Five Treasure Rice

Eight Treasure Rice is an entree at one of our favorite restaurants and from time to time I try to figure out the recipe for myself at home. It's a recipe that changes every time I try it -- I'm still figuring it out. The last time around, I decided on five treasures: onions, mushrooms, slivered almonds, carrots, and corn. Other treasures are walnuts, peas, baby corn (not the pickled kind!), chunks of chicken or beef, and whatever seems tasty to you. Try to make the treasures bite-sized or smaller. Eight treasures is a lot, so I usually pick five.

I have a rice cooker, so I use the little measuring cup that came with it to measure out the servings of rice. The rice cooker has markings on the inside to show how much liquid to add. Follow your package directions or your rice cooker directions to figure out how much rice and liquid to use. Since you cook the treasures separately, you can figure out the proportions of rice to treasures at the end.


Here are my notes from the last time I made this:

Sauté unwashed rice until golden in a bit of butter and canola oil. Maybe toss in some toasted sesame oil at the end. Or possibly some fish sauce. This time it was just the toasted sesame oil. I used Niko-Niko Calrose rice. Sometimes I use Jasmine rice.

Instead of water, cook the rice in broth. I used chicken broth. Add some honey for sweetness. And maybe some more toasted sesame oil. Sometimes I put some soy sauce in as well. You can either use a rice cooker or whatever pan you usually use for making rice.

While the rice is cooking, slice onions (you want some good size pieces, but not too big) & sauté. I prefer sweet onions, either Vidalia or Walla-Walla. Once they're translucent, add chopped mushrooms (bite-sized pieces). Button mushrooms are fine; crimini are tastier, but don't always stand up as well. When mushrooms are cooked (but not over-cooked), sprinkle slivered almonds on top, put a lid on the sauté pan, and turn off the heat.

Carrots: I like to slice them into bite-sized pieces with my crinkle cutter. Cook in covered pan on stove-top with a bit of butter and maybe some brown sugar. Not too much brown sugar. Take them off the heat before they get too soft.

Corn: open the can, pour 'em into a pan, heat 'em up.

When the rice is done, mix the rice and the treasures in a mixing bowl. Sometimes you want lots of treasures. Sometimes you want mostly rice. Transfer mixture to a casserole dish, cover with tin foil, and keep warm in the oven until it's time to serve.


~Lenore