Lo mai gai (Cantonese), nuòmǐ jī in (Mandarin) is a one of the chinese dim sum fest. Lo mai gai is actually steamed sticky or glutinous rice with chicken stuffing in lotus leaf wrap. The sticky or glutinous rice is pre-steamed or preboiled before wrapped in lotus leaf and steamed. General stuffing for lo mai gai is chicken, pork, chinese sausage or lap cheong, abalone, dried scallop or conpoy, mushrooms, and finely chopped dried shrimp. The dried lotus leaf is sumberged in hot water first to get soften, patted dry and then applied some oil on the surface to prevent the glutinous rice is sticking.
In Indonesia, we used to called lo mak gai as lomak kai. Typical stuffing for lo mai gai in Indonesia is actually the same with the general type, but we used to add roasted pork chunk and salted egg yolk. Fot a speciall occasion, some restaurant added some rehydrated dried abalone and sea cucumber too. The stuffing is generally sauteed first, but because my grandmother ask me to not sauteed it first then i did’t. She insist that the juice of the chicken that driven off while steaming is watering the glutinous rice and given the nice flavour too. For a pregnant or newly giving birth mother, local chinese descent pour the Brand’s Essence of Chicken before steaming to give a nutrition and gaining their appetite.
Lo mai gai is not as popular as Kuo Tie/Jiaozi/Gyoza or siu may in Indonesia since lotus leaf is not common ingredient in Indonesian kitchen. We used to use banana leaf insead lotus leaf. You can got this totus leaf in chinese grocelries nearby for about 1- 1,5 $ each. Lotus leaf give a nice aromas to any rice and savory dishes that;s why this is suits for wrapping steamed chicken and sticky rice. In the other hand, banana leaves give a sweet hint aromas and i think this is suits for wrapping any seafood and sweet bites. But actually you can used the banana leaf or even taro leaf to substitude the lotus leaf.

lo mai gai (steamed sticky rice) dim sum stuffing: chicken, abalone, mushrooms, sausage, lotus seed, salted egg yolk and dried shrimp
Ingredients:
- 1 lotus leaf, cut in half (mine is too small to wrap in half), soaked in
- 1 cup glutinous rice or sticky rice
- 1 boneless kampong/malay chicken breast
- 1 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked, finely chopped
- 2 dried hioko/chinese mushrooms, soaked, chopped
- 1 dried woodear mushroom, soaked, chopped
- 1 salted duck egg yolk
- 3 salted quail egg yolk
- 30 gr dried lotus seed, soaked
- 1 chinese sausage/ lap cheung( i use 3 tiny Meica turkey sausage)
- 2 small processed / rehydrated dried abalone, cut in half
- 1 tbsp angciu/ chinese rice wine
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped ( half for marinade and the rest for the stuffing)
- 1/2 tsp szechuan peppercorn, toasted, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- salt to taste
- freshly grounded black pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 cup water for boiling the sticky rice
- 1/4 cup coconut milk for boiling the sticky rice (my personal touch)
- 1/4 cup water/chicken stock/ Brand’s essence of chicken for pouring the sticky rice
Preparation:
- Mix the chicken with oyter sauce, szechuan peppercorn, soy sauce, salt, pepper and rice wine, salt, pepper and sesame oil, let it marinade overnight.
- Firstly in the next morning, toasted the sticky rice until pale brown, washed in running tab water and soaked about 30 minutes, drain
- In heavy bottom sauce pan, boil the water and coconut milk, season with salt and peppe and put the rice into the pan
- Stir occationally, let it boil again and simmer until the liquid evaporated with medium flame and DO NOT STIR the mixture
- Turn off the heat and set aside
- Sauteed 1 tbsp chopped garlic and dried shrip until browned, set aside
- Mix the marinated chicken breast with sauteed garlic, mushrooms and lotus seed
- Meanwhile, pat dry the lotus leaf and apply some oil to the surface
- Put half amount of the sticky rice, make a circle hole in the middle
- Put the salted duck yolk in the middle hole and arrange the sausage and the abalone surrond it
- Put the marinated chicken mixture in the middle until covering the salted egg yolk
- Add the remining glutinous or sticky rice to cover the stuffing
- Pour the chicken stock/Brand’s essence of chicken over the sticky rice
- Wrap the lotus leaves just like you make an envelope
- Tide up the lotus parcell with butcher twines
- Steam over heat heat for about 40 minutes, adjust the water for boiling the lo mk gai
- Open the lotus wrapper and add chopped chilli, scallion and garlic chives
This is my son’s favorite dish! I hope to make it one day at home and thanks for the recipe. Your presentation of this dish is the best one I’ve seen (such a difficult dish to photograph). Wonderful job!
