Lotus Leaf Rice 荷叶饭

These lotus leaves are bought 4 years earlier. Haha, I just never got around making them. Actually I didn't intend to buy, but when I saw them at Aeon, I can't help but get a pack, just in case I don't see them anymore.

I wanted to recreate the mini Lotus Leaf rice packs, served during my wedding reception many years ago.

Guangxi Rice Dumplings (zongzi) 广西粽子 - Wrapped # 3

As you all may know, my mom is a KwongSai (Guangxi).

My first endeavour making rice dumplings was when I was about 15. I was very excited and this was my first time doing so. No one in the house made rice dumplings ever since grandaunt last did it. No one knew how to do it actually, or would bother to do it because it is considered something very troublesome.

The story of Two Dumplings

So, what happens when two dumplings meet each other????

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They get ready to be eaten!!!!!

Hahaha, that's my lame joke.
Anyway, do they look the same? From the outside yeah..but from the inside, no.

I think if you have been reading my blog for quite a while you will know that my husband is a Hokkien and I'm a Cantonese. I can't speak a word of Hokkien before I knew him, well, but I can understand the "universal Chinese dialect words" that most understands. Neh, those that you will use to ask about people's parents. Hahahaha, I do no speak them, but that doesn't mean I do not know if someone is scolding me or cursing me behind my back or maybe right in my face.

Mike told me he never spoke much Cantonese, not until he met me, and the first few months of our relationship, we will always argue because he uses the wrong words to express himself, making me misunderstand him. But now, his Cantonese is definately much much better after all the commando training I've given him. :)
His Cantonese has improved, definately, but what about my Hokkien. Hahahahah!!!! Well, he's got TVB to be his guru, but me? I've got nobody,
 **** nobody nobody but you.... nobody nobody like you, nobody nobody, nobody nobody, nobduy nobody ** with fingers twidling upright****

Bloggers who've met me, have heard me saying those few words over and over again only.
"Pai See" (naughty), "Ai Boh" (you want?), "Beh Sai" (Cannot), "Lai Ji Beng" (come here), "Kee Lau Ting" (Go upstairs) and maybe some other simple words. Yeah, these are the only ones that I can utter from my mouth. Trying to teach my girls the very few words that is in my personal collection of Hokkien Vocab.
Oh and the other day, Judy (Busy Gran) taught me how to call Gan Sui Joong in Hokkien, "Kngee Chang". Another new word... kekekeke.

Yeah, about those two dumplings, I just made these yesterday, yes, yesterday 15th June. This is the 2nd batch of rice dumplings I made this year. 1st batch wasn't enough to go around because my neighbours suddenly popped over asking for a few (in exchange with $$$), and a few became half the batch because each take 10, then 10 then 5 and another 5+2. So, after I came back from my dumpling making trip in Kampar last weekend, I made another 36 pieces yesterday.

So, my dumpling feat for this year

Hakka Dough Dumplings : 16 pieces
Plain Gan Sui Joong : 50 pieces
Hokkien Bak Chang: 1st batch: 44pcs, 2nd batch : 15 pcs
Cantonese Rice Dumpling : 1st batch : 23 pieces, 2nd batch: 24 pieces

Altogether: 174 pieces.

Well, I had some help with the 1st batch from my mom and 2nd sis in law. I didn't do this all by myself ok.

Anyway, glad this is only once a year. I'll be looking forward to next year, Nyonya Chang, wait for me ya.

Then in 2012, maybe hakka pillow dumplings... one year one new recipe to learn.

 Happy Dragon Boat Festival, or Dumpling Festival

or Duan Wu Festival,

whatever you may call it, and most of all,

Enjoy the dumplings!!!!

I think I'm getting sick of them already..... hahaha!!

Hakka Dough Dumplings 客家粄粽

Just made these yesterday. This is not a back post :)

Yes, it's almost that time of the Lunar Year again, Duan Wu Festival or Dragon Boat Festival, the day that the Chinese remembers the loyal scholar who commited suicide. The actual day is next Wednesday, 16th June 2010. But I'm making this early for your reference :) I always do my dumplings one or 2 weeks earlier, just for the sake of eating.

Actually I’ve never eaten this, nor have I seen this in real life. I only got to know the existence of this type of Zongzi when I was searching the internet for the real Cantonese Zongzi last year. Malaysia’s Chinese food is already so, so fusioned, that one no longer can distinct between each other, except for certain dishes.

This year Kristy made some sweet hakka dough dumplings.
And I have already planned to make these since last year.

What makes Hakka dough dumplings (客家粄粽) different??. Wait before that, let me tell you there is another type of Hakka Dumpling that is shaped like a pillow... that is a rice dumpling and it is not the same as this dough dumpling.

