Mama's Sticky Rice Stuffing — travel with emmie

Nothing says Thanksgiving to me like my mom’s sticky rice stuffing that she has perfected over years and that I try really hard to recreate each year. When I was growing up, my mom would host Thanksgiving for our family friends every year. As first generation Chinese Americans, we didn’t really understand where Thanksgiving came from or what the traditional foods were — except that there was a turkey and mashed potatoes. Case in point - for a couple years, the “kids” (including me) went through a baguette and nutella phase, where we literally ate slices of french bread from Safeway slathered with nutella along with our turkey.

My sister and I love helping my mom cook each year, so much so that we actually fight over who gets to chop the veggies and who gets to mash the potatoes! I love the cooking, the food, and just being around the people you love over a delicious meal. When I lived in Beijing, I missed Thanksgiving so much that one year, a friend and I decided to rent out a bar, invite 60 friends, and host a Friendsgiving. Since we were expats, most of our friends were not American, so it was nice to be able to share the holiday with them. And I learned that cooking in large quantities is exponentially more difficult, especially calculating how many times to increase a recipe is an art! My stuffing to turkey ratio was so off, I ended up with so much extra sticky rice stuffing that I wrapped them in lotus leaves and ate them for weeks!

Back to Mama’s Sticky Rice Stuffing! This isn’t really a recipe, it’s more of a how-to. I have this dream where I will write down my mom’s recipes and put together a book someday, mainly for myself, so I have something to refer to when I have a craving.

1 - 2 days before: Soak the Rice

Soak the sticky rice (also called sweet rice) at least 24 hrs before you want to stuff the bird. For one bird, use anywhere from 5 to 8 cups of rice. Rinse well until the water isn't opaque, cover with water (at least 1 inch above the rice), and put it in the refrigerator. There are several ways people have recommended doing this online but at home, my mom always soaks the rice with cold water a day in advance.

1 day before Prepare the Hong Shao Rou

This can be prepared up to a few days in advance. You can also do this the day of, if you want to wake up earlier.

Quantities in parenthesis are super rough! My mom never measures and I don’t either. This is my best guess, taste test at the end to see if you like it!

2 - 3 lbs of pork shoulder/butt
Star of anise (3-4)
Little bit of mala peppercorns (~1 tablespoon)
Chinese cooking wine (~2 tablespoons)
Water (~1/2 cup)
Dark Soy sauce (~1/4 cup)
Rock sugar (1 big piece) - you can also use cane sugar, I’d estimate 1/3 cup
Ginger 1 - 2 inch piece

This is general Hong Shao Rou recipe that you can eat with rice and veggies. My mom has always added it to the sticky rice, the sauce gives the rice amazing flavor and once it steams in the turkey, it comes out amazing. If you forget this step (like I did last year), don’t worry! Just add some soy sauce later and taste test.

Wash the meat and chop into bite sized pieces.
Peel and slice the ginger. Tip: I use a spoon to peel the ginger, you can essentially scrape off all the skin! I find this easier than using a peeler.
Combine all the ingredients in a pot. Make sure you add enough water so liquid covers everything! I did a generous pour of cooking wine and soy sauce, added double the amount of liquid i used for sauces for water. Use more star of anise than of peppercorns. At least one big chunk of sugar.
Taste test! It should taste sweet and savory. If it’s too sweet, add more soy sauce. If it’s too salty or not sweet enough, add some sugar. If you think you’ve over seasoned it, add water.
Bring to a boil and then simmer
Cook until the meat is tender. This can be as little as a few hours or as long as a day. A pressure cooker helps a lot to speed up the process.

Day of - Prepare Veggies

1-2 carrots, chopped
1-2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small can of water chestnuts, chopped
1 small can of bamboo, chopped
Dry Shiitake (handful- soak for a few hours or overnight ahead of time. Save the liquid to use in the stir fry if you want.
Dried Shrimp (1/4 cup) - soak with warm water, this you can do when you start chopping the veggies. Save the liquid to use in the stir fry if you want.
Chinese sausage (2 links)
Salt to taste

Pro-tip! Don’t over cook the veggies, they add a nice crunch. I like to lightly season as I go but you don’t have to.

Chop the veggies into roughly the same size pieces. If the carrots are large, I quarter them lengthwise and then chop. If they're small, cut them into half circles and chop. Same goes for the bamboo, water chestnuts, and shiitake. The goal is to get the pieces in roughly the same size
Stirfry first the carrots + celery + sausage for a few minutes.
Add in the water chest nuts, bamboo, sliced shiitake and shrimp.
I like to add in some water from the shiitake and shrimp to add additional flavor.
Salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients

Rinse the rice, and drain.
Cook the rice in a rice cooker without any added liquid - this is the most important part. Use the "sweet rice" setting on the machine if it asks. The rice should not be mushy once it's done.
Combine rice and veggies until they are mixed.
Add in the Hong Shao Rou pieces and some liquid.
Mix well - this should smell super fragrant! You should be able to smell the meat flavors as well as the veggies. It would also be a good idea to taste test to make sure that the flavors are there each step of the way.
The color should be a light brown.

How to stuff the bird

You will need some turkey pins to secure the stuffing

Unfortunately, I didn’t take great pictures to show you how I did this because my hands were super sticky. Hopefully these instructions are helpful enough!

Make sure your turkey is clean and dry.
Place the turkey with the cavity side down. The side with the flappy skin should be facing the top, you! This is where we stuff first.
Spoon the sticky rice stuffing into this area, packing it down tightly. You’ll want to keep stuffing it until it’s full, see photo.
In the photos, you can see the stuffing packed tightly. You just need to be able to pull the skin over the stuffing and using the turkey needles, stitch the skin and the turkey meat.
Very gently, flip the turkey over so you can stuff the cavity.
Make sure to press and fit as much stuffing in as you can.
When you’re done, cover the bird with foil and put it in the oven!
The sticky rice will continue to cook in the oven with the turkey. Typically it takes roughly 20 mins per pound and the turkey needs to reach 165 degrees in order for it to be done.

Enjoy!! Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you have any questions, I’m always happy to chat.

xo,

Emmie