clay pot rice aplenty - 很多煲仔飯 part 2

I had written a post a while back called clay pot rice aplenty - 很多煲仔飯. This is a follow on post to it.  Clay pot rice tends to be eaten in the arrival of cool winds in the winter in southwest China. It is a one vessel meal and you cook everything in one pot, and serve it in the same pot. Some find making a perfect pot at home daunting. Like most things often we are the biggest enemy to success being afraid of failure. Practice and willing to experiment are the best teachers. In tech the latter is called dogfooding.

The suitable toppings for this dish is endless. Here are just some examples I used in the recent few pots.

I made a batch of char siu 叉燒 so I used some for topping too; mine has no sugar, syrup glaze, or food color added

I use this bamboo pot liner to protect the wood table surface from the burning hot clay pot; note the fish bones design allow hot air to escape and the heat to dissipate

You seldom find clay pot rice with much vegetable in it. It is because vegetable will wilt a lot, and they take up a lot of space to cook. Additionally they require careful timing which and frequently opening the lid can compromise the whole pot of rice. Still I managed to include plenty, which just requires some thought and improvised technique.

While some restaurant would precook (often just blench) the vegetable and just add into the pot towards the end of the preparation, I cook my vegetable from raw.

here with napa cabbage and the initial appearance is far from photogenic

not so once I set the cabbage to the side to reveal the other toppings

the toppings include pork ribs in black bean sauce, Chinese sausage 臘腸, sea scallop, cuttlefish, and cabbage

the toppings in this pot is similar to the preceding one, but without the pork ribs, and with more sea scallops, home made char siu and an Asian mustard green; I like mustard green for its hint of bitterness

dug out all the hidden toppings

While grocery shopping I encountered this Japanese cookies. My initial thought is it just made to look Japanese but produced in one of Asian countries but not Japan, which is all too often here in a lot of Asian stores including Umajimaya. Only this time is difference and the appearance of the packaging looks real. I flip the package over and sure enough it is Product of Japan.

Unlike most cookies in this country, these are far less sweet that suit my palate

Japanese cuisine has a very similar counterpart to the Chinese clay pot rice called hamameshi
釜飯.