The difference of savoury hakka dough dumplings is that it uses glutinous rice flour instead of glutinous rice.
Uses minced meat instead of meat pieces.
Uses preserved radish instead of beans.
Fillings are pre cooked and not used raw
Other than these, the mushroom is there, the 5 spice is there. No chestnuts and no salted egg yolks.

And one mistake I did, I thought since this is steamed and not boiled, soI didn’t bother about the small cracks in some of the wrapping. And I also wrapped them quite tight, tried hard to eliminate empty spaces in the wrapping. It is ok, to just form a round ball, with a slightly pointed end and fold the top wrapping loosely over, no need to be too tight cos the dumpling will expand a bit during steaming. Hahaha, the dough seeped out from the cracks during steaming, like Incredible Hulk getting green, cos there was no where to go, except through the wrapping, and caused dumplings that didn't have cracks in the beginning to tear after steaming.

Anyway, it goes into the tummy…..

Here goes the recipe

Hakka Dough Dumpling Recipe

Fillings
5 shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped, it will come to about ½ cup
200gm minced meat or 1 cup
½ cup or 70gm chopped preserved radish (Choy poh, I used the sweet type, just rinse and chop, if salty type please soak for 30 minutes, squeeze out water before use)
5 shallots, sliced or chopped
10gm (1 heaped Tbsp) dried shrimps, soaked for 30 minutes and finely chopped
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt (you may need less if using salted preserved radish)
Pepper
½ tsp 5 spice powder
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 cup water +1 tsp cornstarch




1. Heat wok and put in 3 tbsp oil. Put in shallots and fry until golden, drain and dish up.
2. Put in chopped dried shrimps and fry until fragrant, then put in minced meat and fry until dry and fragrant, put in preserved radish and fry until fragrant. Put in seasonings and cornstarch mixture. Cook until the water is absorbed by the fillings. Mix in fried shallots.
3. Dish up and let it cool down. Divide into 16 and freeze filling to harden slightly.
4. Meanwhile prepare the dough

Dough
550gm (5 cups) glutinous rice flour
190gm rice flour(1 + 2/3 cups) (If you prefer a less sticky texture, you can substitute some of the glutinous rice flour with rice flour)
2 Tbsp cooking oil
300ml water + 1tsp salt + 1 Tbsp sugar
300ml water (room temp)

1. Mix both flours and make a well in the centre. Put in 2 Tbsp cooking oil
2. Put salt, sugar and 300ml water in a saucepan, bring to a boil.
3. Pour half of (2) into (1) and mix with spoon, bringing in flour slowly into the center. Pour more of (2) and combine. Add the room temp water slowly and knead the flour into a dough. You may not need all the water. Knead dough until smooth. Divide dough into 16 pieces, about 80gm each.

Assembly

16 pieces of bamboo leaves or more, washed and trimmed

Hemp strings or cotton strings

Some cooking oil for coating the dumplings

*click on pic to have a larger view on how to form the cone. This is one of the crucial steps in wrapping. Once I did this in Pudu Girls School, and my students took 2 hours just to learn the wrapping method, and they found the cone forming step is the most difficult of all, besides getting the four corners as pointy corners.
The rest of the wrapping method is in my Bak Zhang Recipe

1. Take one piece of dough roll it round.
2. Lightly flatten it, and make the sides flatter than the center.
3. Place one piece of filling in the center and wrap up the dumpling. Gently rolling it in your hands to seal up. Repeat until all fillings are wrapped up. (I managed to wrap all the fillings with dough in less than 10 minutes, simply due the fillings are hard and clumped together because they are half frozen)
4. Coat each dumpling with cooking oil. Shape each dumpling to look like a green pear, slightly conish.
5. Form a cone with bamboo leaf and place one piece of dumpling(pointy side down) into the cone. Lightly press and fold the rest of the bamboo leaves to form a “pyramid”.
6. Tie with a piece of hemp/cotton string.
7. Steam on high heat for 30 minutes.

So, how did this hakka dough dumpling taste like.... Chewy and the filling taste good. Much chewier than kuih koci, if you want to know the comparison. A fresh change from the usual.

If you prefer a less sticky texture, go with half glutinous rice flour and half rice flour.
If you like it softer, you can use less boiling water and increase the room temperature water. The boiling water here partially cooks the dough, and makes it sticky. When the dough is partially sticky, it needs less water to form a dough and the dumpling will have a firmer and chewier(ngann) texture. But you cannot simply increase the water, you must decrease the boiling water and increase cold water, remember.

My neighbours liked them a lot, and hahaha, indeed this dumpling was a stranger that no one knew before this. But now, at least now, my family knows that this thing exist :)

Recipe adapted from these places:

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/CarrieC/13934825&tpage=1
http://www.951b.com/meishi/200912/10-18682.html
http://www.hk32168.com/viewthread.php?tid=146573

Oh yes, I'll be making more Zongzi this weekend, Both Cantonese and Hokkien varieties.
Not making any Gan Sui Joong.....