Of course, no one can regret lo mak gai, especially the kids
Thkyou for such a kind compliment, i used to add clorfull garnish to pale colored dish like this..hehehe
i guess you did better on food photography…..
ahhhhhhhh! Lo mai gai was my favorite childhood dish ever ^ ^ when choosing dim sum, I always picked this for me ! The smell of lotus leaf on sticky rice is just amazing !
Thanks so much for your sharing ^ ^ have a yummy weekend!
I did that too, but unfortunately they didn’t available all the time here…
They serve this dim sum only nearly CNY….
Kayaknya enak ya Ded, buatin dong haha
Emang enak mbak…..hehehe
Beneran deh klo mbak ke Palembang aku masakin….
Yeay asik2. Doakan bs kesono ya. ded
Beautiful dish and beautiful photography. Is this dish similar to a zongzi? Amazing and packed with delicious flavours. I really enjoy reading your inspiring posts. Have a super weekend and take care. BAM
Thx bam, never heard about zongzi…
from googling info, i think zong zi is bachang and using the bamboo leaves instead lotus leaves….
iguess this is similiar but diffrent aromas,,,
the bachang is actually boiled while lo mak gai is steamed….
Hi Mas Dedi,
I agree with Bam, in a sense, mak gai is similar to zongzi or bakcang in Indonesia. I had to go back to my posts to see it bakcang is boiled or not.. it is indeed. I helped my mom made them one year, so I was able to write about them. There is the meat version and the sweet version. http://wp.me/pUljh-fL and http://wp.me/pUljh-i6
ou doing that very great mbak….
never seen any dried chestnut before..
but thx for the lye water(alkalli water) info…
btw, what is the common consentration of NaOh in that water?
Hhhmm.. ini scientistnya keluar ya… aku sendiri nggak pernah ingin tau chemistry di lye water… tapi ini aku nemu di link ini nih, malah ada resepnya segala… 🙂 Happy reading.
http://ediblyasian.info/recipes/kansui-chinese-alkaline-salts-for-cooking-
hmmm .. belum pernah menikmati menu di atas nih, pengennya bikin sendiri 😛
Cobain mbak, ngebikinnya gampang kok..
isinya bs dirubah sesuai selera pula…..
Like your addition of coconut milk to the sticky rice. This is also one of my favorite dim sum item.
yes, this is “must” have ingredient when my grandma cooked sticky rice.
She insist and make me using the coconut milk, luckyly it turns the dish into a creamy and savoury sticky rice
What a gorgeous dim sum!!
Thkyou,
give it a try…..
Wow. Your pictures are amazing. It looks so yummy.
Thx for coming by here…
actually it taste damn good…..hehehe
You’ve created another beautiful dish, Dedy, and your photography is stunning. Thank you for sharing both.
Thx john,
actually, the lo mak gai is far away from beautifull wihtout the garnish…hehehe
but it taste great too….
jadi kaya aremarem.. daun teratai biasa di danau bisa ga sih ya? terus dikukus dulu biar empuk gitu ya apa dipanggang sampe item gitu? apa emang ada jual kering?
pernah makan ayam gembel yang dibungkus teratai sih..
btw, sumak itu ada di toko makanan arab kebanyak.. ato mo daku kirimin? maren dikasih mbak esther sih waktu demo masakan arab.. ku dikasih dua sendok, masih ada nih, cukup pake dikit buat salad sih.. cuma bumbu sumak-minyakzaitun-peresanjeruk.. itu doang dicampur sawiputih, timun, tomat.. salad arab kaya gitu.. sumak = ketumbar arab.. kirim alamat ke email ku ya: tinsyam@yahoo.com
Aku pake daun lotus kering sih sebenarnya mbak, daun teratai gak bs dipake, hsl berburu wkt kkn kmrn, jd daunteratainya dikeringin dibawah matahari sambil ditutupi kain….
pernah liat jg sih di petak sembilan, tp selembar lumayan mahal, Tp. 17 rb bokk…..
