5-Pointed Joong (Pyramid Shape) 五角粽

 

Video is in Cantonese.


As per request - I have been looking for more Joong Wrapping Techniques - this is a 5 pointed shape like a pyramid.  This style (shape and filling) is typical in South China, Guangdong I believe.  They tend to include split yellow mung beans (I think that's what they are?), a piece of fatty belly pork (sometimes seasoned with 5-spice) and some salted duck egg yolk.  The video must be a deluxe version as the lady has added dried shrimps and scallop!


This shape is similar to my mum's pillow-shaped joong except mum doesn't use two leaves twisted to make her base.  Mum's method is one leaf laid flat in palm of your hand, soaked (plain) glutinous rice spread in a thin and even layer, goodies (meaty fillings) laid on top, add sprinkling of chopped shallot, crushed roasted peanuts (if you wish- very tasty this way!) then finally a top layer of rice.  Bring the ends of the leaf to overlap in the centre.  First the top leaf, (hold down end with thumb) then fold bottom leaf up (again hold under thumb).  Next step is to get a small thin leaf to wrap the sides (just like lady in video) one leaf per side (left and right).  Then mum wraps joong with string.  She hold the loose end between her teeth then wraps the joong round and round the length of the joong to hold goodies in.

Mrs Plum's Rice Dumpling (Joong)

I couldn't get a video of my mum's wrapping technique as she was never wrapping any whenever I was visiting.  (Maybe next year ;) )  Not making any myself this year I thought we were not going to get to eat any - luckily, on my recent visit to mum's I was gifted with 4 of these beauties to take home :)

These ones are Chicken and Chinese Mushroom fillings.  There is also the added dried shrimp you see there spilling onto the plate and I found sliced "lap cheong" Chinese Dried Sausage as well as chestnut.  The rice is wonderfully soft and sticky and I chose to eat mine with a splash of thick sweet soy Kecap Manis.  I think chilli oil would've been nice too :p

Hope you enjoyed your dragon Boat Festival and ate lots of tasty dumplings :p

Dragon Boat Festival 端午節

Dragon Boat Festival 端午節 is the 5th Day of the 5th month in the Chinese Calendar.  Usually falling in early June but this year it is today, 23rd June.

It means that there are sticky rice parcels to eat "Joong" in Cantonese 粽 - YUMMY!  Chinese isn't romanised well and you may recognise it as being Chung, Zong-Zi.  Basically it is a bamboo leaf wrapped parcel containing glutinous rice.  They can be savoury and filled with a variety of fillings some dependent on your region (salted duck yolk, mung bean and 5-spice pork belly is a common in Southern China - Guangdong).  You can also have a sweet variety where the rice is soaked in water with added alkali water.  When cooked the rice is yellow and you eat it dipped in sugar, syrup or have red bean paste in them.  Not my thing really.

My mum is a whizz at making Joong - but she makes what I describe a pillow shape.  I have not mastered this technique and I remember when I was younger, my mum going round to one of her friend's house to teach her a few of her friends how to wrap pillow Joong.  Not sure if she is making any this year as she has been busy with work.  I must video her technique so this skills are not lost!

In the meantime, here is a video of Joong wrapping.  This one is of a Pyramid shape which my mum wants to learn >.<   Will have to get her to watch this!  This video is in Cantonese :)

Happy Dumpling Festival!


Triangle Shaped Rice Dumpling

Hakka Steamed Radish Dumpling ~ 蘿蔔粄 (Law Pet Ban)

Both my parents are Hakka descendants and when we were little wewere taught to speak our parents' mother tongue, Hakka.  As we grew older, English quickly became our preferred language as we were surrounded in English language through school, television and our friends.  We still had to speak Chinese at home to our parents though and we even went to Chinese School to learn how to read and write in Cantonese.  Nowadays, we mainly speak Cantonese at home. 

Mealtimes were almost always Chinese meals and often Hakka specialities.  Sometimes mum would make Hakka snacks, one of these were Radish Dumplings 蘿蔔粄 (Law Pet Ban).

It has a soft dough that almost sticks to your teeth without being tough and chewy and is filled with shredded radish which is seasoned with lots of white pepper, sweetened with dried shrimps with ground pork and Chinese mushrooms for added flavour.

She made these back in November (I've been meaning to blog about so many things!  I have a backlog building up!) and although I wanted to help her - the technique she used to roll the dough skin seemed tricky.  She was precise with the dough skin, it had to be a certain thickness and if it wasn't right she would scrunch the dough up and start again. 

