Lo mai gai, sticky rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf

Rinse and rub 2.5 cups of glutinous rice to remove excess starch, discarding the water, until it runs clear, then soak at least 3 hours.

Soak 8 dried shiitake mushrooms in 1 cup of water for about 2 hours.

Soak a quarter cup of dried shrimp in a third of a cup of water for about 2 hours.

Soak the lotus leaves two hours until soft and pliable, folded and weighted down so they stay covered.

Cut the boneless chicken thigh into bite sized pieces.

Marinate the chicken with soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and white pepper, and let it sit two hours.

Squeeze the water out of the mushrooms and save it, then slice them thin; drain the shrimp and roughly mince them; combine both soaking liquids.

Slice the Cantonese sausage thin at a 45 degree angle.

Heat the wok, sauté the sausage on medium low until slightly translucent, add the minced shrimp and stir until the shrimpy umami smell comes up, then take both out; they need no seasoning.

Turn the heat high, add more oil to the wok and stir the marinated chicken a minute or two.

Add a tablespoon of garlic and the sliced mushroom and sauté a couple of minutes until the chicken is roughly cooked.

Pour in the saved soaking liquid with the cooking wine, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and a drizzle of dark soy sauce.

Bring to a light simmer, taste, and add a couple of pinches of salt so it tastes saltier than usual.

Fish out the chicken and mushroom with a strainer and keep the sauce for the rice.

Drain the soaked rice completely so the rice to water ratio is not thrown off.

Put the rice in a pot with two and a quarter cups of water, lid on, over medium heat, and bring to a simmer in about three to six minutes.

As soon as it simmers turn the heat to the lowest setting, or the bottom will burn.

Simmer another 6 to 8 minutes, until there is no bubbling left, then turn off the heat.

Transfer the rice to a big mixing bowl and pour in the chicken and mushroom sauce; mix until no white rice is left.

Cut off the hard lotus leaf stem with scissors and cut each leaf in half.

Put a third of a cup of rice on the leaf and flatten it into a rectangular bed.

Add the chicken, mushroom, sausage and shrimp on the rice, then another layer of rice on top.

Fold one side of the leaf over and tuck it tight, fold the two sides to the middle and roll over the rest.

Put the wraps in a steamer, bring to a boil over high heat, then steam 30 minutes so they take up the lotus leaf aroma.