Hainan's taro rice

This is one of my favorite go-to recipes when people come over for dinner in summertime. At times like these, I just want to just toss some meat and veggies on the barbecue and offer easy sides.

Taro rice totally fits the bill. It’s delicious, it’s unusual, it’s easy, and it seems vaguely sinful since toasted coconut and peanuts are clambering around in there among the silky chunks of lavender taro.

I have a recipe for this in All Under Heaven, but I’ve course I’ve been playing around with it in the interim. After all, this is a favorite, and I’m always looking for shortcuts.

What I’ve discovered is this: the taro can be microwaved and then tossed into the rice cooker with the rice, instead of going to the bother of steaming it. I also cube my taro and freeze it for things like this and last week’s scallion bread, since it makes these dishes a real breeze.

Steam the taro with the rice - easy!

With only sticky rice, green onions, garlic, and salt rounding out the shopping list, I therefore always have all of the ingredients on hand, which makes this an ideal spur of the moment meal.

Taro rice

Hăinán yùfàn 海南芋飯

Hainan

Serves 4 to 6

1½ cups | 325 g raw sticky rice (long grain best, but short grain still delicious)

Water, as needed

1 cup | 130 g cubed raw taro

1 tablespoon sea salt

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped

... and done

1 cup toasted coconut, preferably strips rather than flakes (see Tips)

½ cup toasted peanuts

1. Rinse the rice and place it in your rice cooker. Add water as directed. (See Tips.) Place the taro in a microwaveable bowl, add about 2 tablespoons water, and microwave on high for about 5 minutes, then drain and toss the partially cooked taro onto the rice. Close the cooker and steam the rice and taro together.

2. While the rice is cooking, place the salt, garlic, and green onions in a large work bowl and rub them together, preferably with your fingers.

3. When the rice is done, remove the taro to the work bowl and lightly break it apart with a fork. Then toss in the cooked rice, coconut, and peanuts. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Serve hot.

Tips

Toast the coconut

Each rice cooker is different, so follow its directions and use its measuring cup to make around 2 cups steamed rice.

For toasted coconut, spread the coconut on a small tray and toast it in the oven at 300°F | 150°C just until it turns a golden brown and smells delicious. Keep an eye on it, as it turns from brown to black in a flash.

If you have leftovers, microwave them and top with a fried egg seasoned with a dash of regular soy sauce. Breakfast perfected.

Beat the heat with this luxurious chilled soup

Hainan gets short shrift as a cuisine, even in China. And I agree, this is not as an extensive a cuisine as that of its big brother to the west, Guangdong. 

However, this tropical island perched off of the southernmost coast of China near Viet Nam is home to some delicious dishes that - like the foods of Guangxi and Guizhou on China's southern border - blur the lines between Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine. Called Qióng cài 瓊菜, the signature of this cuisine that just about everyone has heard of, if not tasted, is Hainan Chicken, which is so popular in Singapore that it is pretty close to the national dish.

The fishing grounds around Hainan have traditionally been the source of much of this island's cuisine, and it has become especially famous among local cognoscenti for its crustacean dishes. Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Shrimp Steamed with Garlic, Hainan Shrimp Balls, and Steamed Lobster all are perfectly delicious and have that tropical character characteristic of this relatively unknown province.

The titles of some of its dishes can harbor something even more delectable than the first image that pops into your mind. Take, for example, Four Treasure Hainan Bean Curd. There's actually no bean curd in there, as it is a delicate custard created out of egg whites, coconut milk, and stock. The smooth texture of this delicate creation is studded with tiny fresh shrimp, crab roe, and bits of fresh calamari for the most comforting approach possible to seafood.

The easy ingredients

But it's that coconut milk that characterizes Hainan the most, as far as I'm concerned. And nothing else - other than the lovely pandan leaves that scent many of its sweets - provides such a sensual link between the tastes of China and Viet Nam.

