Rice Cooker Bak Chang / Bak Zhang (Glutinous rice with pork and salted egg)

(sorry, no picture yet, I thought I'd put this post down as quickly as possible before I forget how I cooked it!)

So, I was craving Bak Chang but I didn't know where I could get lotus leaves and I certainly didn't know how to wrap the lovely things even if I DID manage to procure the leaves. So I looked around the internet for an easy recipe, and having found none that was easy enough I decided to adapt some Lo Mai Kai recipes for my purposes....

Ingredients  (this makes roughly 4 portions)

400-500 g pork belly (sliced into 1-2 cm rectangles)

4 salted duck eggs

2 cups (roughly 300 g) of glutinous rice (soaked overnight)

5-6 dried Shiitake mushrooms (soaked overnight)

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp oil

Marinade for pork

4 tbsp dark soy 

3 tbsp light soy (if you are using Lee Kum Kee brand dark soy sauce or any other brand which is quite salty, reduce this to 2.5 tbsp)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

A small shake of white pepper

Saute the shallots for a few minutes until fragrant, then add the garlic and fry until fragrant. Add the pork. Once the pork is browned, add enough water to cover the pork and boil until tender (this typically takes 1.5 hours. Alternatively, cook it in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes).

Wash the soaked rice until the water runs clear. Drain the rice, then add the pork pieces (without the cooking liquid) and the mushrooms. Once the pork pieces have been removed, skim the surface of the pork cooking liquid to remove the oil and fat.
Add 2.5 cups (roughly 450 ml) of the pork cooking liquid into the rice cooker, topping up with water (and salt to taste) if necessary. Turn the rice cooker on and let the rice cook (I find it useful to stir the rice occasionally during the early cooking stages to ensure an even cook)

While the rice is cooking, boil the salted duck eggs for 10-15 minutes until the yolk solidifies. Cool the eggs and peel them.

Once the rice is cooked, leave it in the rice cooker for at least 15 minutes before stirring it and serving with some chilli sauce!