Chinese Clay Pot Rice

The first of my glorious recipes from Hong Kong!  This one's usually a winter dish, warm and comforting.  But I tried Chinese clay pot rice for the first time in Hong Kong this summer at Ser Wong Fun despite the hundred-degree weather and stifling humidity.  Ser Wong Fun is known for making delicious snake soup and clay pot rice when it's cold outside, and it's located just a few doors down from Linva Tailor, the shop that made Maggie Cheung's cheongsams for In the Mood for Love.

You could make this rice in any heavy cookware, but a Chinese clay pot is the best and most authentic way to cook up this dish.  The traditional kitchen shops along Hong Kong's Shanghai Street stock stacks of them, but lucky for everyone outside of China, they're pretty easy to buy online, too.

You can put just about any ingredients you'd like in your clay pot rice.  I tried to mirror the dish I had at Ser Wong Fun, so I mixed fresh ginger, scallions, and lap cheong (Chinese sweet sausage) in with my rice.  Since this dish originated so close to the fabrics and dresses of the Wong Kar-wai film that stole my heart, here's Nat King Cole's "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" from In the Mood for Love.

Ingredients:
--1 c. purple rice (you can buy Chinese rice at an Asian grocery store if you've got one, but otherwise, a jasmine rice will do)
--3 full tbsp. freshly minced ginger (don't buy ginger that has already been minced and canned--you need to buy it fresh, and then peel and chop it yourself)
--3 sweet Chinese sausages (as with the purple rice, an Asian grocery should sell these sausages, but you could substitute a hard salami)
--2 tbsp. freshly chopped scallions
--1/4 c. soy sauce
--1 tsp. salt

First, immerse your clay pot in water and then towel dry it.  Add 1 c. rice, salt, and 1 1/4 c. water (or whatever water-to-rice ratio your rice calls for--this dish is best with your rice a little bit al dente).  Heat over low-medium heat, uncovered, until the water just begins to boil.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Allow to cook for approximately 12-15 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the water.

Meanwhile, remove the casing from your sausages and chop into roughly 1/4" quarters.  Pan fry the sausage until it's cooked and crispy, about 4-5 minutes over medium heat.  Mix the sausage, 2 tbsp. of the freshly minced ginger, and soy sauce to the clay pot.  Mix and continue to heat over low heat for just about 5-6 minutes, or until the soy sauce has cooked into the rice mixture.

Top with the remaining 1 tbsp. of fresh ginger and scallions and serve warm.  We sauteed some bok choy on the side.  Yum!