 Here you can see her rolling the dough around an orange.  This is so it will have the 'cupped' shape which is then generously filled.

Stuffed and steamed ready for sampling! Mmm!  Reminds me of my childhood days!

Steamed Sticky Pumpkin Dumplings

I saw these whilst blog-hopping at the weekend and thought they were great!  I saw them here at Precious Moment.  I tweaked the recipe a little as I wanted to make savoury pumpkins.  My mum loves pumpkins and sweet potatoes so I often bookmark recipes with pumpkin in them.  Today was the first time I'd actually made something pumpkin related from a blog.

Our not very orange pumpkins!

I actually ended up using Butternut Squash.  I have seen small squashes in the supermarkets right now but I used Butternut Squash as its easier to peel - less knobbly bits I suppose.  The squashes are fascinating as they come in different shapes and colours - must take a sneaky snap next time.  The great thing about them is they are smaller than pumpkins so are easier to cut through and to use up.  We had squash braised with belly pork slices today for dinner at mum's - delish!  (Sorry no snaps of that one!)  Love Mondays, that's dinner at mum's day & it was great 'cos as I helped her do the prep for dinner I was prepping the ingredients for these Pumpkin Dumplings and mum also cooked the filling for me.

Anyway, this is what we did:

Pumpkin Dumpling

300 g butternut squash, peeled and in 1 inch cubes
150 g glutinous rice flour
100 g rice flour
150 g minced pork (any other meat will be acceptable too)
2 shallots, finely diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
50 g butternut squash finely diced
1 spring onion, finely chopped (only as I cut up too many for dinner!)
seasonings: salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil
cornflour paste to thicken
1/2 cup water

Steam the squash until tender.  (As I was at mum's and she always makes soup, I put the squash in a sieve and put it in the soup pot for about 10 minutes or so until soft.)
Mash the squash thoroughly with a fork.  Ideally until no lumps left. 
Mix in the flours in several batches.  Mine seemed on the dry side and I began to doubt whether it would come together, but with some kneading, it soon became a dough.
Fry the shallots in some in oil until fragrant.  Add the minced pork and continue to mix breaking up the meat as it colours. 
Add the carrot and squash and fry for 1 minute before adding the water.  Season according to taste.  The seasonings mentioned are basics to what my mum uses and what our palate is accustomed to.  You can adjust it how you like with chilli, curry powder, spices, herbs etc. 
Cook for a few minutes before thickening with cornflour paste.  You want any sauce to coat the fillings and not be runny or you will encounter problems when wrapping.
Pinch a walnut-sized piece of dough and roll between your palms until smooth.  My dough felt dry and was cracking (maybe the squash isn't as wet as pumpkin mash?) so I put a drop of oil in my palm and kneaded the dough to make rolling easier.  Flatten with your fingers into a 2 inch circle, place 1 teaspoon of filling in the centre and wrap to enclose the filling.  Flatten the ball slightly to resemble a squat shaped pumpkin and mark ridges with the back of a knife.
Use a small strip of pumpkin peel to resemble the stalk and place in the centre of the dumpling.  I used some of the peel from the dark green squash we had at dinner.  Cloves make a good substitute stalk.
Place on a greased steaming rack and steam over a moderate heat for 10-15 minutes. 

Think we made too much filling as this is what's left over!  Or I was too stingy with the filling!

My pumpkins were rather yellow/green in colour as the butternut squash wasn't very deeply yellow/orange in colour.  Perhaps the butternut squash was picked too early in the season and deep orange colour hadn't developed yet?  It looked liked cubed mango before I mashed it!  My younger brother complained that the dumpling skin was too thick and he didn't get enough filling to eat!  As the dough was on the dry side it wasn't so pliable and was prone to cracking.  This made wrapping tricky and probably why the skin was thick.  Next time I will add flour slowly and stop when the dough is wet enough.  I'd probably add 1 tablespoon of oil whilst mixing the dough to make it easier to work with.

The filling can be changed to suit your mood.  Crisp water chestnut pieces would be nice, Chinese mushroom will give it a meaty fragrance, dried shrimps will give it a pleasing sweetness too. 

I shared a dumpling with my brother but almost chomped it all before I remembered to take a photo! 

We made 16 dumplings from this batch of dough and had far too much filling left.  Maybe next time I would halve the quantity of meat.  Now, what shall I make with the left-over cooked meat filling?