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