Sweet Glutinous Rice Dumpling Wrapped In Bamboo Leaves

Sweet Glutinous Rice Dumpling Wrapped In Bamboo Leaves

This is a Chinese traditional dumpling. Every year, the Chinese community all over the world celebrate the Rice Dumpling Festival or Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. It is held to remember a poet by the name of Qu Yuan of ancient China.The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated in China with thousands of pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumplings and a Dragon Boat Race.

The poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in protest against injustice and corruption. It is said that rice dumplings were cast into the water to lure fishes away from the body of this man. This act is remembered by the eating of “chung”, glutinous rice dumplings.

Dried bamboo leaves flood the markets a few weeks  before the festival on the fifth month of the lunar calendar as the dumplings are wrapped up tightly in these leaves. The boiled glutinous rice encloses a variety of fillings from pork to mushrooms, red beans, chicken, and mung beans.  In addition to the traditional ingredients of diced pork. Chinese mushrooms and preserved melon were added to the local recipe by the Straits-Born Chinese. The recipe also includes pounded coriander seeds and lots of sugar.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE RICE

                        
 

1 kg glutinous rice (Sweet Rice)

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp blue colouring from the Bunga Telang  (Blue Pea flower)

METHOD:

1. Clean the glutinous rice. Wash well 2 to 3 times. Soak  the grains overnight in water.
2. Boil about 12 dried or fresh blue pea flowers in about 1/2 cups of water for 2 minutes. Drain and cool. Soak half of the glutinous rice grains in this water.
3. The next day, drain the rice grains and place in the steamer. If the holes are too large, line the bottom with a piece of cloth.. Steam over high heat for 1 hour. Steam the the glutinous rice with 2 tsp of salt separately.(The coloured and the plain glutinous rice).
4. Put the cooked glutinous rice in a container.. The dumplings should be formed and folded in the bamboo leaves while the rice is still warm. If it is cold, it will not bind well.

FILLING:

    

            

pork meat

                            

                                                                               

winter melon

 1 kg  pork with the fat/chicken meat

 15 dried mushrooms, soaked till soft, drained, squeezed dry and diced

100 g preserved winter melon, diced

5 tbsp lard or oil

50 g garlic pounded till fine

100 g shallots, pounded

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp  sugar

1 1/2 tbsp white pepper powder

4 tbsp dark soy sauce

5 tbsp toasted pounded coriander seeds  / coriander powder

OIL FOR FRYING:
 
2 cups cooking oil

40 bamboo leaves
hemp string / raffia string

METHOD:

1) Boil the pork meat for 30 to 40 minutes in enough water to cover. Cool and dice. Keep the water.

2) Fry garlic and shallots in the oil, add diced pork meat, sugar, salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Fry well and add mushrooms, me . Cool and store in the fridge. This can be done a day ahead.

TO WRAP THE DUMPLINGS YOU NEED 40 BAMBOO LEAVES AND 20 STRINGS
(soak the leaves and string a few hours or overnight before using  to soften them)

METHOD:

1.Take 2 pieces of the bamboo leaves, If the bamboo leaf is big enough, a piece can also be used. Fold into a cone shape.
2.Put in 1 tablespoon of the plain glutinous rice in the cone. Then put 1 tablespoon of the cooked filling. Add another 1 tablespoon of the coloured glutinous rice.
3.Wrap the cone tightly. Use raffia string or hemp string  for fastening the dumpling.
4. Cook the dumpling in boiling water for 2 hours.Once cooked, take out the dumpling and drain the water.
5.Cool it first before eating.

Note: The pork filling can be replaced with chicken meat.