Coconut milk is a big deal here because this is China's very own Hawai'i. Coconut palms cover the island and are used in a plethora of savory and sweet dishes. My own favorite for countless years has been Sweet Coconut Tapioca Soup. If you are not a fan of tapioca, I completely understand. In my book, tapioca puddings were things to be dreaded as a child, sickly sweet and of questionable solidity, almost as bad as instant pudding but somehow even scarier.

Chinese tapioca is different. Often labeled as "sago" since the main ingredient in tapioca comes from the sago palm, Chinese and Southeast Asian tapiocas are perfectly round pearls that keep their lovely shape as they swell, and they therefore retain their chewy texture rather than leaking it out into their surroundings. (And a quick note here for all the Chinese-language students out there: the Chinese name for tapioca - ximi - actually is short for Xīgòng mǐ 西貢米, or Saigon rice, showing that this did indeed make its way into China via Viet Nam.)

One of the most refreshing tapioca recipes has to be this one. It is just perfect for this time of year when the weather is hot and the melons are truly ripe and fragrant. You can use any type of melon you like, or you could even use a mixture of them (green honeydew, orange cantaloupe, red and yellow watermelon, for example) to make this a riot of color.

Melon matchsticks

My own twist on this is that in addition to the coconut milk, I add a dash of coconut rum to really give the flavor an extra jolt. Since there is only ¼ cup of rum to 10 cups of soup, that works out to, um, let me calculate that... just a little bit per bowl. However, if you want, you can omit the rum and serve it the traditional way.

Chill the soup for a couple of hours before serving, and thin it out with some ice water if it seems too thick. There's plenty here for seconds and leftovers, which is the way I like it!

Sweet coconut tapioca soup 

Yēzhī xīmǐ lù  椰汁西米露

Hainan

Makes about 10 cups soup

3 cups water, divided

1 cup Chinese tiny tapioca pearls (ximi, or sago)

½ cup sugar (rock, white, sugar substitute, or agave nectar to taste)

1 cup ice water

1 (19 ounce) can good quality coconut milk

3 cups melon cut into matchsticks (see note below), or a 2½-pound slice of melon

¼ cup coconut rum, optional

More ice water, as needed

Ice cubes and mint sprigs, optional

1. Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Stir in the tapioca pearls, and keep on stirring until the water comes to a boil again. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer the tapioca, stirring occasionally, until the tapioca has swelled and the mixture is very thick. Add the remaining 1 cup water to the tapioca, which will "shock" the pearls and turn them translucent with little white centers. Bring the pot to a boil again then remove from the heat.

2. Stir the sugar into the tapioca until the sugar has melted. Add the cup of ice water to further shock the tapioca and loosen up the pearls, and then stir in the coconut milk, melon matchsticks, and rum, if desired. 

Those tapioca pearls

3. Pour the soup into a covered container and chill for a few hours before serving. If the soup is too thick, thin it by stirring in some iced water until the desired consistency is achieved. On really hot days, float an ice cube or two in the soup, garnish with some mint, and get ready to feel refreshed.

Note: To slice the melon into matchsticks, cut the melon into wedges about an inch wide on the outer (rind) edge. Trim off the rind and then slice the melon wedge into long sheets about an eighth of an inch thick. Finally, cut widthwise across the the sheets to form matchsticks that are more or less an inch long and an eighth of an inch on the other two sides.

  

Tropical vegan lust

In keeping with the previous week’s topic of long-grain sticky rice, this time we are journeying further down the coast of China to its smallest province, the island of Hainan, where something amazingly delicious is done with this very same grain.

It is another one of those dishes with terribly prosaic names for something that is terribly sophisticated and delicious.

Called “taro rice” in Chinese, it is much much more than simply rice and taro. Rather, this glorious concoction from China’s southernmost province is a reason all in itself to sit down to dinner. Literally.

This is so full of flavor and texture and nutrition that my mommy brain probably would call for some greens to be served too, but if I could get that voice to be quiet, I would happily subsist for quite a while on this.

Anything with peanuts is good

All I need is a nice beach to complete the picture.

