Claypot rice
Photo: Banej · CC BY-SA 3.0

History

Claypot rice was a winter dai pai dong dish through the 1950s and 1960s, cooked over coal stoves in small clay pots that conducted heat unevenly to create the prized rice crust on the bottom. Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei still has claypot rice stalls that fire up the pots after sundown through autumn and winter.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Soy

Make it at home

Yield 2Hands-on 20 minTotal 45 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 200g long grain jasmine rice, rinsed
  • 320ml water
  • 2 Chinese cured pork sausages (lap cheong), sliced diagonally
  • 1 Chinese cured liver sausage (yun cheung), sliced
  • 1 piece salted fish (about 30g), diced
  • 1 spring onion, finely sliced
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

  1. Place rice and water in a small clay pot or heavy cast iron pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
  2. Once boiling, drop to lowest heat. Lay the sausage slices and salted fish on top of the rice.
  3. Cover and cook 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
  4. Drizzle vegetable oil down the sides of the pot. Turn the heat up to medium high for 2 minutes to crisp the rice bottom.
  5. Mix light soy, dark soy, sugar and sesame oil to make the finishing sauce.
  6. Remove from heat. Pour the sauce over the rice and sausage.
  7. Scatter spring onion. Serve directly from the pot, scraping the crisped rice bottom (mai sup) for the prized crust.

Tip from the editors. Listen for crackling sounds at the end; that's the rice crust forming. Stop the heat the moment you smell toasted rice, not burnt.

Where to eat claypot rice

Claypot rice in Hong Kong

Temple Street Night Market food stalls ★ 4.3

$ Street foodYau Ma TeiCash only

Temple Street Night Market stretches a full kilometre between Jordan and Kansu Street in Yau Ma Tei, with seafood dai pai dong, claypot rice and street food.

OrderClaypot rice with Chinese sausage and salted fish.

TipSkip the seafood blocks at the south end; the claypot rice stalls midway are where locals queue.

Directions

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