Steamed Rice with Chinese Lap Cheung Sausage

Weeknight dinners or weekend lunches have been rather uninspiring recently, and yes, I blame myself for it. Despite the lingering chill that held Kolkata in her icy grip, I felt a distinct apathy towards the otherwise appealing Mughlai Breakfast and its myriad substrata, and made my way towards Tiretti Bazaar. Moments later, I ended up at Joy’s pork shop in Tiretti, my favourite butcher, who’s always had a smile for me. I picked some fresh pork, separated some lard to render fat, and asked for a quarter of a kilo of Lap Cheung sausages, Chinese air-dried and cured sausages with a distinct hit of star anise.

I have noted that the version of Lap Cheung available in Kolkata is not as artfully coloured as the ones in Singapore or Thailand, but that might be due to a different curing agent. However, that resulted in getting a dozen links that were then neatly wrapped in newspaper, and I came home with some fresh spring onions.

Making Steamed Rice with Chinese Lap Cheung Sausage

This recipe of Steamed Rice with Chinese Lap Cheung Sausage is sort of derived from two recipes, shared here and here. However, the version I make is, ultimately, quite different, and it does use a good bit of pork fat, or lard. In case you don’t have pork fat, I suggest using either fatty bacon to render out the fat, or use a combination of butter and vegetable oil. I can also suggest frying the Lap Cheung sausages before adding them to the rice, but I personally feel that this overwhelms the rice with the sweet star anise smell, and I want that smell as a background note and not the opening one. Therefore, in my version, the Lap Cheung Sausages aren’t fried, but rather, steamed with the rice.

The other part of this recipe involves the rice. I use Jasmine rice because I find it to be the perfect foil for the Star Anise. However, a short grain rice like Gobindobhog works pretty well, and as long as you’re not using very long grained rice like Basmati, I think you’re good to go. You’ll need one cup of rice to make two to three servings.

Wash, clean, and soak 1 cup jasmine rice in 3 cups of water for an hour. Keep an eye out for small rocks or debris in the rice.

Heat 1 and 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lard in a pan. I had to fry a few bits of pork fat to render the lard and I ended up getting around 2 tablespoons of lard from one 50 gm chunk of fat, chopped into bits. Just heat the pan on low heat, put the fat in, and let the fat get rendered. In the process, the fat will become quite crisp. That is a rather lovely addition to your rice, if I may say so. Once the lard is hot, add 1 teaspoon chopped garlic. Fry for 1-2 minutes. You can see that I didn’t remove the fatty bits of pork after rendering the fat. This is TOTALLY OPTIONAL, but its gorgeous this way!

Add 2 tablespoons chopped spring onion whites. Stir to combine. Keep frying over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes, or until the onions are mildly charred.

Drain the rice and get it as dry as possible. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat it with the lard. This will take a couple of minutes over medium-high heat. Once the rice looks slightly translucent, add 2 dry shiitake mushrooms (optional), soaked in half cup of hot water for ten minutes and then chopped, the mushroom soaking liquor, 3-4 lap cheung sausages, a handful of green peas, and 2 teaspoons salt (or to taste). Add about 2 and 1/2 cups of hot water, stir lightly, bring to a boil, and then cover tightly and cook over simmering heat for 20 minutes. No peeking!

After the 20 minutes are done, without taking off the cover, turn off the heat and let the rice rest for 10-15 minutes at least. That will steam the rice and infuse the flavours better.

Top with some chopped spring onion greens and a sprinkle of white pepper and you’re done! I love serving this with pickled vegetables and some chilli vinegar, but you can also add some sweet soy sauce, or kecap manis, that adds a great touch.

 A Few Words on Storing and Cooking with Lap Cheung

Lap Cheung Sausages are air-dried and cured, so its not difficult to store them in a cool, dry part of your kitchen during the winter season, where temperatures are low. However, this is Kolkata and I’m paranoid about safety, so I tend to wrap them in a bit of clean paper and store it inside the fridge, for a maximum of 3 months. Thank you everyone who wrote to me about using Lap Cheung Sausages in cooking – it inspired me to create this dish, and if you make it, please share a photo on instagram and tag me at @panushwari.