Video on how to wrap (updated 6/6/13)

Cantonese Rice Dumpling 广东咸肉粽

It's almost Duan Wu Jie again!

This time I made the real Cantonese version of savoury rice dumpling.
Just the way Grandaunty used to make.
Cantonese Rice dumpling doens't use soy sauce in its rice, and neither it is fried.
If u want to make it easier to wrap, u can stir fry it a while to make it slightly sticky, but bear in mind, no soy sauces. It's fair and much softer than the Hokkien version of which the rice is stir fried, therefore, can be packed real tight.

(A)
2kg glutinous rice
2 Tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 shallots , chopped
Half cup oil

Soak rice at least 3 hours, or overnight. Drain well. Fry shallot in oil until slightly golden and fragrant. Mix shallot oil, rice, salt and sugar together.

(B)
600gm peeled mung beans
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar

Soak mung beans for at least 4 hours or overnight. Drain well and mix with salt and sugar. Leave to marinate for 1 hour or more.
** U can mix this with rice after marinating. Or use it on its own as filling.

(C)
1kg pork belly, no skin
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 heaped tsp 5 spice powder
good dash of pepper

Mix everything together and marinate at least overnight. Best 2-3 days.

(D)
24 salted egg yolks, halved
48 pcs Chinese mushrooms, sliced
Soaked and washed large bamboo leaves
Soaked grass strands or cotton parcel strings for tying the dumplings

Method to wrap: Read my Bak Zhang recipe

This year din make gan sui joong with fillings, cos my mom just made a big pot of yummy kaya So I made plain ones to eat with "Mui Che Kayeang".

Video on how to wrap(updated 6/6/13)

Bak Chang (Savoury Rice Dumplings) 咸肉粽

All rice dumplings in Mandarin are called Zongzi.

I'm making savoury meat dumplings. Hokkiens call it Bak Chang, Cantonese call it Harm Yook Joong... other dialects.. no idea

I dunno whether this is cantonese style, hokkien or hakka...
But u can check the differences here at this prominent food site in Malaysia

My grandaunt came from Panyu, Guangdong province made white coloured savoury joongs, with pork, mung beans and mushrooms as fillings. She doens't put salty egg due to $$$, she finds it wasteful to throw away the whites. Hers was damn good, but I never knew how to do the seasoning... No fried shallots and stuff.. but very fragrant and yummy.

My maternal grandma of Kwongsi descent, made white joongs with soaked black eye peas and pork. She added sodium benzoate to hers and mom said it lasted for weeks w/o referigeration.

When I was in Form 6, during duan wu jie season, a bunch of us will bring a few joongs and a spoon. When it's time for break, we'll open up our joongs, each holding a spoon, will be digging into each other's parcels. It's such fun... The way our mothers did the joongs are quite similiar, except for Yoke Waie's (with peanuts, loads of garlic pips and pork)

This is the way I make it.. with marinated pork, precooked black eye peas, fried garlic pips, shitake mushrooms, chestnuts, salted egg yolks and of course, fragrant lightly fried glutinous rice. The fried garlic pips thingy came from eating Yoke Waie's mother's joongs..

It differs a bit from joongs made from other parts of Malaysia, the black eye peas are precooked and seasoned.... It's the way it's done in Kampar, Ipoh and other towns nearby.. but not Kuala Kangsar (which happens to be just 1/2 hr from Ipoh)

My Step by Step Bak Zhang recipe

Main ingredients to buy:

1 kg pork belly

50 pcs dried chestnuts

25 salted duck eggs

Dried Shitake Mushrooms

5 bulbs of garlic

600gm black eye peas

100 gm dried shrimp

300gm shallots

2kg glutinous rice

Preparation:

Marinated Pork Belly

Cut pork belly (w/o skin) into 50+ pieces

Add in 2 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce(depends on how dark the sauce is), 2 Tbsp light soy sauce, 1 Tbsp 5 spice powder.

Mix well and marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours, best for 2-3 days.

Black Eye Peas

Soak peas overnight. Drain.

Chop finely 3/4 cup shallots

Wash dried shirmp.

Heat a heavy bottomed pot and put in 3/4 cup oil.

Saute shallots until almost golden, add in dried shrimps and fry until very fragrant.

Put in black eye peas and fry for a while.

Put in water enough to cover peas and put in 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 1/2 Tbsp salt (adjust accordingly, dried shrimpsmay have various degrees of saltiness), 4 Tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp pepper powder.

Simmer until 90% dry and peas are soft.

Let cool down a bit.

Chestnuts

Soak chestnuts the night before.