Taro rice

Hǎinán yùfàn 海南芋飯

Hainan

Serves 4 to 6

2 cups long-grain sticky (sweet or glutinous) rice

12 ounces peeled mature, large taro (see Tips)

1 cup unsweetened coconut (strips preferred, but shredded is fine)

3 to 4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt

3 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped

½ cup Fried Peanuts

1. Rinse the rice and soak it for about 2 hours, or until it passes the fingernail test (i.e., you can crush it easily with your fingernail). Steam it for about 30 minutes, or until it is cooked but still chewy.

2. While the rice is steaming, cut the taro into large (1-inch) dice. Steam the taro until it is cooked all the way through. Turn the taro out onto a cutting board and coarsely chop it.

3. While the rice and taro are steaming, toast the coconut in a toaster oven at 300°F on a small tray until the coconut just begins to turn golden and smell wonderful. Empty the coconut into a large work bowl to stop the cooking. 

A complete tropical meal

4. Finely chop the garlic and add it to the coconut along with the salt and green onions, and then work them together, preferably with your fingers, to release their fragrances. Add the cooked rice and taro, and toss these together well.

5. Scoop the rice out into a serving dish, sprinkle the peanuts on top, toss lightly, and serve immediately while still hot.

Tips

If you have sensitive skin, use latex or plastic gloves while working with the raw taro, as it can cause severe rashes in some people, especially between the fingers. When in doubt, use the gloves.

This rice can be made ahead of time up through Step 4 and then reheated just before serving, at which time you should add your crunchy peanuts, of course

If you are averse to eating raw-ish garlic or have romantic plans for the evening, feel free to cook the garlic in a bit of oil before adding it to the rice. 

Hainan chicken & rice

This recipe is basically the same as the previous one for White Cut Chicken, as the bird is slowly poached into a perfect state of juiciness. Then, the resulting stock is used to cook the rice, which adds a wonderful savory balance to this one-dish meal. All that is needed are some vegetables to round out the plate, and you’re done.

If you’ve ever been to Southeast Asia, you’ve probably seen – and even tasted – Hainan Chicken and Rice. This is probably the most famous thing to ever have emerged out of China’s second largest island, and was most likely brought to more tropical parts of Asia by immigrants who knew a good thing when they tasted it. 

What you might not know is that this actually developed out of another Hainan specialty, Wenchang chicken, a dish that is locally considered one of the island’s four greatest culinary creations.

Perfume for the rice

Hainan Chicken and Rice is a no-brainer meal because almost all of the work is done by the refrigerator and the stove. Little is required of the cook, except for keeping an eye on the clock. As with White Cut Chicken, the secret is all in the timing, so that the bird cooks all the way through without even beginning to dry out. 

If you are like me and tend to avoid chicken breast because it has more or less the texture of newspaper, this recipe should rock your world. Plump, ever-so-gently pink, and dripping with juices, you can really appreciate how the folks in this region understand what white meat is supposed to be.

Hainan chicken and rice 
Hǎinán jīfàn  海南雞飯
Hainan

Serves 4 as a main dish

Chicken:

1 fryer (about 2½ pounds)

1½ teaspoons sea salt

1 tablespoon Cantonese white liquor or other white liquor or vodka

Boiling filtered water

Chinese pilaf in the wok

Toasted sesame oil

Rice:

2 cups long grain white rice (basmati is great here), although short grain rice is great, too

2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

3 bay leaves

5 slices ginger

2 green onions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths

3 cups stock from the chicken (including the fat, as well)

½ teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

Dipping sauces (any or all):

A            2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 tablespoons fresh peanut or vegetable oil

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

B           2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon apple cider or rice vinegar

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

C           3 red jalapeno peppers, finely diced

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider or rice vinegar

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Prepping one of the sauces

Sugar to taste

D          Fresh limes

             Cilantro sprigs

1. Prepare the chicken as in White Cut Chicken up to step 3, but don’t cut it up yet, and reserve the poaching liquid as stock for the rice.