Daun teratai sama lotus beda loh mbak, googling aja, klo daun teratai dia ngambang di permukaan air, klo lotus dia diatas air….
Aku dah keliling ke bbrp toko masakan arab di Palembang mbak, gak pernah ada yg denger sumac *sambil ngelirik aneh
ada jg yg nanya, mas kliatannya bukan org arab deh LoL
emang yg bli saffron org arab doang,,,hehehe
thx before yah, aku krm alamatnya…
ku sering ke petak9, ga pernah nemu tuh selembar lotus.. ehiya beda ya lotus dan teratai.. mahal pun.. ntar mo tanya temen kalu ke cina oleholehin drylotusleave aja kali ya.. ih pengen bikin jadinya.. *embat daun pisang tetangga..
Ada kok, tanya aja yg jual makanan kering macam haisom, abalone dll itu..hehehe
tanya daun teratai tp, bukan lotus soalnya di indo kita sering nyamain lotus sm teratai…
nah mbak, berhubung mbak sering ke petak sembilan, nanti tolong tanyain hipio atau perut ikan kering yg panjang2 kayak pipa ya mbak…
*ngelunjak….
buat sop ya.. ntar ku cari hipio ya.. di tempat makanan kering juga? ku tuh males aja beli yang keringkering, sebab kudu direndem lama pun..
paling suka beli keringkering itu buah, tinggal kunyah.. *lagi kunyahkunyah drytin & drymulberry..
*catet.. tiap bulan sih kesana, seringnya beli cumi kering yang gede itu dan kalu makan diemutemut gigitgigit gitu.. ato buat suwiran sayur..
iya mbak, mo buat sop…hehehe
aku krg suka cumi kering itu,dah mahal alot pula soalnya, tp rasanya emang enak sih….
pling mamaku sukanya digoreng dulu br ditumis berkuah pake cabe ijo
itu dia sensasinya alotalot gimana gitu.. dulu waktu tinggal di sulawesi dikasih temen mama cumicumi kering semeter lebih lebarnya, tebelpun, susah dipotong, jadi kudu digergaji tuh.. tapi begitu direndem dan dipanggang, ya ampun nagih banget, sampe jontor bibir ga bosenbosen dikunyah..
What a fascinating dish.
🙂 Mandy
Thx mandy, have your own festive..
I love your innovation in this 😀
Cheers
CCU
Thankyou….
have your own festive….
I keep on wanting to make glutinous rice and never get around to actually doing it. My mum makes lemper and I want to make it too. Guess what I made for the first time the other day: empek empek!!! yay! (recipe soon to appear on my blog).
I lived in Plembang, Empek2 is ouutsider called for fishcakes,
locals called it pempek,
i can’t wait for your pempek…
Yeah my mum is from Lampung so we call it empek2 🙂
Oh, i guess so,
Are your mother had a chinese descent??
nope. But I do have aunties (married to her brothers) that are of Chinese descent. Why, are there many Chinese people there?
No actually, but you had a chinese looking for me…
have you ever come to Indonesia???
oh haha. I have been a few times. I was born there but only lived there til I was 2. Hey you make really good European food too!
Thankyou,
actually i had a world taste cuisine kitchen….hehehe
btw, did in Australia had a truffle mushrooms ?
have u ever seen once?
I didnt see that in Australia…
ok then, have a nice weekend my friend…
You too!
Wow you made this to perfection!
Thx Raymund, have your own festive….
oh wow this is so gorgeous! Love how its presented!
Thx my friend, give it a try….
I love anything wrapped in lotus leaf but unfortunately it can be tough finding the leaf here in Tokyo. The dish looks awesome. I am thinking of using banana leaf instead of lotus leaf. Is that possible?
i guess it possible, but the flavour and aromas gonna be slightly different