Based on an Epicurious recipe, this is a delicious and easy-to-make dinner course or light meal. You can use a variety of Asian-style sausages for this. In my case, I used a sweet Chinese sausage from one of our local Asian markets, and slices of this sausage. Realistically, you could use any type of sausage that appeals to you. You could even just cook a ground pork paddy and slice that up. Or just use twice as much Chinese sausage and leave it at that.
Don’t be too concerned about the dark/light soy sauces. If you have them both, use them. If you don’t, just use one kind for both.
Other than that, knock yourself out. This is a really good dish.
What you’ll need for the rice
- 1.5 cups uncooked long-grain white rice (preferably jasmine)
- 1.66 cups water, plus more for soaking the rice
- 5t neutral oil, divided
- 3 oz. Chinese or Hmong pork sausage, cooked and sliced diagonally (to look cool)
- 3 oz. other sausage-type meat, sliced diagonally (to look cool)
What you’ll need for the sauce
- 2t granulated sugar
- 4t water
- 2t light soy sauce
- 1t dark soy sauce
- Pinch of ground white pepper
What to do
Put the rice in a medium bowl, then cover it with 2 inches of water and soak it for 1 hour.
Drain the rice, then transfer it to a 10-inch cast-iron or nonstick frypan. Stir in the 1.66 cups of water and 3t of the neutral oil. Gently shake the pan to even out the rice, then scatter the sliced sausages/meat on top, like in the photos.
Bring the rice and water to a simmer over medium-high heat. When the mixture reaches a simmer, cover the frypan with a tight-fitting lid, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for about 16 minutes, or until the rice is tender.
While the rice is cooking, make the sauce: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, the soy sauces and white pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved, turn off the heat. Set aside until the rice is done.
After the rice is tender, remove the lid from the frypan and increase the heat to medium. Drizzle the remaining 2t oil around the perimeter of the frypan. At this point, the rice will be sizzling and crackling. If it’s not, increase the heat a bit until you can hear it. Cook, uncovered, for an additional 7–10 minutes until the bottom of the rice has gotten crisp. While it’s crisping, you can use a spatula to check the bottom periodically. If it’s not cooking evenly, try rotating the pan a couple of times.
When the bottom of the rice is golden brown, drizzle about half the sauce over the dish, serving the reaming sauce on the side.
Leave a Reply