Bao" [Cantonese], which is a stir-fried dish with minced pigeon (or some use squab or chicken) with minced black mushrooms, waterchestnuts, and deep-fried mung bean threads and you wrap up the minced ingredients with a lettuce leaf to eat.

My dad used to make deep fried battered oysters which were eaten with a lettuce leaf wrap. I don't know what seasonings, if any, were used. The hot-cold contrast was very nice.

[Cadbury]

Fish maw is not exactly the fish's mouth.  It is the fish's organ (what's the name for it?) that inflates and deflates that helps a fish float.    It is (I believe) blown up like a balloon, dried and then deep-fried (???).  Looks kind of like deep-fried pork rind, except it is white in color.

←

I found this reference to fish maw in wikipedia: The gas bladder (also fish maw, less accurately swim bladder or air bladder) is an internal organ that contributes to the ability of a fish to control its buoyancy.

[Fugu]

Googled fish maw and came up with....hzrt8w's thread, ofcourse. I have never tried fish maw but I was curious what they were and how it was prepared. I thought they were some sort of fish rind similar to pork rinds.

Iron Chef Moriomoto was at Toronto's downtown Chinatown, he had fish maw but I am not sure how it was prepared. He was in Toronto to promote his new cook book.

The Asian store I frequent have these and all sort of wonderful ingredients I have yet to discover and explore. They even sell frozen turtles .

Thanks, it was a yummy read.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Fugu (log)

[hzrt8w]

Googled fish maw and came up with....hzrt8w's thread, ofcourse.  I have never tried fish maw but I was curious what they were and how it was prepared. I thought they were some sort of fish rind similar to pork rinds.

←

Fish maw is not fish skin. It is fish bladder. (Is it a "bladder" technically? It's the organ the helps a fish float/sink.) The bladder is blown up like a bubble then dried. Do they deep-fry it? I am not sure.

Edited November 6, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)