Savoury Glutinous Rice Dumplings Wrapped In Bamboo Leaves

Savoury Glutinous Rice Dumplings 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)
2 tbsp five spice powder
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp oil

METHOD:
1. Clean the glutinous rice. Wash well 2 to 3 times. Soak the grains overnight in water.
2. Mix glutinous rice with oil, five spice powder, soy sauce, salt and pepper.
3. Heat up oil in the wok and fry the mixed glutinous rice for 10 minutes.
4. Transfer to a container.

FILLING:

dried mushroom

       

dried chestnut

1 kg meat with the fat/chicken meat
10 dried mushrooms, soak till soft,  and cut into cubes
100 g dried chestnut, soak in water overnight and boil till soft
100 g dried shrimps, soak in water and chop into small pieces
5 tbsp lard or oil
50 g garlic pound till fine
100 g shallots, pound till fine
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp white pepper powder
4 tbsp dark soy sauce


OIL FOR FRYING:
1 cup cooking oil

METHOD:
1. Boil the meat for 30 to 40 minutes in enough water to cover. Cool and dice the meat. Keep the water.
2. Fry garlic, shallots and dried prawns in the oil. Then add meat, salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Fry well and  cook for 20 minutes. Add  five spice powder and stir well. When cooked, turn off the heat. 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 glutinous rice in the cone. Then put 1 tablespoon of the cooked filling. Add another 1 tablespoon of the 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 glutinous rice dumpling can be kept for a few days. It is best eaten the next day after cooking.