Shanghai Vegetable Rice Recipe (上海菜饭)
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Servings
3
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
This is a traditional Shanghai rice recipe, and it can be a healthy, flavorful foundation to pair with any meal. If you have been serving Chinese food with plain white rice, this is something new for you to try.
Ingredients
- 300g / 1.5 cups of jasmine rice
- 480g / 2 cups of water
- 227g / 0.5 lb of boy choy or choy sum, diced
- 113g / 4 oz of Jinhua ham or bacon, diced
- 1.5 tbsp of minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp of salt or to taste
- 1/2 tsp of black pepper or to taste
Directions
- Finely dice the vegetable and separate the stem and the leaves because they take a different amount of time to cook. You can use any green leafy vegetables with a crunchy stem to give the rice a nice texture, such as baby bok choy, Chinese broccoli, and choy sum.
- Finely dice the Jinhua ham.
- Wash the rice several times to remove the impurities and excess starch. Drain it thoroughly so you don’t mess up the water ratio.
- Add the rice and water to a saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. This only takes just a few minutes. Don’t go away because if you forget the time, it will overflow.
- Once the rice is simmering, put on the lid and continue to cook the rice over low heat for another 18 minutes.
- Heat a wok over high heat. Add the pork lark and Jinhua ham and saute for 2 minutes. If using bacon as a replacement, please skip the pork lard, as you will get lots of fat.
- Add minced garlic and the diced choy sum stem. Stir for a couple of minutes.
- Add the choy sum leaves and continue to stir until the volume decreases.
- Season it with some salt and black pepper to taste. Every brand of ham has different sodium levels; please taste to adjust the saltiness.
- Thoroughly combine the rice with the vegetable and ham.
Recipe Video
Recipe Note
- Jinhua ham (金华火腿) is a special cured meat from Jin Hua, Zhe Jiang province. It was listed as a tribute from Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. You can use Italian Prosciutto as a replacement because they taste similar. I also tried bacon, and it turned out delicious.
- Pork lard (猪油) can be replaced with your preferred cooking oil.