2. Rinse the rice and drain it well. Heat the oil in a wok on high until it starts to shimmer, and then add the bay leaves, ginger, green onions, and salt. Stir them around in the oil until you can smell their fragrance, and then dump in the raw rice. Stir-fry the rice until it begins to turn opaque and white. Stir in the stock, bring the wok to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to very low. Slowly cook the rice for about 17 minutes, or until the stock has been completely absorbed and the rice is fluffy. Turn off the heat and let the rice steam by itself while you prepare the rest of the meal. Just before serving, use chopsticks to pluck off and discard the bay leaves, ginger, and green onions.

3. Make sauces A, B, and C by cooking them lightly and quickly over high heat. You just want to take off the raw edge of the aromatics and seasonings, so as soon as they barely come to a boil, pour each sauce into a separate small bowl; taste and adjust seasonings. Slice the limes and coarsely chop the cilantro.

A full, easy, perfect meal

4. If you want to serve the chicken chopped up, now is the time to do it, but that’s not how I like it. If you are like me and prefer to shred the meat, heat up the stock to a simmer, turn off the heat, and then plop the chicken back into the stock for a minute or two to warm up. Remove and drain the chicken, place it on a rimmed plate, and then pull off all of the meat. (Return the bones to the stock for further simmering, by the way.) Cut up the skin into thin shreds, too.

5. Prepare 4 dinner plates and one rice bowl. To serve, scoop a quarter of the rice into the bowl, smooth off the top, and then turn it upside-down on a dinner plate. Repeat with the rest of the rice and plates. Arrange the chicken alongside and on top of the rice, and decorate the plate with the limes and cilantro. Serve while still hot, and pass around the various dipping sauces.

A Chinese-American holiday feast

This week, Zester Daily is featuring a series of recipes by me on how to bring China to your holiday table. 

First up is the main course: Roast Turkey with a deep soy and Shaoxing rice marinade, a Spicy Cranberry Compote with flavors from Sichuan, and a classic Cantonese take on stuffing: Lotus Wrapped 8 Treasure Rice. 

Chinese risotto

This rice dish is nothing less than a luscious risotto studded with Chinese charcuterie and mushrooms, and then steamed in lotus leaves. Yes, it sounds daunting, but it probably calls for less work than its American counterpart (bread stuffing), plus you get to do most of the work ahead of time.

Second up are the vegetables and sides, including vegetarian Dry-Fried Green Beans from Sichuan, as well as a meatless Brussels Sprouts with Satay Sauce that features the flavors of Chaozhou -- it will make a convert out of even the most die-hard sprout hater. 

Also in that article are links to various dishes on this blog: Shanghai's Fava Bean Pâté, Radish Pickles and Fried Sesame Rolls from Sichuan, and Shanxi's Roasted Sweet Potatoes. 

Sweet and spicy cranberries

Finally, we have the desserts: Double Coconut and Ginger Pumpkin Pie and Triple Coconut Sorbet. The sorbet echoes the tropical tastes of Hainan, China's largest island that lies off the coast of Guangdong, and the pie is a marvelous mixture of East and West, with China's ginger and coconut bouncing off of the Occident's pumpkin and walnuts. 

Both the sorbet and pie are only barely sweet, allowing the full flavors of the spices and pumpkin and coconut to shine through. Your guests -- both Asian and not -- will most likely adore this lighter approach to the final course, since even full bellies can make room for these less than filling sweets.

Hainan's sweet coconut tapioca soup

Hainan gets short shrift as a cuisine, even in China. And I agree, this is not as an extensive a cuisine as that of its big brother to the west, Guangdong. 

However, this tropical island perched off of the southernmost coast of China near Viet Nam is home to some delicious dishes that - like the foods of Guangxi and Guizhou on China's southern border - blur the lines between Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine. Called Qiong cai, the signature of this cuisine that just about everyone has heard of, if not tasted, is Hainan Chicken, which is so popular in Singapore that it is pretty close to the national dish.

The fishing grounds around Hainan have traditionally been the source of much of this island's cuisine, and it has become especially famous among local cognoscenti for its crustacean dishes. Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Shrimp Steamed with Garlic, Hainan Shrimp Balls, and Steamed Lobster all are perfectly delicious and have that tropical character characteristic of this relatively unknown province.

