Duck Prosciutto & Chinese Sticky Rice

I’ve had a copy of Charcuterie for about 2 years now but for one reason or another never got around to making anything from it despite being a fan of cured meats.  Last week, I stumbled upon CharcutePalooza, and it was the nudge I needed to finally crack open the book.  January’s task: duck prosciutto.

I was able to buy a whole duck with head and feet still attached  for $2.49/lb from my local Chinese grocery store.  Unfortunately, they only carried frozen ducks from Culver Duck Farms in Indiana.  I’ve seen fresh ducks sold at the grocery stores on Argyle, but settling with the frozen duck was logistically easier.

After being packed in salt for 24 hours, the duck lost moisture and firmed up.  I ended up hanging the duck in my second bathroom with a humidifier running to battle the dry Chicago winter air.  Nine days later, the meat had lost about 30% of their weight and I had prosciutto.  Pretty easy.

Because I bought a whole duck and the prosciutto only called for utilizing the breast meat, I tried to come up with something that would incorporate the rest of the duck in addition to the prosciutto.  What came to mind was Chinese sticky rice.  I substituted the prosciutto for Chinese sausage as a flavoring agent, soaked the sticky rice in duck stock made from the duck carcass, sous vide the legs and thighs in rendered duck fat and my soy mother sauce, and incorporated a salted duck egg on the side.

Traditionally, dried shrimp are used for Chinese sticky rice, but I decided to use dried squid.  I’ve enjoyed eating dried squid as a snack since I was young, so I thought it would make a worthy substitute and add the brininess that the dried shrimp brings to the plate.  I also decided to use some dried mangoes for sweetness and tartness to cut the saltiness of the prosciutto and to replace the sweetness lost by opting out of the Chinese sausage.

There may be people who scoff at applying heat to prosciutto, but I was going to try it anyways.  Not to worry, though, as I decided to keep half the breast unadulterated in order to appreciate it for what it is (it came out really well, by the way).  I chopped up some prosciutto into small cubes and crisped them up in a pan.  With that rendered fat, I sauteed shallots, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, dried squid, and dried mangoes to which some soy mother sauce and oyster sauce was added.

As I mentioned before, the rice was soaked in duck stock, but I added some pandan to add more leafy/floral aroma to the rice and for color.  In the end, though, the pandan flavor didn’t come through as much as I had hoped.  Before I bundled up the sticky rice in the lotus leaves, I placed some thinly sliced prosciutto in the hopes it would add even more flavor to the rice.

The prosciutto did a serviceable job as a seasoning and flavoring agent in the sticky rice, but I honestly can’t say I prefer it over Chinese sausage in this situation.  Served with the sous vide duck legs and thighs and salted duck egg, the dish as a whole was quite good.  Ultimately, though, I think I learned that I prefer prosciutto served simply in it's natural state with melon or in some sort of salad or sandwich.  Good thing I saved half of the prosciutto to savor in its natural state.

Chinese Sticky Rice With Duck Prosciutto

1. 2 C sticky rice + duck stock or water => soak overnight, drain
2. 28 g sliced & dried shiitake mushrooms => soak, 30 minutes
3. 100 g shallots + 50 g ginger + 100 g dried mangoes + 30 g dried squid => dice
4. 150 g duck prosciutto => dice, hot pan, crisp, set aside
5. Rendered fat from step #4 + step #2 + step #3 => hot pan, saute, soy + oyster sauce to taste
6. Step #1 + Step #4 + Step #5 => mix, wrap in lotus leaves, steam ~1 hour or until done

Che Bap: Vietnamese Corn Rice Pudding

Although pho and banh mi have both garnered somewhat mainstream success with Western cultures and palates and certain Vietnamese influences can be found in some of the best restaurants in the world (I recently had that chao tom and it was amazing), che has undeservedly gone under the radar.

The variety of che is fairly diverse, but a couple common themes shared by some of the more popular ches are the use of sweet sticky rice and a sweet and salty coconut milk sauce.  With che thai being my all time favorite che, che bap is definitely in my top 5.  As corn season recently drew to an end, I thought I'd take advantage of the sweet corn while it lasted and make some che bap.

Instead of letting the harvested ears go to waste, I simmered them in water and used that water to cook the rice.  This added another layer of corn flavor to the che.  The resulting che pretty much tasted like sweet rice with corn and coconut milk: clean and straightforward. Corn and coconut seem to have a natural affinity for each other, and I'm not sure if any other cuisines utilize this combination.  Chef Curtis Duffy of Avenues recently created a dish of sweet corn soup with coconut, and I can't help but wonder if che bap served as an inspiration for it.
Corn and coconut's affinity for each other lead me to experiment with making uchepos topped with Vietnamese coconut milk sauce.  Aside from the lack of sweet rice, they turned out tasting a lot like che bap.  The next time I make uchepos, I’ll stuff them with young coconut meat rather than topping them with coconut milk sauce as I found the sauce to be a little too rich and heavy for the delicate uchepos.
   