By using a sharp slim object (a small knife or skewer), remove membrane bits in slits.

Salted duck eggs

Clean egg shells.

Seperate yolks from whites.

Retain only yolks and cut into halves.

Dried Shitake Mushrooms (50 portions)

Soak mushrooms and prepare 50 pieces of it.

If mushroom is about the size of an oreo, soaking 25 will be enough. If dried mushrooms are as big as a marie biscuit, 13 mushrooms will be sufficient.

Garlic

Peel pips of garlic carefully.

Wash and dry garlic.

Fry in oil until golden. You may do this using the oil to fry the rice.

Savoury Glutinous Rice

Soak Rice for at least 2 hours.

Drain rice in a big colander.

Finely chop 1 cup shallots and 2 pips of garlic.

Heat wok and put in 1 cup cooking oil. (at this point u may fry the whole garlic pips first)

Saute chopped shallots and chopped garlic until fragrant and 90% golden. Put in 2 Tbsp salt.

Put in drained rice and mix it evenly with the fragrant oil.

Add in 4 Tbsp light soy sauce and 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce.
Continue to fry rice until slightly sticky.

Assembly:

Mix rice with black eye peas (I prefer it this way to avoid having more of either at the end)

Fold bamboo leave into a cone.

Put in 1 Tbsp of rice pea mixture. Use spoon to lightly press.

Put in 1 pc mushroom, 1 pc marinated por, 1 pc chestnut, 1 fried garlic pip, and 1/2 egg yolk.

Top up with 2 Tbsp rice pea mixture. Using hands to firmly pack rice.

Fold in the bamboo leaves.

Tie with soaked grass strands or rafia strings.

Prepare all dumplings.

Cooking

Cook in boiling water for 2 hours and remove from water inmmediately while still hot and hang up to air dry for 1 hour.



Yummy, yummy, yummy!! My hubby eats 2 at one go... minimum..

Video on how to wrap (updated 6/6/13)

Red Bean Paste Rice Dumplings (Hong Dau Gan Sui Joong) 红豆鹵水粽

It's near Duan Wu Jie again...

I first learnt to make Gan Sui Joong when I was 16... and they were hard and stuck to every bit of the bamboo leaves...

Then my mum asked a "professional"... he told us..... "When the dumplings are cooked, leave them in the water for at least 4 hours, then hang to air dry. This way, u'll get soft dumplings."

My MIL asked me why my Gan Sui Joongs were not bouncy..... To make them bouncy... just add Boric Acid/Borax (pang sar), a type of additive for many types of comercially prepared foods and it can also make fishballs bouncy. My mom told me that my maternal grandmother used to put this into all her zongzi and they lasted for weeks w/o referigeration.

Up to u then to put or not to put, but I'd rather sacrifice the bounciness.... Even the "professional" said.. "Aiya, a bit of pang sar won't kill you la, if not, the gan sui joong will not be nice"

I only made Gan Sui Joong with fillings since last year.. requested by dear hubby..

1st attempt-2007.. soaked the red beans overnight.. and I tried steaming them... 3 hours!! Kill me...

2008.... I used my mom's pressure cooker to cook the beans.. 15 minutes of cooking after soaking overnight...but later have to reduce over fire uncovered.. another 20 minutes..but, it's nothing to be compared to steaming for 3 hours!!

So, here's how I did it, step by step

Red Beans Filling
400gm red beans (soaked overnight)
250gm sugar (adjust to ur preference, but have to be sweeter because they will loose some of their sweetness after boiling in the dumpling)
Cook beans either by steaming or boiling until soft. Add in sugar, mix well.

Dumplings
1 kg glutinous rice (soaked overnight, or at least 2 hours)
4 Tbsp Lye water (gan sui)
Mix rice with lye water until rice turns yellowish.

Wrapping
50 pieces of softened bamboo leaves
Enough grass or rafia strands tied with a hanging knot.

AssemblyHang grass strands or rafia strings on a strong hook.

Shape bamboo leave into a cone.

Put in 1 tsp rice.


Put in 2 tsp red bean paste.

Cover with 2 tsp rice.

Wrap up. Make sure rice is not compact with space left for expansion. (method below)Tie with soaked grass strands or rafia string.

Method to wrap up





4 pretty dumplings all tied up on 2 grass strands. Gan Sui Joong are rather small, so, one strand can tie up 2

CookingPut all dumplings into a big pot and cover with water.
Boil for 2 hours and turn off the heat.
Leave dumplings in water for at least 4 hours. This is best done before u sleep, so that u can leave them overnight in the water.
The next day take out dumplings and hang up to air dry for an hour. If the wrapping leaf is too dry, the dumpling will stick to the leaf.

Video on how to wrap (updated 6/6/13)