Baked Glutinous Rice

Peel, clean and slice the shallots into thin and uniform thickness.

Deep fried the shallots until golden brown and put aside. Use the same oiled pan to brown the ground nuts. Keep aside. (You can do these 2 steps in advance and store the fried shallots and nuts in air-tight containers)

Wash and skin the Chinese sausage and cut into small pieces.

Soak and soften the dried mushroom and cut into small pieces.

Soak and soften the dried scallop and peel into small pieces.

Soak and soften the dried shrimp and chop them finely (I used food processor to cut down the preparation time).

Wash, clean and cut the pork belly into small long pieces. Season with soya sauce, pepper, five spice powder and fish sauce.

Heat up the tagine over medium fire. Using the shallot oil, fry the dried shrimps until foam starts to form. Add the dried scallop and fry for another minute.

Add the chopped garlic and fry until just before it turns brown.

Add the pork belly and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the sausage and dried mushroom and fry for another minute.

Add the glutinous rice and the seasoning sauce mixture.

Fry for another minute to evenly coat every grain with the sauce and mix the ingredient evenly.

Add rice water until it just barely covers the rice mixture.

Cover the tagine with the lid and transfer it into a preheated oven at 200C. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Glutinous rice will taste better if it is not too soft/cooked. At about 15-minute mark, remove tagine from oven and use a spoon to "loosen up" the rice mixture and return the tagine to oven and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and add a spoonful of the shallot oil to the rice and mix well.

Garnish generously with coriander, fried shallots and ground nuts.