Coconut milk sauce:

1. 1 cup coconut milk + 1 Tbps sugar + salt to taste + medium heat => low simmer
2. 1 Tbsp water + 1 Tbsp cornstarch (slurry) => stir until sauce thickens

Che bap:

1. 3 cups corn-infused water + high heat => boil
2. 1/4 cup rinsed sweet rice
3. 5 minutes => stir occasionally
4. 1/3 cup coconut milk + 5 Tbsp sugar + 1/2 tsp salt => lower to simmer
5. 450 grams corn kernels (3-5 ears)
6. 5 minutes
7. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract => serve warm or cold topped with coconut milk sauce

Joong/Zong: Chinese Sticky Rice with Red Snapper

Me being a blogging noob, I didn’t realize that one had to authenticate in order to post comments.  This should now be resolved, so I expect to see a huge influx of comments that’ll bump the average comments per post from 0.45 to a solid 0.5!    Another telltale sign of my blogging noobiness is the recent lack of updates.  My bad.  Anyway…

Sticky rice is one of those magical things that when stuffed with a variety of sweet (Vietnamese sticky rice with banana) or savory fillings, wrapped in some sort of leaf, and steamed will always turn out delightful to eat even if it does look rather sloppy as is the case here.  Joong, or zong, is a typical Chinese rendition of tried and true sticky rice, filling, and leaf combination commonly found at dim sum places, Chinese bakeries, and Chinese markets.  I swear my dad calls it “dung,” which makes me laugh.  It’s almost as good as “tit.”

Nine times out of ten, when going out for dim sum with my family, we’ll grab a couple orders of sticky rice.  One to eat at the restaurant, and one to take home and eat later.  Chinese sticky rice is so comforting (and conveniently packaged) that many times when I was at home during for break during college, I’d make sure to order a couple extra to take back to campus.

Lotus leaves are traditionally used to wrap the rice and give the little package of goodness a subtle tea-like aroma and flavor.  I thought it was pretty cool how the water beaded on one side of the leaf.  It was like the entire side was waterproof.

Chinese sausage gives the package some fatty goodness and is essential to any respectable package of Chinese sticky rice.  I typically prefer the sweet variety of Chinese sausage as I find it has more depth of flavor and the balance between salty and sweet is quite nice.

 

Another typical ingredient for Chinese sticky rice are tiny dried shrimp.  These add a salty brininess to the rice and help bring out the flavors of the other components of the rice.

The sausage and dried shrimp are stir fried with the Chinese trinity of ginger, scallion, and garlic along with mushrooms, oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, and Chinese wine.  Traditionally, ground pork or chicken is used as the main protein in the rice with an accompanying egg, but I opted for some fresh red snapper just to mix things up.

The filling and fish are then sandwiched between the steamed sticky rice.  You may notice that the sticky rice doesn’t look as glutinous as it should be.  I’ve made many forms of sticky rice many, many times with no issues, but something went wrong this time and I’m not too sure what.  I’m pretty sure I soaked the rice for long enough before steaming.

 

Parceling up sticky rice is way easier than filling and wrapping tamales.  I think the next time I make tamales, I won’t be so exacting with the spreading of the masa.  The parcels then go for a steam to cook the fish and finish off the rice.  I’ve seen some recipes actually bundle the already-wrapped sticky rice in some foil and boil the package rather than steam it.  I’d like to try this technique some time since it seems like less of a hassle than dealing with my huge Chinese steamer.

I didn’t really follow a recipe for this sticky rice and did things mostly by taste, but this recipe seems decent for a non-steamed/wrapped version.  Using red snapper turned out pretty good, but I must admit that I prefer the traditional ground pork with egg for the main protein.  Even with the sausage, there just wasn’t enough fat in the parcel for my tastes.

Perhaps next time I’ll try using Chilean sea bass instead since is nice and fatty.  Imagining those flavors actually reminds me of a Chilean sea bass dish that my mom makes every time we visit one of my aunts.  It’s steamed Chilean sea bass topped with a Vietnamese ground pork topping of ginger, scallion, glass noodles, fish sauce, and oyster sauce.  There’s probably a little more to the topping, but those are the main flavors that I can recall.

Banh Tet Chuoi: Vietnamese Sticky Rice with Banana

Out of all the different iterations of sticky rice wrapped in some type of leaf, whether it’s lotus leaf or banana leaf, perhaps my favorite sweet version is Vietnamese sticky rice with banana wrapped in banana leaf.  The sweetness of the sticky rice plays well with the coconut milk that it is cooked in.  This infusion of coconut flavor into the rice combined with banana creates a great flavor profile that can be found in a few other types of banh and che: most notably for me is banh chuoi nuong (Vietnamese banana bread).

Another thing that I love about banana sticky rice is the fragrance.  The banana leaves give off a great leafy aroma and the sticky rice is fairly fragrant, almost akin to basmati rice.  Not only do the leaves give off a grant fragrance, but their leafiness is also imbued into the rice itself. 

To prepare the banana sticky rice, the rice must be soaked for at least a couple hours (overnight even) before cooking.  I’m not really sure why it needs to be soaked, but if I had to take a guess it’s probably because the rice is steamed rather than boiled.  Soaking the rice before steaming may give the rice the proper moisture it needs to soften when cooked.