Bak Chang (Continued)...getting ready the bamboo leaves

Before using the bamboo leaves, they have to be boiled in water to soften them.  This will make it easier to bend them when wrapping and they will not tear easily.  It will also prevent leakage of the rice and other ingredients into the water when we cook the wrapped dumplings later.

After the leaves are softened by boiling, pour away the hot water and immersed them in cold tap water.
Briskly wash the leaves(they are mostly prewashed), and put them in a colander to drain away some of the water.  They need not be dry to be used for wrapping, because once dry, they will become hard and easily torn.

The next step is to wrap the dumplings into diamond shapes , tie them in strings prepared earlier and put into a pot of boiling hot water.  The water is put to boil before you start to wrap the dumplings.  Put enough water , about half the pot so that all the dumplings are fully immersed when boiling.  It takes about 2 - 3 hours to cook the rice.  To ensure the heat is enough to completely cook every grain of rice, I put a heavy mortar on top of the pot cover to weigh it down.  The steam is prevented from escaping too much and therefore the rice will be cooked easily.

The bunch of dumplings need to be lifted up from boiling water to change the positions of each so as to ensure even cooking.

After 2 hours or so, remove one to test if the rice is completely cooked.  In the inner grains of rice has not been cooked yet, we will have to wait a few minutes longer but usually 2 - 3 hours is sufficient.

 

Alas, my dumplings are done today!  Everyone in the family is enjoying them.  Usual comments...good enough to start a business....better than the ones sold outside.
 

Bak Chang (continued)

Making Dumplings

Cooking the Contents:

Heat up a wok.
Pour in 2 tablespoonful of oil and when it is hot, fry the sliced shallots and
garlic until fragrant.
Put in the glutinous rice which has been washed and then soaked for at least 2 hours.
Fry thoroughly for a while and then put in the black eye beans which has been washed
and half cooked(before the coat of the bean breaks). Put in 1-2 tablespoonfuls of the thick soya sauce. Add in salt to taste and fry until the whole mixture has been mixed with the fragrant oil and salt.
Turn off the fire and take the rice out into a large basin. Leave it aside.

Cooking the diced meat:

Fry some sliced shallots and garlic in oil. When fragrant and brown, put in the diced meat,
which has been seasoned with salt, some sugar, a teaspoon of thick soya sauce and 5 spices powder.
 Ensure that the meat is a little more salty and spicier than usual because after it has been boiled while wrapped in the dumpling, it tends to lose some of its flavour.

The above procedure can be done to cook the mushroom, except no spices are needed for them. The mushrooms have to be presoaked for at least 2 hours to soften them. A little sugar is added in the water to speed up the process of softening them.


　
　

Bak Chang (Glutinous Rice Dumplings)

Making Chinese Dumpling

('Bak Chang' in Hokkien)

It is a tradition that my family keeps every year, no matter how busy or how lazy one(the mother, of course) feels.

However, the sole purpose in making them is for eating and not for sacrificing or for throwing into any stream or river.

The Dumpling Festival Day falls on the 5th day of the 5th Chinese Lunar Month, when Chinese families commemorate an ancient hero who sacrificed his life in defiance of a tyrant ruling China at that time. He jumped into a river and drowned. To prevent his body from being eaten by fishes in the river, the ancient Chinese believed that the dumplings they threw into the river would feed the hungry fishes instead.

So much for some historical background. The important thing about any kind of cooking is the preparation of the ingredients and the things needed .  It cannot be denied this will involve quite a substantial amount of work because it is not like cooking a pot of rice to which you can just throw in the ingredients that make it delicious and enjoyable.  Making dumplings involves the wrapping of the rice into  diamond shapes using bamboo leaves, not any other kind of leaves, for their flavour will be  enhanced by these special leaves.

Ingredients :

(Makes about 22 )

1 kg of glutinous rice

300g black eye beans

20 - 22 pcs medium sized mushrooms

500g meat (pork or boneless chicken), cut into 20 -22 cubes

shallots (200g) cut finely

garlic ( 5 pips)

grounded pepper(2 teaspoonful)

 

thick soya sauce(1 -2 tablespoonful)

salt, sugar

When cutting the meat, always make a few peices extra(say 3) because sometimes we tend to make one or two dumplings a little smaller, and towards the end we find we have some more rice to make another one or two. The same for the mushroom pieces.

Prior preparations:

A roll of rafia string, cut into 6 lengths of about a metre

which are then folded in two. Make two bunches, each with 3 'folded in twos', tie at the top so that

a loop is form for hanging the bunch of dumplings(looks like a stringy octopus). Split each string into two and now you have 12 free strings in each bunch for tying.

Bamboo leaves: these can bought in plastic bags sold in supermarkets serving the Chinese community of which is usually indicated on the packet, the quantity. As long as there are about 50 pcs of leaves( 2x 22), it will be sufficient for use. Each dumpling needs at least 2 leaves, to ensure no leakage or breakage.