Glutinous Rice Dumpling (粽子 - Zong Zi)

First of all, I wish for everyone to have a great Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie), see more information here.

One of my cooking assignments over the weekend was dumpling wrapping. I had never done the wrapping. I just used to be a helper to prepare the ingredients when my Mom made them. I love dumplings so much, I can have dumplings all day long to substitute my normal meals, but the glutinous rice is a bit hard for digestion, so, I limit myself to have just 3 a day! hehehe..., and there is a MUST have ingredient for my dumplings --- salty egg yolk. My Mom wanted to omit it due to health issues, but I warned her that I wouldn't eat it if there are no salty egg yolk in it. So, she would make a separate bunch for me. LOL!!



This is my first attempt for dumpling wrapping, so don't laugh at me ya...! You will notice that shape is not so perfect (triangle), pentagon shape also got, sizes are not equal...LOL!! But as long as it tastes good, who cares?? Eventually, they all will go to our stomach, right?? :-p, umm...a very good excuse!




After I confirmed some of the ingredients with my Si Fu (my Mom), I started my adventure very carefully to make them taste right - I didn't want to ruin it after so much work. I was glad I was able to keep the right taste, I already ate 4 of them just after the photos taken, Tom and Cici had 3! Yummyyyyyyy!!!!

The steps to prepare all the ingredients are written just after each line, you may have to watch the steps carefully, because some of them will be overlapping.

This is for 18~20 dumplings (small size).

A) 50 bamboo leaves.

B) Rice - 700g glutinous rice - soak for at least 3 hours and rinse. While soaking the rice, proceed the filling ingredients below:

Use the same pan until the last step.

C) Filling :

1. 7 salty egg yolks - cut into thirds.

2. 2/3 cup peanut - dried pan fry (without oil) for about 8~10 minutes over medium heat, stir to prevent burnt. Remove the skin after cooled, pound it and add 1/2 tbsp of sugar then mix well. Set aside for wrapping.

3. 6~8 garlic cloves - thinly sliced, brown it with 4 tbsp of oil, saperate the garlic slices from oil with a strainer. Keep the oil to cook the rice and ingredients below.

4. 1/2 cup dried shrimp - wash and rinse

5. 7~8 dried mushroom - soak and cut to 2~3pieces chunks.

Step - In a same pan with garlic oil greased, saute the dried shrimp and mushroom chunks - add 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, cook for 4~5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

6. 400g pork rump meat - cut to approx. 1 inch chunks, marinate with the following ingredients for at least 2 hours :
i) 3 tbsp soy sauce
ii) 1 tbsp oyster sauce
iii) 1 tsp dark soy sauce
iv) 1/2 tsp five spices powder
v) 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
vi) 1/4 tsp sugar

- With the same pan, add in 1 tbsp of garlic oil, stir in the marinated meat, cook for 4~5 minutes, remove from heat. It should yield about 3~4 tbsp gravy for rice frying.

And last, for the rice frying :

1. 2 tbsp garlic oil
2. 2 tbsp sesame oil
4. 1/3 inch ginger - minced.
5. 1/3 cup crispy onion
6. 3~4 tbsp gravy C6 as above.
7. 2 tbsp oyster sauce
8. 1/4 tsp five spices powder or as needed.
9. 1/2 tsp ground white pepper or as needed.
10. Soy sauce to taste (about 1~2 tbsp or as needed)

- add in both garlic oil and sesame oil into the heated pan, saute ginger and onion until fragrant.
- add in the pre-soaked glutinous rices, and ingredients #6~10.
- stir to mix well, cook for about 5 minutes or until the water dry out.
- taste, and remove from heat.

I'm still clumpsy to wrap the dumpling, will write about it after I practice more. The most important is to make sure the cooking water wouldn't seep into the rice.

To cook the dumpling, boil the water, add some salt in it. Line 4~5 bamboo leaves at the bottom of the pot, put in the dumplings (the water should completely cover the dumplings), place another 3~4 bamboo leaves on top of it. Return to boil, simmer over medium heat for 2.5~3 hours.