All of the ingredients

The titles of some of its dishes can harbor something even more delectable than the first image that pops into your mind. Take, for example, Four Treasure Hainan Bean Curd. There's actually no bean curd in there, as it is a delicate custard created out of egg whites, coconut milk, and stock. The smooth texture of this delicate creation is studded with tiny fresh shrimp, crab roe, and bits of fresh calamari for the most comforting approach possible to seafood.

But it's that coconut milk that characterizes Hainan the most, as far as I'm concerned. And nothing else - other than the lovely pandan leaves that scent many of its sweets - provides such a sensual link between the tastes of China and Viet Nam.

Coconut milk is a big deal here because this is China's very own Hawai'i. Coconut palms cover the island and are used in a plethora of savory and sweet dishes. My own favorite for countless years has been Sweet Coconut Tapioca Soup. If you are not a fan of tapioca, I completely understand. In my book, tapioca puddings were things to be dreaded as a child, sickly sweet and of questionable solidity, almost as bad as instant pudding but somehow even scarier.

Chinese tapioca is different. Often labeled as "sago" since the main ingredient in tapioca comes from the sago palm, Chinese and Southeast Asian tapiocas are perfectly round pearls that keep their lovely shape as they swell, and they therefore retain their chewy texture rather than leaking it out into their surroundings. (And a quick note here for all the Chinese-language students out there: the Chinese name for tapioca - ximi - actually is short for Xigong mi, or Saigon rice, showing that this did indeed make its way into China via Viet Nam.)

One of the most refreshing tapioca recipes has to be this one. It is just perfect for this time of year when the weather is hot and the melons are truly ripe and fragrant. You can use any type of melon you like, or you could even use a mixture of them (green honeydew, orange cantaloupe, red and yellow watermelon, for example) to make this a riot of color.

My own twist on this is that in addition to the coconut milk: I add a dash of coconut rum to really give the flavor an extra jolt. Since there is only ¼ cup of rum to 10 cups of soup, that works out to, um, let me calculate that... just a little bit per bowl. However, if you want, you can omit the rum and serve it the traditional way.

Chill the soup for a couple of hours before serving, and thin it out with some ice water if it seems too thick. There's plenty here for seconds and leftovers, which is the way I like it!

Sweet coconut tapioca soup 
Yezhi ximi lu  椰汁西米露
Hainan

Translucent pearls

Makes about 10 cups soup

3 cups filtered water, divided
1 cup Chinese tiny tapioca pearls (ximi, or sago)
½ cup sugar (rock, white, sugar substitute, or agave nectar to taste)
1 cup iced filtered water
1 (19 ounce) can good quality coconut milk
3 cups melon cut into matchsticks (see note below), or a 2½ pound slice of melon
¼ cup coconut rum, optional
More ice water, as needed
Ice cubes and mint sprigs, optional

1. Bring 2 cups filtered water to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Stir in the tapioca pearls, and keep on stirring until the water comes to a boil again. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer the tapioca, stirring occasionally, until the tapioca has swelled and the mixture is very thick. Add the remaining 1 cup water to the tapioca, which will "shock" the pearls and turn them translucent with little white centers. Bring the pot to a boil again then remove from the heat.

Slices into matchsticks

2. Stir the sugar into the tapioca until the sugar has melted. Add the cup of iced water to further shock the tapioca and loosen up the pearls, and then stir in the coconut milk, melon matchsticks, and rum, if desired. 

3. Pour the soup into a covered container and chill for a few hours before serving. If the soup is too thick, thin it by stirring in some iced water until the desired consistency is achieved. On really hot days, float an ice cube or two in the soup, garnish with some mint, and get ready to feel refreshed.

Note: To slice the melon into matchsticks, cut the melon into wedges about an inch wide on the outer (rind) edge. Trim off the rind and then slice the melon wedge into long sheets about an eighth of an inch thick. Finally, cut widthwise across the the sheets to form matchsticks that are more or less an inch long and an eighth of an inch on the other two sides.